Mario is not a worn out franchise, and I hope that it will never be over.

[LilithSlave]

I saw someone the other day say that Nintendo franchises were an old hat that needs to go away. Well I couldn't disagree with that more. And seeing this video today encapsulates me feelings. Mario is a piece of magic and video game heritage and the franchise is NOT going downhill.

This is not advertising. This is not just an excuse to post a video. I want you to watch this video all the way through. And still be able to tell me Mario is an old hat and not a great legacy that needs to never end. I literally cried from nostalgia when I watched this video.

Mario, Zelda, and other franchises I love are great things I love that need to never end. I'm only sad that many things I love don't get to be continued on like Mario. Why, why on earth would you want a good thing to end?

Forever Mario!

Edit: Okay, maybe I can jump start this topic so that it gets some replies. I don't see anything wrong with starting a new franchise as Nintendo. Same with others. But I don't see what's wrong with making the same franchises when they're good? If they're still making good games for them, why fix what's broken? These things have a huge for a reason.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Mario as a character, and Mario as an explicit game series is not inherently a bad thing (though I do believe that Mario hasn't really done anything more than slightly evolve since Mario 64). For me, it's the whoring out of Mario as an icon that bothers me, as well as the general lack of innovation Nintendo shows on the software side of things.

It's not that Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc. are bad games.. it's just that they're, barring the required changes forced by games going to a 3rd dimension in the N64/PSX era, essentially the same games we've been playing for 20+ years already. The only series that really has done new things to it's core gameplay is Metroid and that's just because the last handful of major Metroid titles weren't even made by Nintendo anyway.

 

[Rawne1980]

I loved my childhood, I never wanted my childhood to end. I don't want to get older, I don't want to get grey hair and I sure as shit don't want any of my kids having kids and making me a bloody grandad.

But that isn't going to happen. Things come to an end it's just the way it goes.

Mario was great when it first came out and for a few years afterwards. Now, not so much.

Now this is only my thoughts, i'm not disagreeing with your opinion I just think it's time for certain things to be left to rest.

Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Duke Nukem (lets hope nobody has a moment of madness and decides to make another one for release in 14 years time).

Then again just because I don't happen to enjoy them anymore does that mean they should just die?

No, of course not. Some people do still enjoy them.

I won't lie and say i've grown up since my days playing them, we all know men never really grow up. I'm 31 going on 13 and I am not ashamed to admit my occasional immaturity, I still get excited and giggle at Christmas or mine, my wifes or any of my kids birthdays, I jump around when I get a game i've been after .... nope .... i'll never "grow up". My tastes have just changed is all.

 

[Michael Hirst]

I haven't liked the new Mario games for quite some time now, I find their portable counterparts to be much more fun. I don't think the franchise should go away though, Mario is the Mickey Mouse of gaming, doesn't matter how many years pass, kids should still see him.

 

[genericusername64]

Look, I'm going to be blunt, I hate the kind of experience that mario offers. To me it is a shallow waste of time, it's only saving grace is that it's colorful, which in itself is not good enough to merit a franchise.

It's the entertainment equivalent of a child's fingerprint drawing. You think to yourself, oh maybe he'll grow up and become an artist, twenty years from then he's still fingerpainting, and his classmates from preschool still like his fingerpainting drawings if only for nostalgia.

 

[Mr. Omega]

First:
In regards to the whole "Mario whoring" thing, now that the Miis have become the icon of the party stuff, Mario has been getting a lot less exposure when it comes to anything apart from platformers, rpgs and kart racers. There's still the odd title coming out, but he's pretty much scaled back as Nintendo's all-purpose money maker.

Second:
Here's why Mario can still legitimately be considered the best series in the business while his former competitor Sonic can not: QUALITY. I can understand if you say you don't like the recent Mario games. However, saying the recent Mario games have been bad is just plain flaming. Yes, you might not like the games, but for what they are, they're pretty good.

Except the DDR game. That was just... uuugh. Along with the later Mario Party games. That is the one case I can agree that was milked to death.

Third:
"No new ideas"? Name 5 games that are like Mario Galaxy from this generation. Go on, I'll wait. People (ESPECIALLY people on this site) just seem to be unable to comprehend that you don't need to always make a new IP to try something different. Personally, I blame the "realism" trend, but that's a topic for another day...

 

[StriderShinryu]

Third:
"No new ideas"? Name 5 games that are like Mario Galaxy from this generation. Go on, I'll wait. People (ESPECIALLY people on this site) just seem to be unable to comprehend that you don't need to always make a new IP to try something different. Personally, I blame the "realism" trend, but that's a topic for another day...

Huh? I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Sure, Galaxy is pretty much a unique title (not counting the expansion pack-tastic Galaxy 2) this generation.. but it's still very much just an evolution of the exact same gameplay that started in Mario 64. Once again, that's not a bad thing if that's the sort of gameplay you find enjoyment in, but it's not really anything overly new if you look at the Mario series and it's also not somehow made exemplary by other people not doing the same thing.

 

[GiantRaven]

Look, I'm going to be blunt, I hate the kind of experience that mario offers. To me it is a shallow waste of time, it's only saving grace is that it's colorful, which in itself is not good enough to merit a franchise.

It's the entertainment equivalent of a child's fingerprint drawing. You think to yourself, oh maybe he'll grow up and become an artist, twenty years from then he's still fingerpainting, and his classmates from preschool still like his fingerpainting drawings if only for nostalgia.

Gee, it's almost as if they're games made for kids...

 

[Small Waves]

Mario was great when it first came out and for a few years afterwards. Now, not so much.

What are you talking about? Super Mario Galaxy was AMAZING.

It's not like there was ever a time when Mario had games were being rapidly pushed out with GOTY written all over them. The shortest gap between real Mario games was 3 and World because they wanted a Mario game as a launch title for the SNES, and it would be over a half a decade for 64, then another half a decade for Sunshine, and yet another half a decade for Galaxy.

If you ignore the spin-offs (Kart, Party, Paper, etc.), games redesigned to be Mario related (SMB 2) and extensions (Lost levels, Galaxy 2), there are only six real console Mario games (7 if you count SMB Wii), each of them bringing something wildly different to the table. Lost Levels ramped the difficulty and tweaked the physics and sound quality, 3 gave us many new power ups, World gave us Yoshi, 64 introduced 3D and wasn't completely linear with "come back and do this or don't" challenges, Sunshine had F.L.U.D.D., and Galaxy gave us a laundry list of new features. I discount Lost Levels because it's extremely similar to the first game but with ramped up difficulty and some tweaks in physics. Galaxy 2 was made because they wanted to see what else they could do with the world. I consider it more as an expansion than new games.

99% of the time when people ***** about Mario having "too many games" and being "repetitive", they are whining about the spin-off games instead of the core titles. Every time when someone says that Sunshine and Galaxy are the same, I have to use all of my willpower to keep myself from laughing in their face.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

All of you who ***** and moan about the fact that Mario, Zelda, Sonic and other iconic video games are the same and need to be put to rest, you have no right to complain.

The only reason CoD, Halo, Gears of War and all of your other "realistic" games aren't in the same boat is because A: You like them and B. They haven't been around as long. From what I've seen and played, they're more cookie cutter than 90% of the games that Nintendo rolls around.

 

[Zhukov]

Okay... I'm not quite sure what your point is. You like Mario. Cool. Last I checked, you're allowed to do that. And don't worry, he's not about to go anywhere. Nintendo will be shunting Mario games out the door for as long as they continue to sell, and as far as I know, they're selling just fine.

Heh. Now, I wonder what the reaction would be if I made a thread saying, "Call of Duty needs to never end. Forever CoD!" Not that I would, but still...

EDIT:

... I jump around when I get a game i've been after .... nope .... i'll never "grow up".

I'm not quite 31, but yeah... I do that too. Although I generally make sure nobody is watching before I do.

 

[Riobux]

[Disclaimer: The following post in purely opinion. I do not believe my opinion is superior to anyone else's and it definitely should not be taken as fact. Yes, I know fan-boys lurk here, and that's why this disclaimer exists.]

Okay, first, I am not watching 16 minutes of fan-boyism.

Edit: Okay, maybe I can jump start this topic so that it gets some replies. I don't see anything wrong with starting a new franchise as Nintendo. Same with others. But I don't see what's wrong with making the same franchises when they're good? If they're still making good games for them, why fix what's broken? These things have a huge for a reason.

There is only so many places you can go with a brand and keep it fresh. If you keep retreading the same ground then it gets stale. Mario, a character that has been used for 30 years, have done everything and even redone some of the old things. The entire brand is based on advertising nostalgia with a smaller focus on finding genuine new ground to tread. That's not to say they haven't freshen up the place, but Galaxy 2 is a map-pack and Super Smash Brawl is a graphics boost to Super Smash Bros. I don't know, maybe I like deep narrative to games (no, you're not fooling anyone) or the graphics are off putting. Hell, I'd conclude that the gameplay isn't for me. However, Mario just annoys me just because they seem to be pushing him onto people so hard that in some games, you could quite simply replace Mario was a yellow brick with eyes and Bowser with a purple brick with an eye-patch. However, in terms of Nintendo's rebranding the same character, Link annoys me the most.

Personally, Legend Of Zelda series is a dead cow that Nintendo keeps shocking with a car battery to get it to produce more milk, a few drops occasionally dropping out and making a porridge-like splodge on the floor. Legend Of Zelda is a game that worked for the first few games, but Nintendo can't seem to move on. Even with the latest games getting generally mediocre to negative reviews, they push on, for nostalgia's sake. More and more, they try new things: New art styles, new gimmicks, new mechanics as well as a new story. However, it just simply doesn't work. They've done a TV show that lives more in infamy than love.

Now, you can replace the words "Legend Of Zelda" with "Sonic The Hedgehog" and Nintendo with Sega. They still work actually and still make sense. Really, Mario is a bit old, but I think it's Legend Of Zelda that needs to retire badly.

 

[Supertegwyn]

I don't like Mario, Zelda, or any Nintendo characters. And you know what?
I have a right to. I have a right to dislike any game I god damn please. I'm not trying to flame, or antagonize anyone. I am simply stating my opinion.

I believe they should end.

Does that mean I don't think CoD and Halo should be put to rest as well?

No.

Just because I don't like Mario or any of those characters, doesn't mean I am some uber-Call of Duty fanboy. I like good games, and I don't consider Mario, Zelda, or Call of Duty to be good.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I just let the next generation of young gamers enjoy the Mario franchise, rather than bitching about it endlessly.

The innate quality of the titles is still diminished in my eyes simply because I've played a lot of those games before. Twilight Princess? It might be a stronger presentation than Ocarina of Time, but it cannibalizes so much from that game that I can't ever help but feel put off while playing it.

As a mascot and game, Mario is essentially dead to me, with Zelda really threatening the same (I am totally down for some more 4 Sword Adventures though. That at least has some strong re-playability, and could actually make the 3DS be worth a damn).

Until a year ago, I would have said that Metroid was Nintendo's one remaining franchise that hadn't been milked to death, but Other M reminded me of just how far one can fall in the span of just one game (I can't get into it...I'd rant all night).
So...I'm apprehensive about Metroid, and it's the first time I ever felt that way. As a series, it always seemed to have the strongest space to grow and evolve; far moreso than Mario, who just...doesn't really do much apart from saving Princess Toadstool[/s} Peach every other fucking game.

And of course, there's Pokemon, which has finally bloated itself to the point where I just can't care anymore. Which is a shame, because the competition and metagame design is one of the deepest in all of gaming (ironic, isn't it?).

 

[LilithSlave]

I'm still shocked and amazed to feel this way. I've watched that video, for probably the fifth time now. And all I can feel is an overwhelming shock and awe that makes me want to go back and play every game and praise it like a raving fanboy. And I'm a fan of a lot of a different games out there. Powerful and moving. Sure, it may be the Mickey Mouse of the video gaming world, but it's also darn good and welcoming. I like a lot of different franchises. And I'll be quick to admit, while I'm not a Nintendo fanboy, or so I don't think, I am a fan of their franchises. They really, truly do make great games and are a brand I can trust. Maybe not for hardware, maybe not for being smart enough to know that certain games sell even better in the West than the East, and deserve the help of being pushed through. But the games they game are consistently good and their franchises are memorable. They're something easy and happy to get into. That get you to the point that you just want one more Nintendo related thing, because you have some many fond memories and Nintendo feeds it.

Also, as others have said, Super Mario Galaxy is amazing and certainly not a derivative copy of other games. It's a darn, darn good game.

 

[WanderingFool]

[Disclaimer: The following post in purely opinion. I do not believe my opinion is superior to anyone else's and it definitely should not be taken as fact. Yes, I know fan-boys lurk here, and that's why this disclaimer exists.]

Okay, first, I am not watching 16 minutes of fan-boyism.

Edit: Okay, maybe I can jump start this topic so that it gets some replies. I don't see anything wrong with starting a new franchise as Nintendo. Same with others. But I don't see what's wrong with making the same franchises when they're good? If they're still making good games for them, why fix what's broken? These things have a huge for a reason.

There is only so many places you can go with a brand and keep it fresh. If you keep retreading the same ground then it gets stale. Mario, a character that has been used for 30 years, have done everything and even redone some of the old things. The entire brand is based on advertising nostalgia with a smaller focus on finding genuine new ground to tread. That's not to say they haven't freshen up the place, but Galaxy 2 is a map-pack and Super Smash Brawl is a graphics boost to Super Smash Bros. I don't know, maybe I like deep narrative to games (no, you're not fooling anyone) or the graphics are off putting. Hell, I'd conclude that the gameplay isn't for me. However, Mario just annoys me just because they seem to be pushing him onto people so hard that in some games, you could quite simply replace Mario was a yellow brick with eyes and Bowser with a purple brick with an eye-patch. However, in terms of Nintendo's rebranding the same character, Link annoys me the most.

Personally, Legend Of Zelda series is a dead cow that Nintendo keeps shocking with a car battery to get it to produce more milk, a few drops occasionally dropping out and making a porridge-like splodge on the floor. Legend Of Zelda is a game that worked for the first few games, but Nintendo can't seem to move on. Even with the latest games getting generally mediocre to negative reviews, they push on, for nostalgia's sake. More and more, they try new things: New art styles, new gimmicks, new mechanics as well as a new story. However, it just simply doesn't work. They've done a TV show that lives more in infamy than love.

Now, you can replace the words "Legend Of Zelda" with "Sonic The Hedgehog" and Nintendo with Sega. They still work actually and still make sense. Really, Mario is a bit old, but I think it's Legend Of Zelda that needs to retire badly.

You know, I cant agree with you more about Zelda. My first experience was on the SNES, and that was enough to get me to go and try the previous games for the NES. I loved Zelda, but the series is just... old!

There are obvious elements that makes Zelda Zelda, and changing or removing could ruin it, but there are many elements that Zelda could drop for something new, and be better for it. I dont know what would work, but I feel that Zelda needs to do one very important thing...

Spoiler: If you are a Zelda fan, read at your own risk

The fans who love the game as is nees to FUCK OFF AND DIE IN A HOLE!

If anything could hold back Zelda, its the fans...

 

[Megnaman]

Have you heard of Yahtzee Croshaw? I think he might be inclinded to disagree with you.

 

[New Frontiersman]

I agree with you OP, I still enjoy the Mario series after all these years. It was one of my first games, if not my first, and it was the one that really got me into other games. I think I'll be enjoying it for years to come honestly.

I haven't played as much Metroid or Zelda, but those franchises still interest me also.

Mario is really more of an mascot or icon than a character. He was created in an era before individualistic player characters, one where the avatar on the screen was meant to be a blank slate; one that the player could impose him or herself onto, rather a character unto itself. This carries over to today in most of Nintendo's old franchises where the characters remain primarily silent protagonists defined by their actions rather than words, but Mario more than any other is a mascot, one who can be inserted into new and different gameplay scenarios without cheapening the character; to signify that the game being played is a Nintendo game, with all that that implies. It would be harder to do this with Nintendo's other franchises like Zelda or Metroid, because of the way those two franchises have evolved since the 8-bit era.

That's just what I think though. I probably could have put it better.

 

[LilithSlave]

Have you heard of Yahtzee Croshaw? I think he might be inclinded to disagree with you.

Yeah, I don't think I would agree with anything that person says. In fact, everything he says seems like a joke and I have a hard time taking it seriously.

Does that guy actually mean what he says? Because it all seems like one of those "hating things just to hate things" jokes.