Why Super Mario Bros. doesn't need innovation.

[wintercoat]

Have you ever thought that, just maybe, it's you that's in the minority?

New Super Mario Bros. - 29 million
New Super Mario Bros. Wii - 26.8 million
New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 5.8 million

Super Mario Galaxy - 10.8 million
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - 7 million

NSMB came out in '06, a year before SMG. It has sold almost 3 times as many games. NSMBWII came out in '09, a year before Galaxy 2. It has sold nearly 4 times as many games. NSMB2 came out late last year. It's about 7 months old and has sold almost as many games as Galaxy 2 has in it's three years.

From a purely numbers perspective, people prefer the "stagnant" games. By a landslide.

A games sales don't shield it from valid criticisms. Nor do massive sales mean a game is good. Call Of Duty crushes Mario every year in sales yet people on this site throw the same complaints of stagnant gameplay and lack of innovation at COD. Difference is, there's no COD Defense Force out to pull sales numbers out and try to qualify the game as not boring.

Guitar Hero sold pretty damn well too, but quality of the games decreased, the changes implemented over time because smaller, and the series died due to people being bored.

Spore sold well, wasn't that good. The Fable franchise sold well, but overall is looked at as mediocre.

Yes, the newer Mario games are good, but they are not doing anything to draw in people who have played Mario before. If anything they've been made easier and levels are getting reused to such a degree that I'm close to forgiving Dragon Age 2 for reusing dungeons.

My point is game sales=/=quality of game. Especially when, let's be honest, the numbers you put up can be generally assumed to be the same customers buying Mario games over and over, so it's not like Nintendo is gaining new Mario fans with each release. If that were the case, the WiiU and 3DS would be doing much better in the sales department.

So when you say this:

Have you ever thought that, just maybe, it's you that's in the minority?

I have to say, no I'm not. 29 million copies of New Super Mario Bros doesn't mean much to me in terms of the games quality. Especially when New Super Mario Bros U (which you seem to have left out of your point), is sitting at 2.3 million sold.

Quite a drop.

With just over 3 million WiiUs sold, it's hard to call NSMB U a system seller with such low sales compared to the rest of the games you mentioned, which were put out on consoles that had already had massive hardware sales base to benefit from at the time of their release.

I'm sorry, but can you point out when I was commenting on the quality of the games?

The comments I was responding to were saying that people want innovation, that the New Super Mario Bros. games are stagnant and that noone will buy them. The sales numbers prove just the opposite. The NSMB series are chart toppers, whereas the Galaxy games, the Mario&Luigi games, the Paper Mario series, are not. More people prefer the "stale", "stagnant" NSMB games than the innovative games. The sales numbers prove as much.

NSMB 2 is the third best selling 3DS game. NSMBWii is the 5th best selling game on the Wii. NSMB is the best selling game on the DS. NSMBWII-U is the second best selling game on the Wii-U, right behind the console packaged Nintendoland. It has a >70% sales ratio with the console. Even on the flailing Wii-U, NSMB is selling relatively well.

People absolutely love these games. The quality of the games matters little. What does is whether or not people are willing to buy them, and they are. In droves. Those who are saying that they won't, or don't, are the minority, because the majority is more than willing to shell out for the latest 2D Mario platformer, regardless of quality.

 

[ghostman725]

Mario is Mario and it seems that he is always updated to meet the current target audience. It seems that its always been the same target, general mainstream to get people off all ages hooked.

Myself grew up on Mario from NES to modern day and whilst I don't get the same enjoyment from the more modern Mario's than I do when playing anything up to and including Mario 64. I can see the same joy on my son's face on the more modern ones. I have to give Nintendo credit there.

As long as Nintendo is around there will always will be Mario as it is there biggest asset. They add the new features of the console to the launch game to help. It hasn't helped the Wii U much but there's many reasons for that.

Personally though I wouldn't want too much to change about Mario games. Rather than they try too much and destroy it.

 

[Olas]

I don't really care how often they put out Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby and whatever other games. They can continue to milk them until they're dry (they've got to be chaffing now...).

I WISH they were milking the Metroid and Zelda franchises, during it's entire 6 year run the Wii only got 1 exclusive Zelda game and 2 (I'd argue 1.5) Metroid games. Even Donkey Kong, though he did finally get a game for the Wii, was basically ignored for over a decade.

When it comes to anything outside Mario we "Nintendo Fanboys" are starved.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Sorry, there's only so much New New New New New Super Mario Bros. with the same levels, the same enemies, the same remixed music, I can play before I just don't bother anymore.

True that, but it's only the 'new' series that is tired and overdone. Mario 3D land and Galaxy both proved Mario is still alive and kicking outside of that 'new' series limbo. I would really enjoy if they attempted to actually make another 2D mario in the style of the SNES. With, of course new graphics, sounds enemies, etc.

But yeah, I agree with the original poster. There isn't anything wrong with Mario(himself) anymore then there is something wrong with peperoni pizza, or the act of 'breathing'.

 

[TrevHead]

The problem isn't so much that 2D mario is the same it's how Ninty handled the WiiU version when they desperately need a mario game that is innovative, If both NSMB and Galaxy were on the WiiU no one would be complaining.

Infact I'd go so far as say that NSMB WiiU did more harm then good for the WiiU's image, as it helps to enforce the image that the WiiU is just a Wii with a HD port on it, which is what it looks like to most ppl.

I wonder if that was the aim of Ninty all along, whatever the case is it isn't working atm.

 

[Risingblade]

Sure you can enjoy that they do that, just don't go ranting about how other games like COD are bad for doing exactly that.

 

[Eliwood10]

Mario is best when it takes risks. So many 2D platformer franchises died during the move to 3D. Super Mario 64 took that chance and it was a great game at the time. Super Mario Sunshine took the SM64 format and overhauled it adding tons of new features and removing others; the reasult was fantastic. Luigi's Mansion took a risk by focusing on a secondary character, it's now regarded as one of the GameCube's best. Super Mario Galaxy could have blown up in their faces thanks to the gravity system, but it was a huge success.

What I'm getting at is that the Super Mario franchise needs to be put to rest for a few years. We're not going to forget about him, Nintendo, don't worry. Release a couple new Mario Party of sports games, but really think about what to do for the next SMB and TAKE RISKS.

 

[V8 Ninja]

I'll just give my upfront opinion on the newer Super Mario Bros. titles;

While it would be great to see something as new as Super Mario World was, the newer Mario games are still Super Mario Bros. games. They contained some of the most refined platforming mechanics in any platforming game and are better than at least 75% of games that are released annually. Also, let's all chill about the release schedule for the NSMB games; because NSMB was introduced in the middle of the DS's/Wii's life cycle, the perceived release schedule of making a new game each time a console is introduced has not been fulfilled yet. Once that balance is reached, the releases will slow down to something more up to your standards.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

You are right in that respect, they just need to stop putting him out on the corner to please all the customers. It's getting kind of sad to watch... oh no wait, boring, not sad. Very boring. I can honestly see no reason to buy the game, none. The only reason I can imagine people buy it is because his games are one of the few that aren't complete shovel wear and people want to get their moneys worth out a useless white box that hurts my wrists when it can't even play DVD's.

 

[Lightknight]

I don't really care how often they put out Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Kirby and whatever other games. They can continue to milk them until they're dry (they've got to be chaffing now...).

I WISH they were milking the Metroid and Zelda franchises, during it's entire 6 year run the Wii only got 1 exclusive Zelda game and 2 (I'd argue 1.5) Metroid games. Even Donkey Kong, though he did finally get a game for the Wii, was basically ignored for over a decade.

When it comes to anything outside Mario we "Nintendo Fanboys" are starved.

Yeah, I've always been somewhat surprised that they haven't milked a rich title like Zelda as much as they have Mario. I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoy me some Mario but I'm tired of him and he's all I see everywhere I look that's Nintendo. Some more main-stream Zelda would be great. It really feels like they're mobilizing entirely towards the mobile market. I'm not so sure that'd be a bad thing for them to do either. As long as their software continues to be made on another system and their handhelds keep getting made, then there's a lot consumers can benefit from in them getting out of a console market that they'll have a hard time competing in.

But what I mean is that their core IPs are ones they've been using for decades. To be fair, they almost have two decades on both of the major competitors in the market so they're the ones to do it. But tell me that Halo or COD/MW aren't feeling stale as well with how often they've been used.