I believe that Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem and most other Nintendo franchises have gotten as far as they can go in traditional 3d gaming. If you think about it, the 2D versions of those franchises (I know Fire Emblem is the same in both dimensions) only lasted for about 2 consoles. After the N64, they smoothly switched to 3D with the release of Mario 64. We are now on the 3rd 3D console and the formula of 3D platformer, 3D adventure and 3D FPS is getting old.
Maybe that is why Nintendo release the Wii. They were thinking that their franchises were getting old and they needed something new. The Wii is like a prototype for the next generation of gaming.

So in Mario games slight plot changes and nuance matter, but for FPS's all you do is look at the main idea of the story and call them the same?  Most FPS's use completely different characters, let alone setting and story.  How can you possibly tell me that there are more similarities in the stories of the FPS genre, than in the Mario series? that's ridiculous.  New characters in Mario apparently means the stories are different, but FPS's with completely different casts of characters are all the same?

I think with alot of games, including Mario & Zelda it is the progression with technological advances. Mario & Zelda don't even speak 'properly' in any of there games. You would think with technology now they should. I know they have to get the voices correct, as otherwise it would alienate a legion of fans.. but they have to move Mario & Zelda forward at some point.. Just my thoughts.. I will say this though. Both Mario & Zelda are an important part of Nintendo, and they should always be.

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Mario Party ---->1,284

Because clever marketers have convinced them that ZOMGNEWCHARACTERZZZZ is all it takes to make a completely new gaming experience, and that conversely, you cannot have a new experience without a new cast.

It's complete BS to anyone who hasn't bought into that hype, of course. But it's the sentiment behind the statement.

I love the Zelda & Mario games (in general) and hope to see them exists for many years. As long as each game is fun and enjoyable to play (which they are 9/10) there is no reason to want them to go.

Sadly the only thing Nintendo could do to convince me that pokemon is a worthy venture and unique from it's forefathers is to reinvent the whole damn thing, At this point if you've played one, you've played them all, that's cool for all the new people to pokemon, but what about he people who have been there done that.

Well what happens to them is they stop buying. C_c or they become hardcore...

But thats not saying they should change anything, but they will when the consumer base has had enough.

Mario could use so reverting actually, his main feature was that he jumped, in 64 he learned how to grab but that was used rarely, why not flip it a bit, use the qualities that made jumping enough and make grabing that and just have jumping in there to remind us where we are coming from.

A mario platformer that involved grabing things to stay on the board and get to the ending... that would be a step in the opposite direction to me... and that may or may not be a good thing.

Oh and @OP one word really hypocrits.

The people that say that are jealous of their awesomness.

No, not ZOMGNEWCHARACTERZZZZ...try ZOMGNEWGAMEZZZ or ZOMGNEWIP.

@OP

This phenomonon is a call back to when Sony and MS fans saw Nintendo as a major threat to their consoles all the time(as opposed to now when they've turned on to each other).

Nintendo always had the best games, but they've been largely 1st party, so people would say "Nintendo has no games."

Then, the common answer was of course, the magnificant series' Mario and Zelda.

So, to marginalize those epic series, and to justify to themselves and others why they didn't need to buy a Nintendo console, they would say, "Mario and Zelda? They are just rehashes anyway."

It's a marginaliztion technique by Nintendo haters.

In reality, those two series' continue to output some of the best content in gaming with each new epic entry. The level of quality and work put into those titles is unmatched. Similar to the Final Fantasy series, these games will always be made up of the very best stuff that gaming has to offer, wheather or not they introduce many new ideas.

If either of those series' are dicontinued, every gamer has lost something, and it would be a significant milestone in gaming history and a footnote in the history of man.