Mario losing it?

[albionus]

I have to go with the GameCube era had worse flagship games crowd here. Mario Sunshine sucked, not because I expected a revolution but because I expected a game I could run through quickly but that took hours to get every last secret like the other Mario games. What I got was a game that was way too difficult for a Mario game and took far too long to get the next shine. Wind waker on the other hand should have been the hard one but was way too easy, the only time I died was when I wanted to. MK:DD was pretty cool, but it's the only Mario Kart I haven't purchased (maybe when it drops to $15 or 20 I will). Smash Bros. I think was an improvement over the N64 but I never got into either of them. As for games that weren't on the N64, Luigi's Mansion was ok but as I thought in 2001 it was definitely not the game to launch a new system with. Animal Crossing was promising but the interface was terrible (the GC versions sold 3 million and the DS is approaching 8 million so I think it should be included as a flagship, or near flagship, title now). Ditto for Battalion Wars (except for the flagship part). Pikmin, eh. The real standout was Metroid Prime but it also sold the worst of the big 4. It does seem Nintendo has gotten its groove back. Mario Galaxy looks to be the best thing since Mario 64. Super Paper Mario appears to be an excellent throwback to 2D platforming with new elements. Zelda:TP was a lot better than Wind Waker but the linear Zelda game is getting a bit old, I hope the next one is more open like the first one or different like Majora's Mask. AC and BW should both be far easier and better with the Wiimote, not to mention online. Of course practically everything Nintendo has put on the DS has turned gold, Nintendogs, Brain Age, Mario Kart, NMSB, Animal Crossing, etc. The only issue there is what happened to Star Fox? That's the series Nintendo needs to worry about dying off. As for Mario Galaxy, I'll go out on a limb and say if it doesn't outsell Mario64 I'll be shocked. Mario64, Sunshine, and NMSB each sold to about 25% of system owners so Galaxy should have no trouble passing 6 million or 9 million for that matter.