Malstrom has done it again! He's talked about how Nintendo's not hitting the mark with their newer Core games. In short too much 'innovation' not enough content.
| Malstrom said: ... My view is that Nintendo keeps making sequels to N64 and Gamecube games instead of sequels to NES and SNES games. Mario Kart was in the wilderness until the director of Mario Kart DS said, “We are going to beat the SNES Mario Kart,” and the game was designed to get back to those roots. Mario Kart Wii followed in that vision (Mario Kart Wii is far more difficult to master than Double Dash [and has far more content]). Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy met with a collective yawn from the market. New Super Mario Brothers, a 2d Mario made, somewhat, in the fashion of NES and SNES era type gaming, ends up being one of the best selling games ever made trumping even Super Mario Brothers 3’s sales. So why do sequels made in NES/SNES fashion work better than N64/Gamecube fashion (with the exception of Zelda)? In the past, such as the NES/SNES era, games were based on content meaning ideas and mythos. The arcade era gameplay leaking into the consoles games also didn’t hurt. The N64/Gamecube era type games seem obsessed over ‘innovation’ rather than content. Ooohhh, so Mario has a water pack now? So what? Oooohhh, Mario can float through space. And? Using Miyamoto’s own words from that Nintendo Power interview of when he was developing Super Mario Brothers 3 was that the original Super Mario Brothers was, according to Miyamoto at the time, “an introduction to the Mushroom Kingdom” and Super Mario Brothers 3 was to fully “explore the worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom.” In other words, content, not ‘innovation’ was the drive. Super Mario Brother 3 became immortal not because of ‘innovative gameplay’ (very little innovative in the game at the time aside from ‘flying’ and maps to display stages) but because of the sheer amount of quality content inside the game. ... http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/translating-iwata/ My view is that Nintendo keeps making sequels to N64 and Gamecube games instead of sequels to NES and SNES games. Mario Kart was in the wilderness until the director of Mario Kart DS said, “We are going to beat the SNES Mario Kart,” and the game was designed to get back to those roots. Mario Kart Wii followed in that vision (Mario Kart Wii is far more difficult to master than Double Dash [and has far more content]). Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy met with a collective yawn from the market. New Super Mario Brothers, a 2d Mario made, somewhat, in the fashion of NES and SNES era type gaming, ends up being one of the best selling games ever made trumping even Super Mario Brothers 3’s sales.
So why do sequels made in NES/SNES fashion work better than N64/Gamecube fashion (with the exception of Zelda)? In the past, such as the NES/SNES era, games were based on content meaning ideas and mythos. The arcade era gameplay leaking into the consoles games also didn’t hurt. The N64/Gamecube era type games seem obsessed over ‘innovation’ rather than content. Ooohhh, so Mario has a water pack now? So what? Oooohhh, Mario can float through space. And? Using Miyamoto’s own words from that Nintendo Power interview of when he was developing Super Mario Brothers 3 was that the original Super Mario Brothers was, according to Miyamoto at the time, “an introduction to the Mushroom Kingdom” and Super Mario Brothers 3 was to fully “explore the worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom.” In other words, content, not ‘innovation’ was the drive. Super Mario Brother 3 became immortal not because of ‘innovative gameplay’ (very little innovative in the game at the time aside from ‘flying’ and maps to display stages) but because of the sheer amount of quality content inside the game.
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I'd have to agree with him (and Miyamoto apparently) Super Mario Bros. 3 is my favorite of the Mario games because of all the content. All the different levels and items and enemy's .etc makes it better than any other Mario game I've played.
Too much focus has been put on what the new systems were capable of. Ever since Super Mario World (Dinosaur World) the games have been lacking in content and forgotten it's mythos.
I think it's probably why Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Twighlight Princess weren't system sellers like Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii were.
