Prophetic 2005 Lost Garden article: who else has read it?

[Final-Fan]

RolStoppable said:

The risk of having your game not becoming king of the genre goes up. The competition is simply greatly increased. Mario is a great game, but would it own the entire genre if it were forced to compete against Jax and Daxter, Sly Cooper, Prince of Persia and others?

This is the part I am talking about, I know there have only been two Mario 3D platformers in ten years.

Would Mario stand a chance against Jak, Sly, PoP (what's this game doing in this question anyway, I wouldn't put it into platformers) and others? I say yes.

Super Mario 64 owned the genre even with games like Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Tooie released. Although Super Mario Sunshine wasn't as revolutionary as SM64 back then, it still offered a unique gameplay experience, unmatched by any other platformer in the 6th gen.

But maybe the self proclaimed "hardcore" gamers see this totally different and Mario is totally out of date? Maybe that's what the author meant.

Mario is undoubtedly the "best in class" platformer, but I think that the other examples are something else entirely:

Pokemon -- I struggle to even name another collecting/cockfighting/RPG game of this type.

Mario Party -- No one is even close to Nintendo in this genre AFAIK. Rayman is about the best attempt I've seen.

And Brain Training.

Mario games, on the other hand, face actual, serious competition (eventually) even if no games are their equal.