Well...Mario Kart wouldn't be what it is without all the nostalgic locations, yes, but it got its credit by being the best kart racer, especially in the N64 days.
Mario Galaxy gets hype because it's Mario, yes, but that's also because fans know how good Mario games have been compared to most offerings. The game comes from Nintendo...fans can expect a quality platformer.
And Nintendo puts the Mario name on a lot of its quality games...the sports games like Tennis, Golf...Mario Strikers, Mario Kart...yes they have Mario names, but it's more because they're Nintendo games, and Nintendo just likes to use its mascot.
Equally great games like Pikmin could have had Mario as a character, and it probably would have worked.
LEFT4DEAD411.COM
Bet with disolitude: Left4Dead will have a higher Metacritic rating than Project Origin, 3 months after the second game's release. (hasn't been 3 months but it looks like I won :-p )
