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Smashchu2 on 16 August 2009
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MontanaHatchet said:
Smashchu2 said:
MontanaHatchet said:
I only read the beginning of your post (it will take me a while to read the rest), but Pokemon declined for a big reason. It wasn't a drop in quality at all (I thought Gold and Silver was great). Rather, the games (and other merchandise) sold less because the fad died. Pokemon still has many millions of fans, but it will never be like it was in the late 90s. Gone is the day where you could make a game about taking pictures of Pokemon and have it sell gangbusters. Gone are the days where every last kid on every last country on Earth had to have a Gameboy and a copy of Pokemon. Gone are the days of Pokemon board games, trading card extravaganzas, plushies, pillows, blankets, pajamas, cups, and every last piece of merchandise available.

Pokemon is still a huge game series, but major improvements won't bring it back to its glory days.

Yeah, the post is long. Took me almost two hours tio write it.

I disagree with the line of thinking becuase I see that fan having died for a reason. Mario Mania existed in the 80s, but it was ended by Super Mario World (as acording to Malstrom. He's writen a lot on it too). I think the fad died due to something else. Something made Pokemon a worldwide phenominon. I ask why it isn't now.

It's great that you went so in depth, but not everyone is going to want to read something that long. Don't be surprised if people quote things that are out of context, or cherry pick certain points.

What killed Mario-mania was that they stopped bundling a game with every system. The 2 best selling Mario games were bundles, and Mario Bros. was really heavily bundled. Then, of course, there was the fact there were more games to buy than Mario. And, of course, the low userbases of the N64 and Gamecube didn't help matters. The Wii would have reversed the process, but Nintendo made the focus on the Wii series and the Miis instead of Mario. It was probably a great step for them, but not for Mario. What made Pokemon so incredibly popular was a vast universe of Pokemon. The stat building, the collectibility, the unique personalities and abilities, and a variety of other things made it so big. It died because all good things must end. The fact that Pokemon is still so popular today is a testament to its selling power and popularity. But there's just no way that it can sustain the following it had back in the 90s.

Man, those were the days...

 

Yeah, I know a lot of people wont read it becuase it's long as sin. But otherwise, thanks for the tip (about cherrypicking).

Now, on Mario mania, a lot of the stuff I'm going to say parrots Malstrom as he has a good handle on this. Mario was popular thoughout the 80s thanks to Super Mario Bros, a bundeled game. However, SMB2 and 3 both did very well and were well recived. However, while Super Mario World siold systems, it was a disapointment. This is why Sonic could come in and challange the SNES. Nintnedo would win out thanks to a new 2D platformer in Donkey Kong Country. After Yoshi's Island, 2D Marios were not made.

SMB 3 was the best selling stand alone game for a long time. This changed with the Wii, but also with New Super Mario Bros. The game is no where near as good as the old games, but it did better then SMB3. If the fad was over, using your idea, then NSMB shouldn't have sold that much. If NSMB Wii sells even better then that, then my theory would be correct. I don't think fads just wain; I think something happens that ends it.

With Pokemon (and BTW, this is a in general response to the fad idea as your not the only one who said it) that fad was waining with G/S, but is starting to fall apart with R/S and D/P. The big problem may be the castration if catching pokemon. G/S required you to have Red and Blue to get them all. This wasn't so bad as most people had the two games already. It became a big problem is R/S with the number of games required to catch them all. That, and at this point, there were too many pokemon to catch. There was no more fun in collecting. The otyher problem is the recycling nature of the games that is starting to really wain on players. It really was prevelent in R/S.