Rol I gotta say I loved Galaxy because of the cut scenes and polish Nintendo put into it. Infact I prefer Galaxy to Mario64 and yes to Sunshine too. Why did Mario really fail, a lack of hardcore gamers left in Nintendo's user base. The GameCube survived on the hardcore but when the Wii was announced Nintendo switched focus from the hardcore to the casual. This caused millions of gamers to jump ship and buy 360's/PS3's. You can argue all you want but fact is the hardcore gamers are the ones who buy Mario games.
The casual gamer doesn't care to play Mario, their too busy playing WiiFit and WiiSportsResort. The people that buy Mario are and always has been the hardcore gamer. Like you yourself, but as I said many hardcore gamers jumped ship when the Wii was first shown off and many haven't returned.
I'm sure that if Nintendo makes a competitive platform (Visually and software wise) next generation then we will see the hardcore gamers return. Infact maybe MarioGalaxy2/Zelda/Pikmin can bring home the gold. But in the end the reason that Mario Galaxy was a flop was the lack of hardcore gamers as you do point out.
Its not a question of "How can Nintendo dumb down their titles to appeal to casual gamers" its a question of "How Can Nintendo produce software that appeals to established and hardcore gamers".
A perfect example is looking at the attach rate. The GameCube had a 9 games per console attach rate (All being hardcore) the Wii has only about 5, why does the Wii only have about 5? because the casual gamers don't buy as many games as the hardcore do. When Nintendo makes a stronger effort to attract hardcore gamers (Who spend money on software) opposed to casual gamers (Who might pick up a game or two) then we will see games like Mario Galaxy selling better.
Mario Galaxy was an AAA+ game, don't wish for it to be dumbed down because some moronic casual gamer can't handle a half hour of patience!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
