What are Nintendo's Big 3 "core" franchises?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

Senlis said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

I'd actually argue that Kirby has always done better than Metroid on consoles, both in terms of sales and popularity.  But in terms of 'quality' or in terms of being a game near the style and market of Zelda/Mario, Metroid may be the best title to fit that description.

Actually, Kirby didn't differentiate itself from Mario as much as Zelda and Metroid did in the early days.  Zelda was a top down exploration, so it was easy to distinguish itself.  Metroid had the "continuous level" concept in both it's early console games, and a different, darker look, so that is how it distinguished itself.  Kirby was a level based platformer.  While it had it's own innovations that made it unique, it is overshadowed by Mario 3 and Super Mario World.

Don't get me wrong, I really like Kirby.  It can't really compare with Super Metroid however.  Also, I am not too sure about the sales and popularity statement of yours.  Do you have numbers to back it up?

Getting sales data for games on the NES and SNES is a scetchy thing at best.  But most places will generally agree that Metroid, both as a series and each game indavidually, didn't sell as well on the NES and SNES as most of the other major core Nintendo titles (such as Mario, Zelda and yes, Kirby).  Even looking on this very site, it says Kirby's Adventure sold 1.75m units on the NES and Kirby's Super Star sold 1.44m on the SNES (along with about 3 other titles I'm not counting).  While there's no data for Metroid on the NES and Super Metroid sold 1.42m.  Then there's pretty much the absense of Metroid on the N64.

Then there's the whole problem of how Metroid sells like 90% of its games in the west.  Japan pretty much hates it.

So yes, you can say Metroid did pretty good considering.  But as for being more popular and doing better in sales, Kirby seems to do much better.  Note, what I said earlier I think is true.  I still don't think its at all a measure of Metroids 'quality' or 'third pillar' status.  Kirby just has more games and more general appeal.  Frankly saying Kirby is better because it sells better would be like saying Pokemon was better.