To answer the articles rhetorical question...its a little bit of both. A lot of what is making the game sell is just the games name. Everyone knows Mario 3, one of the most hyped games of all time. And one of the earliest games to effectively use marketing and hype well. Essentially, games such as Halo, GTA and Final Fantasy took their notes for generating 'hype' from this game.
However, on top of that, this game is also selling because its just a good game. It wouldn't be STILL selling, 20 years later, in this many numbers, if it wasn't. People would have learned by now. And we wouldn't still have seen an INCREASE in sales for later Mario games like Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros unless earlier games like Mario Bros 3 was just that good.
Six upcoming games you should look into:
