How does Nintendo manage to do it so often

[TruckOSaurus]

kjj4t9rdad said:

Scoobes said:

But the game mechanics mean the difference between a series becomming stale and a series continuing strong. More so than the character, especially one so simple and with the universal appeal of Mario. The character of Mario is simply for brand recognition. If the game mechanics stayed the same in all Mario games then Mario would have died out long ago. If the character had changed but the game mechanics stayed the same those games would still die out.If you had diverse game mechanics without Mario, the games would sell, but not as much as they do now.

By having Mario on a diverse array of products you keep the games fresh for consumers whilst giving all games with his name immediate brand recognition. Most other franchises haven't been able to do this.

This is called milking a franchise.  Ninty does this with much more success than anybody else.  They put mario in every genre they can to use the brand recognition to sell other games.  I find it funny that companies like Activion get bashed for putting out a million Guitar hero games but Ninty is praised for doing the same thing.

It's not the same thing at all, that's what you don't get.

Every single Guitar Hero game has the same core gameplay nothing changes beyond the track list which is why people are getting tired of Guitar Hero games, they know it's the same old thing again and again.

Your comparison would make sense if every Mario game played exactly the same with just some new stages every time Nintendo released one.