Mario games are 12 for 12 this gen -- All million-sellers

[Kasz216]

Famine said:

Kasz216 said:

I don't think it matters. Reused characters don't matter unless the gameplay is overly reused like Street Fighter 2. If it's a good game who cares if it's Mario, Crash Bandicoot or those two guys from Urban Fight... so long as the gameplay stays fresh.

Well that's the thing, if it's a good game then why plaster Mario into it? Even last generation, Dance Dane Revolution for the Gamecube had Mario in it. Mario has become a "safety-net" for Nintendo.

@Zucas:

Can't they be both: Playing it smart and putting Mario onto a lot of games?

Why waste money developing new characters who are just likely going to be generic looking anyway? Aside from that people assosiate Mario games as games that have had a lot of extra time and care put into them because there have been so few poor Mario games. Mario Party 8... and... Yoshis Island and... that's all I can think of right now. As for Dance Dance revolution... that was the gimmic wasn't it? It had mario songs in it or something? That just seemed more relevent in that generation, for example the Soul Caliber game with a mascot from each company in it. Some third party developers seemed to focus on making slight differences in games to see if they would sell more copies to see if someone buys the PSP version of Marvel Ultimate Alliance just so they could play Hawkeye or something. As long as the games arn't bad it's not going to hurt the bankability of your characters. So you can't really "overuse" said characters unless the games are bad or too similar.