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thismeintiel on 05 March 2011
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RolStoppable said:
thismeintiel said:
RolStoppable said:

It's just that his English is pretty bad. I am quite sure he meant to say that there were no mainline Mario and Pokémon games made for the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, only spinoffs.

While I'll give him that Nintendo seems to be missing a HUGE opportunity and didn't/haven't put out a Pokemon game like that found on its handhelds for its home consoles, they still didn't lack Mario games.  I don't think Mario 64 or Mario Sunshine could hardly be called a "spinoff."  Especially not Mario 64.  Heck, many proclaimed it as the shining example that games could make the transition from 2-D to 3-D, but it still didn't save the N64.  Of course, both systems still saw releases of mainline titles in Nintendo's other popular series, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Kirby.  Then they also had a new popular series, Super Smash Bros., when contained characters from all their other franchises.

Super Mario 64 and Sunshine are spinoffs of the mainline, just like Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. You just need to look at the sales, it's obvious that the 3D Mario games are not considered direct sequels to the Super Mario Bros. titles. On the Wii we finally got to see the mainline and the spinoff series in direct competition and the mainline easily won despite it being a comparison in favor of 3D Mario (one game vs. two and higher production values like orchestrated sound).

Of course the addition of some mainline Mario and Pokémon games to the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube wouldn't have made Nintendo win those generations, because they made way too many other mistakes for that to happen at the time.

And that was my original point.  No amount of Nintendo franchises, even if the games are liked and are good, can make up for HW that doesn't interest people.  However, your comment about Mario 64 being a spin off is incorrect.  It was indeed a main entry to the series.  You can't justify calling a game a spinoff because it is in 3D as opposed to 2D.  Of course the previous ones were in 2D, the HW couldn't handle anything else.  But, when the HW could handle 3D well, they made the shift to 3D just like all franchises at that time.  I mean that would be like saying every Zelda game  now, except the one on the DS, are spinoffs because they are in 3D.  It's just not true.  And you definitely can't go by sales to determine what is a main entry and what is a spin-off.

@ maxwellgt

I'm still waiting for pics of games that are on the 3DS that completely blow away games found on the PSP.