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Resident_Hazard on 21 May 2011
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LordTheNightKnight said:
Resident_Hazard said:
LordTheNightKnight said:


This is the second time in a thread I strongly agree with you. That is either frightening and/or interesting.

 

I have my moments.


I was sure someone would bring the torches and pitchforks to me for "ripping on Mario" in there (it might still happen), but I'm so sick of Nintendo over-using the character, like they're desperate for sales and afraid to try anything new or different.  

Nintendo:  "Let's make a sports game!"

Nintendo dev:  "Okay!"  

Nintendo:  "Hey, let's make it with Mario!"

Nintendo dev:  "For some reason, we agree that's a good idea!"  

 

Constantly being bombarded with Tony Hawk, Sonic, and Guitar Hero certainly didn't help those franchises.  I'd really rather not see a childhood icon turned into the next latter-day Sonic.


I don't mind some of them, but after looking at how they haven't made a proper new Kirby game since I don't know, it seems they have this habit of taking characers and slapping them on any game just to try to coast on the character's name. Now Mario is established in sports games, so I can take that (and STILL think a Koopa shell surfing game SHOULD be made), but the series still sells best as a "Run to the goal" platformer, and that is what Nintendo keeps neglecting.

So I agree with you on this, just in differing ways.

I absolutely love Kirby's Epic Yarn (and find it humorous that it lies, alphabetically, between Manhunt 2, MadWorld, House of the Dead 2&3 and Overkill on my shelf), but it is exactly what you said:  A game Nintendo slapped a character into to coast on the name.  Kirby fit well into that game, but it was originally just starring that Prince Puff guy.  

I'm huge on Mario platformers, loved the classic SNES Mario RPG, but have turned against Mario Kart (a game series I have marked as my nemesis due to it's unique ability to drive me to extreme anger at record speed), have no interest in Mario sports games, and have simply stopped caring about Paper Mario.  Nintendo used to make a huge variety of games without needing to cram Mario into them, and when they did make a new Mario game--it was cause for celebration.  Granted, Ken Griffey Jr retired last year, but they could still make their own "regular" baseball game.  

I feel like they're freely neglecting any number of franchises just to keep making stuff themed around Mario.  Where were F-Zero or StarFox on the Wii?  I thought a motion-controlled Arwing would be cool.  

The system was severly lacking in FPS titles, and yet no upgraded sequel to Geist.  It's beating a dead horse to talk about how Nintendo once "ushered in the era of the console FPS" in no small part to Goldeneye and the Turok games being N64 exclusives--only to wonder how they abandoned a genre for no good reason since then.  

I get this idea that Nintendo seems to be turning into Sega--you know, getting unnecessarily lazy in their game development and design philosophy.  Except that Sega didn't get lazy until they no longer had consoles depending on their games being good.  In a sense, even Mario Galaxy 2 was lazy--look closely--it's the first Mario sequel since the Japanese Super Mario 2 (our western "Lost Levels," of course) that was built on the same engine as its predecessor.  

Sure, it was good, but where's the dramatic leap like we had with Super Mario Bros 3 or Mario World?

To be fair, a Koopa shell surfing game would probably work.  But I'd really rather not see it happen until they can give Mario a little break--and let some of their other franchises (and some new ones) a chance to shine in the spotlight.