Does Mario need to be so kiddy?

[nuckles87]

Yes.

Mario has always been "kiddy" and always should be. That's his world. Cartoony, candy coated and brightly colored. The only reason why past games had more muted colors was because of the limitations of the technology. If you look at concept art from the time, Mario has always been a very colorful, cartoony world.

As a Sonic fan, I can say from experience that you should be happy that Mario has never "grown up". Sonic tried it. It was a disaster. Killed an entire franchise with just two games. Frankly, I've never been able to look at Sonic quite the same way again.

I'd say Mario's issue isn't that it's "kiddy". It's that the art style is bland and boring, and Nintendo has been doing its best to keep it that way. I don't want to ever see a more mature Mario. That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing a Mario that tried something different in the visuals department, ala Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

Which, by the way, used the FX trip to produce some marvelously beautiful "kiddy" visuals:

http://i2.listal.com/image/239305/600full-super-mario-world-2%3A-yoshi%27s-island-screenshot.jpg