Who is more likely to give Nintendo a run;next gen?Nintendo's demise?

[Bodhesatva]

Disolitude: the similarity you're drawing is from the character, not the games. That's not an unfair point, but Nintendo fans (for obvious reasons) don't tend to be the sort of people who care about character/plot in their games. I certainly fit that bill.

For all I care, Mario Kart could be called "Generic Man Kart," the platformer could be "Generic Man Galaxy," the sports "Generic Man Sports." I wouldn't care, because story/plot/character in games are completely irrelevant to me. That's why I didn't like Bioshock very much, why I never played Mass Effect or, for that matter, haven't like any RPGs since I was young, and why I won't end up buying MGS4 even though I think the gameplay in MGS games is quite good; those are games that are heavily driven by story, and I simply don't care for it.

In essence, I absolutely agree that for someone like yourself (who apparently does care about characters/plot in games) having Mario in every game would be annoying, and it's a fair criticism. For someone like myself, whose focus is almost entirely on gameplay, it's completely irrelevant who stars in a game as long as it has compelling game design.

It's personal preferences and taste.