I totally disagree with this.

If people buy a sequel to a great game like SMB, that is going to make them want to play the prequel.

Where is the option for Malstrom is an idiot (but I still want more SMB)?

There was a time when Malstrom made great sense, and focused on Disruption and Blue Ocean Strategy. He has since become nothing more than an angry old man complaining that there aren't enough of his favourite types of games, using nonsense arguments to justify it.

It was what eventually drove me away from following his blog. Malstrom's more recent (as in, last 3 years or so) attitudes are poison. They have no real value in terms of understanding anything, and are really nothing more than incessant complaints about 3D Mario, etc.

Malstrom's current supporters keep proclaiming things like "he doesn't REALLY want 3D Mario to die", yet that contradicts his obsession with it, and his actual words. That, before 3D Land was even released, Nintendo made a point to announce that there was a 2D Mario on the way to the 3DS, speaks volumes... to everyone except Malstrom and his supporters, it seems. Nintendo has repeatedly pointed out that 2D Mario isn't going anywhere, and it is clear that they're trying to blend 2D Mario elements into 3D Mario to expand that side of the franchise (while 2D Mario continues happily). But to Malstrom, the mere EXISTENCE of 3D Mario is an affront to 2D Mario.

Before his obsession with 3D Mario, his obsession was "User-Generated Content"... which, in reality, consisted of one paid game (Made In Wario) and one free app (Flipnote), although he claimed that games like Wii Music were user-generated content (they weren't - they had premade content, and user-generated gameplay - meaning, the user defined what "winning" was, but in the case of Wii Music, they were still playing well-known songs, not making up their own). Another claim he liked to make was that fans of 3D Mario should have to put up with 17 years without another 3D Mario game, just to be fair to those who are fans of 2D Mario (as though this makes any sort of sense, and is something more than just bitter whinging).

Heck, I haven't read his blog recently, but I'm betting he hasn't even mentioned the strong rumours that WiiU will actually launch with 2D Mario. However, I'm betting at least one post has claimed, without any substantiation, that a 3D Mario will come out for WiiU before a 2D Mario. I'm also betting that Malstrom hasn't actually played 3D Land.

Of particular note is that Malstrom, around the time that Mario Galaxy 2 was announced, came up with a list of things that make 3D Mario worse than 2D Mario... every single one of them was addressed by 3D Land. One particular complaint he had was that 3D Mario was "starfinder Mario", with the stars hidden in various places, whereas 2D Mario was "get to the flagpole"... well, guess what 3D Land was, and yet Malstrom said nothing positive about this. But then, Malstrom has had little positive to say about Nintendo since late 2008... which is very close to the time that he stopped talking about disruption and blue ocean strategy.

This is soooooo right on the money.

Why doesn't.........

*thinking harder*

I must be missing something, but..... Why doesn't someone else make these fantastic business decisions instead of Nintendo, and create these markets and do all of these fascinating things Malstrom keeps talking about? Why... doesn't he do it? A man with such a vision really should be working in changing the business through personal means rather than shouting at everyone else.

Too bad he doesn't work for a video game company, or doesn't have the influence to make his vision a reality. I mean really, is Nintendo the *only* company that can pull off these things he keeps writing about, or why does he only focus on criticizing them instead of doing more productive work trying to help other developers take advantage of this?

1. http://andriasang.com/comqzg/3ds_mario_games/

Sorry, but you're wrong. Nintendo was quite clear, saying that they'd be making both types of games, NOT that they'd be making a game that is both. And that was in 2010, well before the 3DS even released. I never said that they announced the 2D Mario game, I said that they announced that one is on the way. Miyamoto himself said "When asked 'what will we do on 3DS,' the answer is, of course, we'll make both. They both have their own appeal." - there is NO way to validly interpret that as "We will make a Mario game that is 3D Mario, but also 2D Mario at the same time". But hey, Malstrom can't be wrong, can he?

2. He wasn't vocal about them, he was obsessed. Every time Nintendo announced a new title, he would try to twist it to show why it proves that Nintendo is focusing on user-generated content. And pretty much every time, he was wrong. It's very easy to point at games that perform poorly, and shout "User-generated content"... which is precisely what he did. Too bad there wasn't user-generated content in those games. And no, the wait period for 3D Mario fans wasn't hyperbole. How do I know? Because he said it repeatedly, in a variety of contexts, and never once suggested anything more reasonable. It's easy to dismiss extreme statements as hyperbole when they occur once and make sense in context.

3. Oh, I'm shocked he even referred to them. Now for the fun part, though. How do you think he would respond if there was a rumour that there would be a 3D Mario at the WiiU launch? I can tell you right now - he'd say that it proves that Nintendo is on the wrong track. Rumour says 2D Mario = not substantial. Rumour says 3D Mario = proof Nintendo is going to die. This is his general pattern since late 2008 - if it's what he wants Nintendo to do, then it must be unsubstantiated rumour, but if it's what he doesn't want Nintendo to do, then it's proof that Nintendo will die.

4. Actually, the only thing that 3D Land didn't address was being 3D. When it comes down to it, Malstrom hates 3D gaming with a passion. It shows through EVERY single thing he has to say that even remotely touches on the topic. He hates 3D Zelda. He hates 3D Mario. The only reason he still likes the Wii Sports/Play/etc games is because you don't actually control 3D movement. Think I'm wrong? Name a game he has expressed happiness with that has had 3D gameplay.

Meanwhile, he abandoned Disruption and Blue Ocean Strategy because he didn't like where it was taking Nintendo, anymore. His complaints shifted - it all became "they're not arcade anymore" and "they focus too much on 3D gaming". If Nintendo were the ones to shift away from Disruption and Blue Ocean, Malstrom would have criticised THAT, and spoken about what Nintendo *should* have done in terms of disruption and blue ocean. He didn't. He ranted constantly about "arcade gameplay" and "3D Mario must die" and "user-generated content"... and when I pointed this shift out to Malstrom's supporters (I had been one, up to that point), I was derided and called all sorts of things.

Malstrom himself has said, in the past, that he pays attention to Nintendo because of what he can learn from them. So why is he still paying attention to them, if they're no longer doing the stuff he wants to learn? Because when it comes down to it, it was never truly disruption or blue ocean strategy that attracted his attention to Nintendo. It was that Nintendo had put more focus into games like Wii Sports, which make him think of the "old" games that he used to like. Now, I loved Wii Sports, but I also loved Super Mario Galaxy. It is healthy to have diverse interests and to see value in variety. Malstrom doesn't. He takes every game that isn't "arcade" to be an affront, and it shines through in all of his writing, once he stopped talking about disruption and blue ocean.

But somehow, I'm not surprised that you couldn't accept a single criticism of Malstrom. And for the record, when I started criticising Malstrom, I also pointed out the few points he was right on, and I also pointed out what I think the real issues with Nintendo are... Malstrom's fervent supporters proclaimed me a Nintendo fanboy for not agreeing with Malstrom now. I eventually started to refer to those supporters (and I suspect you to be one) as "Anti-hardcore"... in the sense that they are hardcore, just in the opposite way. Just as the hardcore condemn "casual gaming", etc, so too do the anti-hardcore condemn "hardcore gaming". And Malstrom is the king of the anti-hardcore. And as I've said before, it's too bad, because he used to actually make a lot of sense, until he decided that arcade gameplay was more important than anything else.

Isn't 2.5 just a term used to describe 3D games that play in 2 dimensions?

Well they haven't been as successful as the man especially in terms of software sold so I suppose they still are. Honestly who is? The man has created more sales in more types of genres than most developers will ever see.  Of course they will be chasing that kind of success.  

It doesn't change the fact that Malstrom doesn't know jack about game criticism or recognize the value of a diverse game line up.

So he's not interested but he has to be raging about him because Mario he's sure a fisical thing that can damage him personally.

Silly Mal.

The best selling Mario game in this gen, and 2nd best selling Mario game ever, is a 3D Mario, the only 2D Mario that ever beat it was Super Mario Bros on the NES, decennia ago.
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=25