This is a topic that has always bothered me. I know that New Super Mario Bros. is an excellent game, and Mario Galaxy is a jewel of a game. But do the themes need to be so childish? Mario Kart, same diff.

As an older man, there are movies for kids that I can watch because they don't alienate me. Examples of these are disney's movies especially.

There are companies out there that create content that appeals to children, of all ages, and on a wide variety of themes. My favorite example of these is Disney. Time and time again, this company was able to release one classic after another of top content that appealed to children, and to adults alike. The Little Mermaid, The Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Tarzan, and so on and so forth.

When we look at Nintendo, we found something similar in the origins of the Super Mario series:

Donkey kong, the story of a Gorilla breaking down scaffolds that a construction worker (Mario) is attempting to climb in order to save the kidnapped princess. Sounds like King Kong... hmm not a movie for kids if I recall. What about Mario Bros, the story of a plummer that needs to attack crabs and turtles and butterflies, with fireballs coming out of the wall to attack him. The colors in both game are not aggressively childish, and hold neutral shades of blue, green, red and brown, with Peach's pink as the exception.

The trend continues all the way to Mario 3 and even on to Super Mario 64. But something happened at some point in the Gamecube era where Nintendo decided to inject colors and lame storylines.

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Say goodbye to the Mario of old, and say hello to the new Mario, one that is based on cliches, flashy colors, and uninteresting storylines.

Why? Why can't they make something that evokes an emotion, a real emotion?

Compare that to this children's movie called Tarzan, where children learn about a young boy who just wants to be the best ape the jungle has ever seen. A real desire, a true emotion:

With the staggering sales of some of Nintendo's most frugal franchises, I am callously hoping for a new era in Nintendo's creative history. Let the times unravel.

Mario most definitely does not need to be kiddy. In fact, I would argue that the old 2D Mario games, as you stated, were completely not. These games were presented in such a way that left a lot of the storytelling up to the interpretation of the user (something Nintendo still does) AS WELL AS leaving the interpretation of much of the themes, character development, and other areas into the hands of the players. This really goes for the rest of old Nintendo as well. Everything was presented in a manner that all ages could enjoy without feeling the childish tones.

I believe part of the problem comes from the fact that as technology has advanced, developers can put more of THEIR OWN expression into the games. The more expression and themes that are thrown into a game, the less that is left up to the interpretation of the player. That's why people can enjoy and interpret the early Zelda and Mario games to their mind's happiness, but the new games have more detailed graphics, characters, and themes that are pushed in your face. Nintendo has to hit those themes just perfectly to appeal to the masses, or they have to design their games around a more interpretive way again.

I kind of felt they did that well with Majora's Mask. That game had such immense depth and so many ways to see the game depending on how deep you wanted to dive into it. I also feel like Super Mario 64 did this beautifully as well. My hardcore BAMF uncle who loved to drink, smoke, and surf loved playing SM64, and I as a 7 year old also loved playing it. It was fun and accessible in a manner that didn't push and force strong elements that felt age or demographic restrictive.

(Yes, most of this was copy/pasted from my wall post).

lets face it almost every game Nintedno makes is rather fo children rather then adults. And children don´t care so much about story

You mean kind of what Squareenix did in close partnership with Nintendo.

Examples of Nintendo games with intricate storylines:

The Legend of Zelda LttP

The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening

The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages & Seasons

Super Metroid (at the time)

Fire Emblem (I am guessing since I've never played it)

Super Mario RPG (Good example)

There are more but I'm bad at lists.

The IP argument you bring is not valid. The improvement of story in the Mario series only serves to inject life into the franchise and improve the image of Nintendo as a company, since Mario is its icon. Then, the resources required to do this are not greater, this only requires a different direction, not more work. So it's not a tradeoff scenario.

Mario games don't need a story IMO (except the RPGs of course), but with the popularity of the newer Mario games Nintendo is afraid of changing the formula, so I don't think we'll see big changes in the New Super Mario series anytime soon

Mario isn't kiddy! He just has some personal issues with cute and cuddly creatures, and he takes out his anger by bouncing on them.

The only one i think that was kiddy was Super Mario Sunshine, which is why Nintendo pulled back with Mario Galaxy.

What about the struggling sales (relatively of course) of NSMB2? Could that trigger an alarm?

I love the guy, but come on.

Would love for you to play Fire Emblem and then say that with a straight face.

Super Mario RPG had a lite story, btw.  Not the best example.