Mountain Dew and Doritos.

imo

there are games that are just made for entertainment where you don't need skills(casual games)

and there are games that have to be "beaten"or "solved" ,where you need to show physical,optical,concentration and other skills when you are eg under pressure.(core games)
hardcoregames are either the masochist Version of core games(eg. some japanese shootemups) because of an inhuman skill
or usual games could be turned into hardcore games by a gamer,eg when you compete with others(eg. pinball games are for sure not hardcore ,but as soon as you try to become world wide no.1 on a pinball game,you will realize it is really hardcore(with the time i invested in this i would have beaten almost all hardcore games ,except mushihimezama)

It's quite possibly the hardest game i have ever played, i have grown up playing linear games, so playing something like dark souls is just so different, and hard! and it's not good for my anger ahah

Hardcore gamers can be into iOS games too, they aren't banned from playing or liking them. The difference is that they play and are intrested in other games, of varying difficulty and genre. Someone who is an active game consumer, willing to play titles with in depth story for long periods of time. Play games that require certain levels of skill or competitive play.

A casual gamer might only play smaller titles with a limited degree of the above mention. Only spending little on gaming or little time dedicated to games. Someone who might play Just Dance with friends or Angry Birds but not care to play or purchase a wide variety of titles in more complex genres, would be considered a casual gamer.

Nintendo games are not neccessarily casual games despite appeal or "party" game status. Hardcore vs Casual is more dependant on the consumers.

when i've seen the most spirited debates on "hardcore" games it generally boils down to "bridge game on my system are hardcore but bridge games on your system are casual".  

oh, and i don't know who coined bridge games but that wasn't me.  we used to use that a lot more on these forums back in '07, '08.  not sure why it fell out of use.

haha, well, I just have to take your word for it since I haven't played it myself :p

so, any game could be considered core, it's more depending on what the consumer DOES with that game?

Well, I think we need to bring that word back in to use!!

I believe Nintendo lost a good percentage of their core audience to, x360/ps3. They started playing casual games then wanted more out of their gaming experience. Nintendo couldn't provide that because the lack of third party support. There is also the perception that the Wii is a "kids" gaming system meaning safe to let your child play while you're not in the room. Wii sports was cool when it first came out due to the motion control but got old and was outdone by MS with the Kinect. Nintendo has to do a better job of marketing the"Wii U" and initially believed that the unit was going to sell itself based on how the Wii did previously. They haven't realized the demographic has grown up and has migrated to systems that are more powerful and will allow them to play mainstream games. This is not to say that Mario isn't mainstream, but they have a core group regardless of age that will buy a game no matter the system. Nintendo should listen to the consumer and implement features that players care about and want. Voice chat and a trophy system would be tremendous and would make a big difference on how they are perceived by the gaming community. Nintendo also needs to repair the relationship that they have with western third party developers to bring more games and hopefully an exclusive to the Wii U. To give an example, Xbox has "Halo" and "Gears" , Sony "Uncharted" "Killzone" and "Grand Tourismo" and a lot more options for gamer's. Conversely Nintendo has "Mario" in every iteration,"Zelda" and "Metroid." There's nothing wrong with these games but to be honest and not to offend anyone aren't coveted liked the games mentioned above with the exception of those who are loyal to those games which are only on the Wii and Wii u in the future. Can Nintendo remain relevant and only rely on first party games? No they have to look outside of the box and re-examine their business model if they want to be competitive.

So, that would disqualify Halo 4, since it only takes 8-10 hours to bet...? And 2D Mario is actually pretty difficult...