New Super Mario Bros. series could probably go in the same boat as Pokemon and Kirby.

I don't think so. Gaming like everything else is governed by money (sales).

The problem of originality in gaming has more to do with gamers than the developers... I think.

As long as gamers continue to buy loads of a particular genre or sequel above all else I really can't blame developers for churning out the same old same old.

A couple years back someone compiled a list of "original games" sales in comparison to the sequel and the shooter. It didn't look good for originality.

Original games can be risky. Big sequels are guarantee to swell developers bank balances

Sad really.

They are probably the best at doing that. Not always with the best results, of course, but there seems to be a coherent idea discernible behind each game. It's just too bad that they'll make something that is mechanically interesting and then slap a coat of Mario paint on it. I totally get why from a commercial standpoint, and obviously Nintendo fans don't mind it, but I find it pretty off-putting. Especially when they are capable of so much more aesthetically (Doshin, Rhythm Heaven, etc.)

It's probably preferable to the rest of the industry focus grouping everything to death in an attempt to reach the broadest audience possible to the point that everything is turning into the same game. See: Dead Space or, more recently, Splinter Cell and Jade Raymond saying that people don't like stealth games. I guess when everything is ridiculously overbudgeted they feel they can't afford to just sell to people who like the survival horror or stealth subgenres, so they try selling it to everyone and in the end wind up selling to no one.

There's only one NSMB game per console and they all look the exact same. They don't all play the exact same - key difference.

It's like this every gen. I don't get how people can forget so easily. Just like movies and music. Broad appeal trumps originality. Name me one gaming generation that had more original games than copycats/sequels.

No. I see lots of originality now, and lots of sequals in the past. To me you have to go back to the NES days to find a time when it seemed like every new game was a fresh concept and style.

But in the last gen on Wii we saw motion controls which were a totally new way to play, and that was even applied to Zelda to make the game style new. Mario Galaxy was a far-out concept and Xenoblade, while a classic RPG, brought an amazing new world and story, and refined jrpg gameplay. On PS3 we saw J&D dropped for Uncharted, Little Big Planet come out of nowhere and some great indie games. 360 saw the birth of Mass Effect which was a great original story and used gameplay that fused shooter with RPG. Other new titles like AC were new and fresh and CoD made online multiplayer a blast. Other fads like Guitar Hero provided good distractions for a while.

Goind forward I think it will be more of the same. Some continuations of great series and new concepts that we don't see coming. I think Sony will continue to push new themes and stories in their games. Nintendo will introduce some titles that use the gamepad in a fun way that makes for an all new experience. Titles like Destiny and Watch_Dogs will evolve their genres into something fresh. And the next minecraft or other innovation is just around the corner, we only can't see it yet because... well... we're not the ones that are going to come up with the idea.

Generation 3

Overrun by copycat platformers, beat 'em ups, and sequels. There were SIX Megaman games in that gen alone.

EDIT: And don't get me started on the number of top-down shooters spawned out of that generation.

Yes, but pretty much everything has lost its originality: videogames, movies, music.  Everything has been done before, there may be little tweaks to each new installment but they are all essentially the same.

I agree with both points.  I'd like Nintendo a lot more if everything wasn't Mario X (which is probably an actual title in development).  And, please, don't talk to me about "the year of Luigi", he's just a green Mario.  Nintendo can do what they want, I'm fine with that, but it's not an approach that interests me.

As for turning everything generic in order to appeal to everyone (and thus no one), I only have to look at Fuse, which was once a game I was very interested in.  In contrast, we have Borderlands, which abandoned generic for originality and became a smash hit.

However, it always puzzles me when people talk about generations of the past being more original.  For the most part, they were not.  The days of the NES and SNES were clones, clones, and more clones, with an extremely limited selection of genres.  I think that right now, because of the rise of smaller developers and digital distribution, the original-to-clone ratio is probably better than ever before.  It's only the people who only play big name titles who are getting the same thing over and over.