i read an article recently saying mario is more popular then mickey mouse to the youth of today.

We can blame Disney for that. They seem to be focusing more on stupid sh*t like Hanna Montana than the timeless mouse.

Because Mario was bundled with the NES.

That resulted in massive exposure. Back then, for most kids, quality games were few and far between. Yeah, some rich kids always had a ton of games, but most people only owned a handful. Mario became the default game that EVERYONE played. That didn't just mean exposure, either, it meant that Mario came to define the taste in gaming for many, many people. It was the first game for many, and the most played game for many. The result was kind of predictable.

It's not even like the first Mario games were even that great, in my opinion. I barely played my copy, mostly because of a local rental store and because I had a friend who had a bunch of games. I found tons of stuff I liked better, from Ghosts n' Goblins to Nobunga's Ambition, so Mario never settled in with me as a main component of gaming.

I've been saying for a long time that if any of the Big Three wanted to grow a new IP to massive proportions, they should bundle it with EVERY console, standard. It might mean less short-term profits but it would pay off long-term. Of course, it wouldn't ever reach the same magnitude because of all the options in gaming now, unlike when the NES was the only game in town, but it would help.

I will always believe that Mario would never have come close to its current popularity had it not been a pack-in. It's kind of a shame, as I would much, much rather that Kirby had been given the role of Nintendo mascot.

For me it is because Mario games are fun and accessible. When I started college the girls I met in my first semester told me they were indifferent about video games in the general sense, but Mario on the DS was the exception. It was very accessible and a great way to pass the time before videogames caught on with phones/tablets.

Mario games have benchmark games across the ages:
Super Mario Bros took videogaming from Atari style games to the next level.
Super Mario Bros 3 was the masterpiece of the 8-bit generation, and remains fun to play even today.
Mario 64 again took 3D gaming to the next level from simple racers and FPS games to full roaming 3D Platformers,
Mario Galaxy took things to another level once again, and Mario Galaxy 2 2 was a 3D masterpiece.

Mario is THE flagship Nintendo franchise, it is the defining franchise and appeals very strongly to the core Nintendo audience. Metroid appeals very little to the core Nintendo audience, it is more the game that attempts to attract dark room Xbox/PC gaming fans to Nintendo consoles. It will never sell as well as Mario unless the Xbox brand dies and PC gaming goes completely to ADHD Facebook games.

alot of it is nostolgia to a degree, where mario really changed when he went from 2d to 3d bringing in a whole new game mechanics and experince for the player, i beleive the 500 million total franchise sales of mario is well earned as the games are fun, colorfull and are made for young to old. casual to hardcore.

if nintendo really wanted to take a risk and make mario evan more popular they would hire pixar to make a full animated film for theatre's, could be risky but could also bring in a whole new crowd of gamers.

miyamoto's son has done well for himself.

even you would be popular with 100 games in 10 different genres using your name-especially if some of them are made by miyamoto.

ehh lol, he just doesn't look right without the stache.

i get most of the reasons mario is so much more popular, but i could never get into the 3d mario's myself. The story telling is always awful and there is just nothing compelling to me about constantly collecting stars. It's like playing a zelda and having the game tell you in the intro "there 100 pieces of tri[-force, now go collect them to win the game". It's too bad for me because i feel like there alot of good ideas that go in to a series that i find very lack-luster. On the flip side, i have always enjoyed the 2d marios. Not my favorite games, but very enjoyable.