http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/grassroots-gaming/

Here are a few key quotes:

"I think the idea that Nintendo has ‘abandoned’ Core Gamers with the Wii is ridiculous. What is more likely to be true is that Nintendo ‘abandoned’ Core Gamers with the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. After the Super Nintendo, Nintendo’s home console market just went into steep decline.

And the reason for the fault can be placed entirely on one man: Shigeru Miyamoto."

"Super Mario Sunshine did not bring in the Core Gamers as Super Mario World or even Mario 64 did. Zelda Windwaker did not bring in the Core Zelda fans as Ocarina of Time did for N64."

"So how can I blame the lovable Shigeru Miyamoto for destroying Nintendo’s Core Market with the Mario and Zelda          franchises? [...] Miyamoto looks at gaming in an industrial arts way. In Zelda: Twilight Princess, he couldn’t just have a wolf link. He had to make it ‘interesting’ by throwing in a rider on top of Link (which ended up being Midna) as well as adding a chain around his foot (which poor Wolf Link never can take off). Ever since ‘Donkey Kong’, Miyamoto focuses on creating an ‘interesting character’. From Miyamoto’s perspective, the Mario and Zelda franchises revolve around the icons."

"In Miyamoto’s world, people play Mario games because they like Mario. So we now see Mario more animated, he now ‘talks’ with the annoying voice. But Miyamoto is clearly wrong on this. People never played Mario games because of Mario per se. If a 2d platformer was just as compelling, it was embraced with equal fever."

"Perhaps Nintendo will learn from New Super Mario Brothers (which, to my knowledge, has outsold all Mario games): it is that the Core Market wants the GAMEPLAY, not the CHARACTERS. Keeping the same characters and putting them in different gameplay is just pissing off the Core Market."

Malstrom has often commented on Nintendo's success, and been right. Now he is commenting on Nintendo's failures... and he is equally right. We need to go back to what made Mario and Zelda great - not rehashing "great" games but innovating by keeping what makes the game fun and discarding the rest.

Really nice article. As usual, I'm not sure if I agree to 100%, but he does have some valid points.

but nintnendo gamers dont want mario and zelda as they are just the 'same old shit'

they want f-zero,star fox, a pokemon just like the handhelds but on a console, earthbound, kid icarus,punchout, pikmin, metroid, a 2D metroid, another sidscroller mario, and new IPs.

luckily i pride myself on being a nintendo fanboy the neither trolls nor whines. whilst id prefer zelda wii to be closer to the style of twilight princess i think it will be interesting to see the franchise rebooted. no idea how a second mario game is gunna be like in 2010 but that will be interesting too

I don't know about you, but I don't want the same games with different characters. Isn't that why many console FPSs are so boring? It's basically the same game with different-looking enemies and characters. I don't want five million copies of SMG with an Austrian electrician and a Swedish carpenter. I want new gameplay.

Edit: I just read it all and your summary is terrible.  It's completely deceptive.  From your summary, I thought Malstrom was suggesting that Malstrom wanted different characters but the same or similar gameplay.  What's he's really advocating is focusing on the gameplay instead of the character.  I disagree with him as I see nothing wrong with SMG, and I really don't believe Mario is in any way a badge of shame for Nintendo, even among the core.

i dont agree with "Nintendo ‘abandoned’ Core Gamers with the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube.

c'mon man!!

damnit sorry for double post, my computer sucks this afternoon.

I think the self-proclaimed "hardcore" abandoned Nintendo, and Nintendo said "good riddance" and had the revolution without them. They can come back at anytime. And most of them will eventually.

Don't tons of people love Wind Waker more than Sunshine too? I don't think WW was a failure. Just in the eyes of snobcores who couldn't handle the grafyx.

While Wii is a huge success...it has very little to do with the hardcore games nintendo has released for that system. the system sells gazillion units even without a single "must play" title for over 6 months for a hardcore gamer.

Therefore we can easily conclude that Motion controlls and wii sports/wii fit is much more important than Zelda, Mario, metroid and any other hardocre game combined...when it comes to sales of the Wii system.

Also, I think nintendo's revolution...heh...was pretty close to being an utter failure. I mean, lets not pretend that losing marketshare with n64 and then gamecube was part of nintendos brilliant strategy. Wii and DS was the break from the norm and it paid big time...but Virtual boy was also a break from the norm and we all know how taht turned out. Lets not pretend nintendo is the all knowing/all powerful gaming company here...

I for one agree that the hardcore "snobs" (me included) slowly left nintendo and nintendo decided that they dont have the means to aquire them back when competing with sony and Microsoft...so they decided to explore other markets. And I am happy for their success...but at this point, I don't expect them to ever come back to being the hardcore gaming giant they once were.

Glad you post it.
I'v read it a couple days ago and I must say that I disagree with him.

My take on the quotes you brought ( in order ):

It's not Nintendo that had abandoned someone starting wih N64, it is that their ( obsolete ) business tactics have alienated third parties therefore alienating who like the games produced by those thirdparties like Squaresoft.
What remained to Nintendo whose who like Nintendo games.

Super Mario Sunshine can't brought the same amount of interest of Super Mario 64 for the same reason Super Mario World can't brought the same amount of interest of Super Mario Bros :
Nintendo generally can create an archtype so "perfect" that the amount of surprise can't be replaced or improved in a "direct" sequel. The same apply for the Zelda serie, sale-wise Zelda 1 > 2&3 , Oot > MM&WW.

Surely Miyamoto's study about industrial design came in handy in his successful works but what he craft isn't the characters. Althought Miyamoto is considered the father of storytelling in videogames thanks to Donkey Kong, he had always keep the storyline factor to the minimun to focus user attention only on gameplay.
From Miyamoto’s perspective, the Mario and Zelda franchises revolve around the icons ? what bullshit !
Mario is know for its gameplay, like character Mario is an uncool one.
Every Zelda or Mario games have it bound with previous episode to bring nostalghia on long time fans but it is new concept of gameplay and ideas that bring to life those new episodes.

Your knowloedge isn't enough. Super Mario Bros, 3 and World have all sold better than NSMB ( althought I think that overall NSMB can outsell 3 & World ).
NSMB success is tied to the fact that 2D platform has features suitable to the expanded audience and can attract long time fans due to nostalghia and NSMB didn't had a single rival because the genre was dead for at least one decade.
Now the question is how can you surprise consumers with an hypotecally NSMB2 ? You can't.

What core gamers really want is what expanded gamers want ( with the exception that the formers are used to enjoy certain type of experience therefore are more difficult to take them on surprise ) :
Be surprised and be entertained.
And you can do it only if you have brand new ideas.

How many must play titles does a hardcore gamer need to keep themselves happy in their mom's basement?

I'd also add that motion controls and Wii Sports/Fit weren't just the most important thing for sales of the Wii system, but the most important thing for sustaining and expanding the pathetic weak dying joke of a game industry.

Yeah Nintendo is exploring other markets, but that does't mean they stopped exploring traditional markets. Nintendo's genius is that they're exploring all markets. Most companies have opened a Wii-only division or sadly a "casual division" in addition to (not in place of) their traditional development teams.

While Nintendo might be making tons of casual games and bridge games, Nintendo is also making traditional "core" games faster than ever before.