I think Mario is for everyone.

Never argue with stupid people, they take you to there level and beat you with experience.

mario definitely is hardcore, its played by a huge hardcore crowd.

think about it.
ya, random kids play mario, but random kids play games like CoD, Halo (especially Halo,) GoW, etc.

Mario is just as hardcore as the others

I would conisder getting the 120 stars in Mario Galaxy, twice is pretty hardcore

I think you always lose here, just compare it from other Nintendo franchise; is Zelda more hardcore than Mario or vice versa?

Hi and welcome

In order to turn that debate into something constructive you need to define the words Casual and Hardcore, if you guys can´t agree on what those really mean the discuassion is doomed in the first place. Those words as much as many people may hate them are commonly used to define what crowd of people games are targeted at. With Nintendos new gaming approach the discussion on what defines hardcore and casual has become more heated and complicated. If someone calls all new Nintendo games casual they are clearly being "fanboys" anothe fun word we can discuss at another time. On the other hand saying there are no casual games at all is also a little narrow minded. For me and many other gamers casual games (not a negative word) are mostly games that offer a short but fun gaming experiance and are often targeted at people who don´t play traditinal games witch take more time and effort to play. Of course there are large gray areas here but I think its save to day that games like Wii Sports, Guitar Hero, Singstar, Party games are casual games because they offer a short, fun and  uncomplicated repeatable experiance... now many will say that they are hardcore Guitar Hero players... this may be true but does not change the fact that its a quite uncomplicated game (eventhough hard on highe levels) which offers short gaming sessons and is best played in a group of people... this is my definiton of Casual and I think its save to say many agree with it... Mario does not fid that description... someone who has never played traditional games that have gameplay that is established and has been fleshed out over many many years (what I would call Hardcore... because over the generations these games have established a hard core of fans) will not be able to pick up a Mario game and enjoy a short session.

Oh and everyone who only wrote a two line answer to your question is a casual poster at best and lacks the devotion and skill for hardcore posting...

Welcome!

And if your friends don't want to play Mario because they think they're too matoor...don't worry about them. Once they become adults, I'm sure they'll start the maturation process, and this whole thing will solve itself.

Thanks for the replies. I've argued that just because Mario is bright and colourful, that doesn't mean that it's aimed soley at kids. I've argued that Mario is a game that is accessible by all, but only dedicated players can get the most out of it.

I've also argued that Mario is THE most famous game in history, and that title didn't come about by only kids playing it.

I think that I misled people by the title of the topic, and my original post. The argument that I am having is that Mario is a kids game, and I disagree.

Mario is the reason I won't buy a Wii(aside from price), I've grown up and N's games need to as well, although I know they won't... :(

I'm not trying to start a fight, just my opinion, though I did enjoy Super Paper Mario! and the 8bit Marios are still classic, but I'm taking your OP as meaning new Marios.


Honestly, it's the Mario Partyesque games bullsh!t that just p!ssed me off to no end, I will NEVER forgive N for those monstrosities. Wii Sports, Fit, whatever has just reinforced my convictions.

EDIT: Pardon my manners, welcome to VGChartz!

EDIT EDIT: Sorry, but Mario isn't even fractionally close to being the most famous or played videogame...

The most played video game in the world

July 14th, 2008 | Practical information

Everyone knows that this is Microsoft Windows Solitaire, installed on hundreds of millions of PCs and being played by hundreds of thousands of office workers and airline passengers right now to relieve the boredom. Intended originally by Microsoft to humanise the Windows interface, literally “to soothe people intimidated by the operating system”, it grew in importance as a training tool for the then unfamiliar WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) way of doing things that today we take for granted. 

There are now three different Solitaire versions installed with Windows. In fact they are the first, second and third most popular games in the world in their own right! In order of current popularity they are Spider, Klondike and Free Cell. Many major corporations now de-instal these games, so great is the productivity loss attributed to employees addicted to playing them instead of working.

Spider is a two deck version of the game and is a relative newcomer to Windows, first coming with the Plus pack for Windows 98 and now with Vista, ME and XP. (Unsuprisingly the Vista version has several major bugs.) Played with real cards it was, famously, the favourite of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Klondike (the original and most famous Windows version) was developed in 1988 by then intern Wes Cherry, who famously received no financial benefit from his work, half the card backs were designed by his then girlfriend Leslie Kooy. The card deck itself was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare. It was release as part of Windows 3.0 in 1990.

Freecell as a game is much easier to complete. It was invented in the 1960s by a then 10 year old Paul Alfille, in 1978 he had coded it on to a mainframe. And then it went viral. Alfille sold the rights to Freecell to the University of Illinois, but Microsoft never paid the university any royalties. It was first included with Win32s, then with Microsoft Entertainment Pack Volume 2 and then the Best Of Microsoft Entertainment Pack before it was made a part of Windows 95 and has been a fixture in Windows ever since.

So Microsoft never paid a cent for the IP rights to Freecell, Spider has no IP rights to buy and they acquired the code for Klondike for free. It is amazing that the most played game in the world has this history. Especially compared to the many millions that game publishers still pay for celebrity and film rights to brighten up otherwise lacklustre games.

And now there is a gold rush of companies putting solitaire on the latest darling of game publishing, the Apple iPhone. Ambrosia Software’s Mondo Solitaire, Acid Solitaire from Red Mercury, Gameloft Platinum Solitaire, Maverick Software Yulan Mahjong Solitaire and four more. Yes, the Apple App Store is launching with no fewer than eight different publisher’s take on solitaire, with doubtlessly many more to come. And it is hardly surprising that so many people have had the same good idea at the same time. It is the world’s most played game.

lol?
for god, sake another "casual game and hardcore game" crap?

first of all ther is no such thing as casual and hardcore games, but there is casual and hardcore gamer. plus most gamers even on ps360 are play games casually(just for fun) which makes them casual gamers. they would be hardcore gamers if they would be devoted to gaming and spending every free minute with controler in their hands. i've spended more than 90 hours in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2 and more than 60 hours in Innocent Life on psp, about 300 hours in mario kart and more than 700 hours in Brawl which makes me hardcore Brawl/Mario Kart/Innocent Life/Naruto: UNH2 gamer and at the same time i play casually in God of War, GTA San Andreas and Call of Duty 4 from time to time.