Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii plus many other first party Nintendo games on Wii and DS have actually improved in terms of  game quality: better gameplay, more levels, etc and increased sales in  comparison to previous iterations of the games from the same series'.

BTW: This is a counter thread to the anti-Nintendo thread which falsely claimed Nintendo's game quality has decreased over time.

I don't know why but I liked Melee better than Brawl. It just held my interest for a lot longer.

I think Brawl, MK Wii, and Galaxy are the best Smash, Kart, and 3-D Mario.

And if you disagree, the Wii has 100% BC with their GC ancestors and lets you download their N64 ancestors.

I don't believe that more content = better game. Thats exactly the kind of attitude that has caused other developers to fail.

For example, SMB2 (Japan) added more levels, more items and more mechanics to SMB but there are very few who would say it is a better game. SMB was, because it was original and innovative.

What Nintendo needs to do is to reimagine each series with Wii controls. MP3 did this the best: while I disagree with the design choices, the game was successfully redone for the Wii. They just didn't use those new ideas enough. Other series that would benefit from Wii reimaginings (but wouldn't benefit much from just a graphical and content upgrade) are Starfox, Kid Icarus, Kirby and an RPG Paper Mario.

I don't think the Wii sequels (Wiiquels? Can I do that?) are better just because they have more content, but because they have better content. I particularly enjoy the new level design, online play, music, and control schemes in all the new Nintendo games in their main franchises.

I actually kinda like how Nintendo have started adding a cinematic quality to their games of late. Galaxy, Brawl and Corruption have a really "epic" feel that just wasn't there in the previous ones.

Yeah I like that too, which is weird, because I normally don't care about cinematic gaming at all.  I like how Nintendo's games are more epic these days, but that it's kinda tacked on for fun and not the focus of the game.  There are just some simple changes, like in Galaxy you're saving the princess as usual, but you're also saving the whole universe, your base of operations is a giant space-palace instead of the regular castle, and you launch out of giant space-cannons across the galaxy instead of the regular cannons.  And in Brawl they have that gratuitously epic intro video and then you get to save the whole universe in the SubSpace Emissary, but that doesn't affect the gameplay.  I haven't gotten around to finishing Corruption, but it has the coolest atmosphere and feels like an epic Zelda-with-a-gun-for-an-arm.  I better finish that before I'm back in school.

nintendo games have been tripe for the core gamer and lovely for the casual gamer as time goes by. with more time, the core gamer will continue to be forgotten in favor of the casual. the end result is that the overall quality of games will become worse as nintendo becomes content with shovelware that continuously sells.

i think that the "casuals" that you speak of will start to crave something a little more in a few more years, and will end up becoming nintendo's next hardcore fanbase next gen.

nah. majority of casuals will be casuals always. most of the people who bought the wii didn't buy it for any core game experience. they got it for the short term fun, for people who don't really play for an extended period of time. only a very small minority will eventually grow to be core gamers.