He was pure gold in Rocky 3.   Now, he just needs a movie and be teamed up with Hulk Hogan and maybe the Rock and that would be a box office smash!

I think it CAN live up to the hype precisely because Mario is so well established. Familiarity will keep those expectations grounded; no world changing Halo3 type expectations, just hope for a damn good Mario game.

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Well, seeing as there were Super Skinhead brothers and Super Nazi brothers NES rom hacks, I imagine once the bored and angry nerds get tired of making real rom hacks, they'll re-skin Super Mario World.

The good thing about mario games is that you can just blast through the game in a short time or spend a crap load of time to completely and "properly" finish the game.
That way, people have the choice depending on how much time they spend on the game.

Is that not the case for the most platform games?

It depends on what the hype is for this game. For me, if this game isn't the greatest game to ever be made, it's a failure--a huge let down. I'm expecting this game to be the best game to ever be made, and I expect to sell 10m by the end of 2007.

One feature I think is being overlooked is the helper mode. It's really nice/smart that they added this feature that allows less skilled players to join. It's a very creative way to hook more customers.

This is not cool. I suggest you take yours down.