I really don't understand Malstrom. On one hand he praises Nintendo for shaking up the industry, bringing the bold and new and taking the market by storm. Then he attacks them for changing all their titles from what they were 15 years ago. Do like the new Nintendo or not? You praise change on hand then attack it on the other.

And I really get tired of these elitists that hate on all games post-1995, especially since their dislike for these games probably stems from the fact that they suck at them. Honestly, his reasons for disliking the 3D Marios are pitiful. They're too linear? How were the 2D Marios any less linear? If anything they were far MORE linear, given that you generally had to play levels in order and could not play levels more than once.

This less intimidating design isn't a bad thing, and I don't think it entails that games have to be too easy anyway; most modern games just give people more options. In Mario Galaxy I could go up to a toad knowing that he'd give me a hint on how to figure out the puzzle I was on, or I could carry on and try to do it by myself. Surely that's a happy medium for all players? I think it's going much too far to call it 'dumbing down'. It's not as though games aren't made with high difficulty settings and challenging unlockables any more. I think the kind of gamers who feel nostalgic about the old approach only miss the feeling of superiority - they want to feel that they are one of a select few.

Does anyone really miss games where the basic gameplay mode was as hard as Battletoads? Would anyone rather spend six months trying to beat Shadow of the Beast 2 than play through Mario Galaxy, widely acknowledged as one of the best games this generation? "Dumbing down" this is not.

Hey, I blame it all on the 3rd dimension. 2-D games didn't need all these hints and crutches because they were flat and 2-D. You were either going to the right, left, up or down. The only ones that got really confusing were Metroid and a few others like that. Now that you're in 3-D and the directions you can go in are infinite, they give you all sorts of arrows and hints and tutorials. All the hardest games in the world are 2-D, from Battletoads to Ikaruga. There are a few jumps in the first Super Mario Bros. (and tons of them in The Lost Levels) that are harder than any jump in any 3-D game ever made.

But this is a main reason why I'm into relaxing puzzle games and party games and art games and stuff like that these days. Because when anybody shows me a "hardcore" game, I want to laugh in their face. I lived through hardcore gaming in the 80s and early 90s, when games were actually hard. I think now the real battle is between casual and "easycore."

And I don't miss my feeling of superiority. It never went away!

And of course I love Mario Galaxy and will play it a million more times, just like I will with Mario 3 and World. I'm not complaining about this dumbing down like it's 100% bad. It means I have more friends that are gamers now, instead of being the only kid on the block who can play Battletoads. And gaming with friends kicks ass.

i reckon all mario games are great, super mario 3 was the best mario game PERIOD, but all mario games has an awesome value like any other mario game

I think they make some decent points, though I wouldn't say some annoyances keep a game from being great.

Tutorials are annoying. Give us the option to turn the crap off - after that Wii Sports Resort M+ tutorial nightmare (seriously, what the hell?), I've been losing patience, Nintendo!

Psh, shows what you know noob, you could totally skip levels in Super Mario Bros 3 by taking different path or using warp whistles.  What, did you start gaming in 1997?  lawl.

I played both F-zero GX and Metroid Prime 2.  They don't hold a candle to Battletoads when it comes to difficulty.

Things often seem better when you remember them from a long time ago.. and Super Mario Bros. 3 was certainly a great game then and it is today but to say that it was the last great Mario game? Super Mario Galaxy is almost universally accepted as a great game. Why wouldn't it be? The only thing I didn't really like about it was the swimming levels but it was certainly a classic Mario game just as much as the older ones. New Super Mario Bros. Wii will likely be another great game.

Not as hard as Battletoads, but F-zero GX was difficult, no? Rubang was saying that all the hardest games in the world are 2-D. Or maybe I'm just particularly lacking in videogame skills. I even found unlocking invincibility and the silver PP7 fairly hard on Goldeneye 007. Up until now I thought that was normal. Is it not?