LOL, best reply in this thread.

OT: nothing in SMW was really all that "hard" but the ghost houses were "harder" then normal stages and that'd be awesome if a good portion of tha game was like that.  Honestly a lot of the complaining about difficulty isn't that the games are easier but the gamers are more skilled at the gameplay since... well typically they've beaten the past games.  "ZOMG SMG isn't as hard as SM64" *SM64 was the first big 3D platformer so everyone started from square one* also typically this is the same person that claims "I can speed run 120 stars in SM64 in a few hours"

So really... upping difficulty to standards beyond the normal masses would be stupid from a business standpoint.

From what I just read, it doesn't sound anywhere near as hard as Contra. Heck, it doesn't sound like it is even in the same league unless you are playing with three other people and they are all trying to kill you. If that is happening, of course it will be hard.

@Maxwell

That's the problem, Nintendo ONLY cares about business. Which is why they leave the segment of gamers who play for a challenge above everything else unsatisfied. They completely ignore that segment today, though 10-20 years ago their games were fairly challenging.

See Smeags's posts.

hope its harder then the DS one at least

And re-read my post, or better yet I'll make it short and sweet "games don't become more simple and easy you become better at playing them" if you don't understand that then I can't help you. 

SMG is just as easy as SM64, SM64 just as easy as SMW, and SMW just as easy as the original SMB.  Probably the only one that was a lot harder was the Japanese version of SMB2 or SMB The lost Levels in America, basically like I said increasing difficulty depletes your market over time and honestly I can't think of a single hard mainstream (IE not something like FE) game in the past 10 years.

@maxwellgt200 ...that's a good theory but it doesn't explain why I (and others, just so i don't sound like a spaz) still find SM3 waaaaaayyyyy wayyyyyy... harder than any mario game since then (and yeah I've completed 'em all...)...not that 64 or smw (or even Sunshine) were particularly easy, esp if you were trying for 100% completion...(twilight princess was much too easy as well, though I do think some of that was due to experience with previous zelda games)

I do genuinely believe nintendo were trying not to alienate ANYBODY with nsmbds and galaxy by aiming them more at the novice gamer than the long standing mario fanboys such as myself...
I actually used to agree with you though...thought I'd played too many and they were just easier to me now, but then I started replaying the older games and I realised I was mistaken.

Don't get me wrong though...Galaxy is still one of my faves (Just not one that I'd put on a 'Hardest Games Ever' list)

If nsmb wii isn't at least moderately challenging I'm giving up!!! I'm genuinely excited about this game and don't wanna complete it in a day or so!!!
At least the publicity so far seems to suggest it may be difficult which is a good start. I think nintendo have been paying attention to the negative publicity...despite what some people say...

YES, A HARD MARIO GAME! Haven't seen any of those since SMB3 or Lost Worlds. Arguably, every single Mario game has never been hard. SMG especially was easy as hell (Although it didn't stop the game from being good)

I hope they make the game hard. I agree with pervious posts saying Nintendo has gotten soft. The Nintendo game that gave me a hard time was Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The difficulty spikes and super-intelligent AI makes the game difficult even for people who played previous Fire Emblem games. However, I can easily tell you that this only applies to experienced users. My 9 year old cousin has trouble with pretty much every Mario game, especially SMG, where as I can beat the game in 3-5 days.

There is a downside to making a game harder; you are alienating the casual group, however, with the Super guide, it can both comply to the casuals and hardcore groups.

All I can say at the moment is good luck to Nintendo.

Honestly I'd be overjoyed if NSMB Wii is the hardest 2D Mario Bros ever, I love hard games, really hard games, I'm about half way through I wanna be the guy myself, but I know when I'm a minority and making a game to be played by a small fraction of your potential market is a terrible idea, but they are trying to make something everyone can play and enjoy.

But on the point of games being not as hard, I beat SMB3 multiple times first being when I was 5 and then replaying from time to time until the N64 released.  Since then I've tried to go back and find it hard to beat those games, the first stages are still easy but because I'm not as used to that games mechanics as I was worlds 7 and 8 become a pain.

And I would say some games are a little easier but I'd also argue that it's not a huge difficulty difference. 

In the end really if you want 2D Mario made for you there's plenty of rom hacks out there or games like "I wanna be the guy" and they're free and much harder then anything I'd ever expect to come from a normal developer.

People like saying this, but that doesn't make it true. Now I'm not complaining about Nintendo here, but SMG is way easier than SM64. I've played SM64 countless times (it's my favorite game of all time, after all) and even after all that repetition, it puts up more of a challenge when I replay it than SMG does. Not saying SMG is bad, but it's definitely easier. Also, SMW is loads easier than the original SMB. But it's not just Nintendo. Games in general have gotten easier, which is probably a good thing, but some games/series take it too far. While SMG is a fantastic game that any Wii owner should own and complete, I would've enjoyed it more if it was just a tad harder.