Will Mario ever run his course?

[Thomas Ennis]

Do you guys feel that the Super Mario franchise will ever run its course? Will there come a point where we will see an end to Mario games? How many more ideas can they possibly stir up? What do you guys think?

 

[iceskater101]

Hmm.. I mean to be honest I think there will always be people buying into it. I will probably be one of those people if I ever get a wii U in the near future. I just think that it's a fun game series that you can play with friends and it's fun going through each of the levels trying to beat the game. I don't know, I think they will always be fun games and just like Call of Duty or the Madden games.. Mario will always be popular too.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

You're probably right Ice. The older format for Mario games, in theory, could go on almost forever. Think about how many possible levels a game designer can make. If anything, the Mario series can continue with providing more difficulty, though possible absent originality.

 

[iceskater101]

Exactly! I mean if COD and Madden are still around Mario better be around... seriously.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

Call of Duty is getting rather repetitive. I hope Mario does not follow the same path. When I used to play the N64 Mario, I didn't care much for the controller, but the game was pretty darn cool.

 

[iceskater101]

Yeah Call of Duty is just getting stupid, I never liked that game in the first place.

 

[crunchyg]

Super Mario is a series that pioneered the platformer genre and video games generally. You can't put Call of Duty anywhere close to it.

Mario games will continue to innovate and retain appeal as long as Miyamoto continues to supervise their production.

 

[jbeavis100]

As long as the Mario games change up their format in many ways no he won't. But it's all up to innovation.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

Good point. Innovation is what many people are after. How many games have you played that you would actually consider original? I can't name too many myself. There is something to be said for improving on existing ideas though.

 

[iceskater101]

Super Mario is a series that pioneered the platformer genre and video games generally. You can't put Call of Duty anywhere close to it.

I only used Call of Duty as an example because Call of Duty releases a lot of new games often as Mario gets a lot of new games every year as well.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

Call of Duty already ran it's course IMO. I think a lot of the appeal in based solely on the online environment; not nescessarily the game itself.

 

[jbeavis100]

Call of Duty: Ghosts undersold like crazy and I'm happy about that. It needs to die a quick death and be gone. It's a series that has gone on for too long and stopped being good many iterations ago.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

It is time for the series to die; I agree. I remember a few years ago when Call of Duty (can't remember which one), actually outsold the movie Avatar; in less then 1 week. The franchise was insanely popular, but it's time to move on.

 

[Linkzelda]

Like crunchyg stated, Mario in general will be a progressive innovative phenomenon if Miyamoto supervises it. Because a trend I see when most iconic directors/producers retire is that the prospects often try to do a new approach that may not impress fans at all. And when it comes to the generations, people will obviously be into the cyclical process of the franchise being the epitome of the platformer genre.

There’s a lot a history in Mario where you see that he’s smooth with the ladies (you have to go really retro into research to find that out) to a guy that can exist in other game multiverses (i.e. Sonic). And although people may worry about oversaturation, and whether or not the downfall will ever come to fruition, I think it will be a long time until that happens.

It just feels weird to contemplate on the end for characters like Mario. It feels as if a part of you was stripped away, and there’s nothing but an unsatisfactory void that continues to grow. And what’s even crazier is that people often take for granted of characters like that, and they try to put in wildcards on how they may be descending from their thrones as iconic video game characters. But should that ever happen, they will end off to where there will be a global acknowledgement (and potentially riots).

I think because of the fact that Nintendo can get into cyclical trends, and attempt to innovate has always been a useful rudiment for them to go for so long now. And as always, they're really cash crops that can cater to a myriad of audience types.

 

[Thomas Ennis]

Well put link. Iconic characters often saturate the market, but depriving people of the character can also be bad. For example, when I played MGS2; and found out the main character wasn't Snake, I was disappointed. On the other hand; had Snake been in every game as the protagonist, we might find ourselves getting a little tired of the man. Ninetendo has to maintain that balance in order to succeed.

 

[averus]

I agree with the crowd Mario games will always be popular and attract new players.
Like Ice said, if f***ing CoD can stay on the market, then Mario shouldn't have any problems

Also, Mario offers so much diversity and options to create new games without people whining about the changes.


Mario Tennis, Mario Soccer, Mario Kart, Mario Bros etc.
They can come up with anything, put Mario characters in there, and it'll be at least a good game

 

[Johnny Hopkins]

There will always be Mario super fans that will buy every game, so I do not see it going away forever. Mario is a classic and I myself do not want to see him go anywhere.

 

[gamerboy]

I do not think that the Mario franchise will ever die I think that it will keep on going. Honestly the Mario franchise is what keeps nintendo going and without it I do not think that console will be able to make it on its own.

 

[Shimus]

Unfortunately, no. He won't.

He makes money. Money in turn makes Games. Games in turn make Merchandise. Merchandise in turn breeds even more money. It's a cycle of wealth and not caring how long franchises work for.

 

[CamdenB]

Eventually everything has its end. I feel like for Mario it was run a course similar to Sonic, where the games are mass produced at a very low quality. I don't think this will happen for a long time, however. There will always be big fans, and money to be made. Eventually if you keep making games of the same character, they will become bland.