Nintendo is replying to claims that they are releasing too many Super Mario Brothers games back to back. This of course all comes after the recent release of New Super Mario Bros 2 for the Nintendo 3DS. Before that, there was the release of Super Mario 3D Land. And after this we of course have Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon for the 3DS; Super Mario Bros U for the infamous, yet vague Nintendo Wii U on the horizon. With still no release date in sight.
Is it a case of too much, too soon? Nintendo doesn’t seem to think so. They have stated that they only release an SMG franchise game once per console. So keeping that in mind, we’ve already had a Super Mario Land and a Super Mario Bros- with Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion left to roll out for the console. The only thing we’re missing is a Smash Bros, it doesn’t usually get released on the DS/3DS handheld console- but the same was said with LM, so it seems that the idea is to never say never when it comes to Nintendo. They always seem to have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Of course, Nintendo have been trying to design two side-scrolling platformers at the same time, NSMB2 and SMBU. Did they think that it was a wise idea to have both of them on the market around the same time? Some people are a tad old-school and prefer the comfort of the 2D side-scroller, where others prefer the newer 3D variety. Me? I like both of them, even though the 2D is almost like a blast from the past for me. It takes me back to Saturday afternoons with glasses of milk and Nutella sandwiches- it’s pure nostalgia. Nintendo thinks exactly the same:
“What we have in the sidescrolling games is a goal, and to reach that goal you’re jumping and flying and collecting items and attacking and defeating enemies—and you have this sort of almost in a managerial sense a checklist of the things you have to do to get from here to here. I think that structure is something that really goes beyond cultural and language boundaries, which means we are really presenting Mario games to consumers as a ‘Nintendo-representative’ game that you can only play on a Nintendo platform.”
Even with the saddening delay of Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon- there are hints of the game inside NSMB2, with mini mansions to play though in the worlds. No ghostbusting, just purely collect the coins and run away. It’s a nice holdover though until the full-fat version is released in 2013. I personally, cannot ever get enough Mario as he’s someone I’ve grown up with since childhood and I don’t care how many games Nintendo continues to release- I will still be first in line to buy them. I love the little guy and his adorable brother. I’m glad that Nintendo changed the name though, as I’m not sure how popular he would be today if he was called ‘Jump Man’.
