Poll - Is Mario marketable?
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 8:29pm by David
Jack’s write-up from earlier today was some great food for thought. So, let’s put the question out there for you to decide:
Is Mario a modern, marketable character?
And here are the results to last week’s poll about Wii colors.
November 13th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
I think it would get a big cult following, but never break the surface.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Voted ‘yes’ but my big question is if this is Mario’s first gaming appearance, we would have a very different video game market today (if any at all). I’m not saying that there wouldn’t be a huge market for video games now, but it’s my belief that Mario made platform gaming possible and fun. Mario made 3D gaming environments possible and fun. The Mario game we see today is an evolution of the franchise itself so it is a bit difficult to say ‘what-if-this-was-the-first-Mario-game?’
Maybe I’m going off a tangent.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
The real fact is that by making a character that is more like a Saturday morning cartoon than a serious movie trilogy they have a timeless character. The innocent and simple gameplay makes it possible to make endless sequels based on any premise or spin off into any genre. Halo Kart and Assassin’s Creed Sunshine would never work so once those story arcs are told they face the problem facing Zelda now, burnout of the concept. The fact is by making a cartoony fun character they have created something longer lasting.
November 14th, 2007 at 3:53 am
I love Mario. Let me get that out of the way.
But I voted “no.” The concept is far too strange, and in a world where the average “gamer” won’t look twice at something kiddie, it would never sell as much as it deserved. I can’t help but feel that, regardless of how fantastic the games are (I’m really really enjoying Galaxy), Mario wouldn’t stand a chance if he didn’t have the power of pure nostalgia and familiarity.
November 14th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I voted “No”, not because the character is for kids (that would definitely make it marketable!), but because the concept, an Italian plumber, is simply not marketable. Let’s face it, it sells today because everyone remembers the 8-bit NES character, even those of us who didn’t actually played it!
Let’s also remember that the origin of the appearance of the character was not a character design decision, but a solution on how to render a human form with 8-bit, 4-color sprites in a 70’s video game! Even the mustache, from what I’ve read, was put in to have a gap that allowed the semblance of a nose separate from the rest of the face. The current persona of Mario is just an evolution from that original 8-bit solution, and it has absolutely no meaning outside of this context.