VikingBoyBilly wrote:Nintendo's lost their way in the past decade. I hear on their internet that the "decline" started in the n64 era, but the gamecube games are when they really jumped the shark.
I'd say Nintendo's decline really happened when they started to lose 3rd party developer support...this happened with the N64 when they went with cartridges; because 3rd party developers like to develop one game that will go on multiple systems. However, the Gamecube actually had most of the 3rd party games that were on the other systems. So if anything the Gamecube saved Nintendo from themselves, in a sense.
I'd argue it really happened with the Wii, because Nintendo went out of their way to market themselves towards one gamer demographic-- the casual gamers, which lost them support from the majority of the gaming public and developers. It's gotten even worse with the Wii U, because the casuals were keeping the Wii afloat, for the most part, but all Nintendo has now are the hard core Ninty fans.
But it's not like they're now putting out games that the hard core wanted on the Wii. At least with the Wii we got another Metroid Prime title and both Mario Galaxies. For the Wii U we got Mario 3D Land repackaged as a console title with some multiplayer and at e3 2015 Nintendo showed off Metroid Federation Force, which basically looks like shovelware with Metroid slapped on it.
We're also getting Star Fox Zero, which from the trailer looks like the Star Fox 64 remake from the 3DS, now just with some motion controls and bump mapping. They even dropped the ball on a new
F-Zero game. They also mentioned a new Nintendo console but
won't say anything about it, which doesn't help potential Wii U owners if they'll just get the rug pulled from underneath them. Fans are not even convinced that the next Zelda will
be on the Wii U.
So
in a nutshell. Nintendo has gotten gradually worse over the years. The Wii U is the latest example of that, because all they have left are hard core Nintendo fans, but they're not really putting out great hard core titles. At least the Gamecube had that going for it.
VikingBoyBilly wrote:You know that infamous scene when Bowser Jr. is revealed? It's Mario's equivalent to the scene where Fonzie jumped the shark. It can never return to what it once was
I agree that Sunshine had its fair share of weird moments, but Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 totally made up for that.
Instead I'd argue that
Nintendo is killing Mario with all of the milking they've been doing. New Mario Bros Wii was repackaged as a Wii U title at launch and they just came out with Mario Maker, but honestly, something like that should've been released at launch instead and not sold for $60. Then of course, as mentioned above, everyone was expecting something like Mario Galaxy for the Wii U, but they gave us a repackaged 3DS title.
VikingBoyBilly wrote: [gamers] only see Sonic as the series that got of-track, as Sonic's gotten legitimately "bad" whereas mario just became "mundane."
Well, I'd argue Sonic only truly lost his way with Sonic 06 but picked things back up with Colors and Generations. Though he has had a fair share of terrible
spin off games.