So how did the lesser game win? Well, for starters it has the word "Mario" in the title. Super Mario Bros. is the ultimate platformer, right? In a year when a Mario game is in the running, how could any other title conceivably win? People don't even try to conceal this bias. On sites like IGN you'll find readers leaving comments such as "Its mario!? mario should win anything hes in." I didn't make that quote up, that's a real reader comment.
I know a lot of gamers played 'Splosion Man and loved it, but it doesn't offer the brand recognition or conjure the years of great gaming memories that the word "Mario" does.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii makes a lot of gamers feel nostalgic as they remember all the good times they've spent playing the series. But it's stuck in the past while we're supposed to be moving forward. Nintendo's mascot is so beloved, so entrenched in our gamer minds that even though he and his company are pale shadows of their former selves they still hog the spotlight – to the detriment of more innovative, more impressive, and more deserving games.
This is a WiiWare game, right? Wait, you're telling me this is a $50 retail game? Huh?!
And there's also the fact that instead of putting money towards developing exciting new games,
Nintendo spends that cash marketing the holy hell out of its good-but-not-great lineup. Last fall you couldn't turn on the TV, go to the mall, or fire up the internet without seeing ads for New Super Mario Bros. Wii. That's the kind of reach a tiny developer like Twisted Pixel can only dream of. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of consumers who have made New Super Mario Wii such a success have never even heard of 'Splosion Man.
Of course, I'm not saying New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a terrible game. Far from it. Its mediocrity doesn't keep it from being fun. But every game is
supposed to be fun, so you don't earn extra credit for that. You need to do something special to achieve greatness; go beyond the call of duty. New Super Mario plays it very safe.
IGN has already written about
how lazy Nintendo has become, which is a fairly recent development. The reason a lackluster game like New Super Mario Bros. Wii still gets a pass from gamers is because for many, many years Nintendo made the absolute best games around. There were first-party Nintendo games and then there was everything else. The arrival of a new Mario, Zelda, or Metroid title was a monumental occasion that often revolutionized the entire industry. Compare that to the Nintendo of today, a company that has been phoning it in ever since it realized it doesn't have to make the best games – it only has to make the cheapest, simplest ones. The "expanded audience" that has made the Wii so successful doesn't care about what made Mario 64, The Ocarina of Time, and, more recently, Metroid Prime incredible. They're perfectly content just waving their arms around, so why should Nintendo provide anything more? I'd like to think Nintendo is selling people short. My five-year old nephew has a Wii now and I know he'd be psyched if we could play New Super Mario Bros. together even though he lives in Kansas and I'm in San Francisco.
So if you haven't figured it out by now, I think New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a half-assed effort from a company that previously set a standard of excellence. Mario Galaxy was pretty amazing, right?
That's the level of quality we should be demanding from Nintendo. New Super Mario is a harmless little game that reminds people of simpler times and is definitely fun, but it is not the best platformer of the year. That honor belongs to 'Splosion Man. The lumbering colossus is letting sharper, scrappier little studios make the great games – Nintendo is just coasting on fumes.
- und spätestens beim Wii-Nachfolger muss das einfach Standard sein ...
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