Interesting commercials. Too bad it doesn’t communicate any of the content of the game.
People are wondering whether NSMB Wii will attract new customers of those NES/SNES gamers that dropped off. The answer is that it will. I am one of them. After not buying consoles for almost a couple of decades, after seeing NSMB DS showed at E3, I went out and got a DS (actually imported a red Japanese DS with the nice black bottom. They’re quite rare now).
NSMB Wii will most definitely summon those gamers back. In fact, they likely know the game exists already. Fans of 2d Mario have always had an eye on Nintendo awaiting the day when a true Mario game would return (not that 3d star-puzzle garbage). (True story: When Super Mario Galaxy was released, many people I knew thought it would be the sequel to Super Mario World, i.e. Super Mario Brothers 5. Once they found out it was a 3d Mario game, they said, “What? Not 2d Mario? Count me out of that.” and went back playing their PC/SNES/NES/Atari systems.) I don’t think anyone realizes just how much hunger there is out there for a game like this. NSMB DS gives an indication with its 20 million sold. (NSMB Wii won’t do anywhere near that due to being more expensive and selling one game per household as opposed to a game per DS. Couples would buy two NSMB DS while now they would only buy one NSMB Wii.)
Also, consider we are speeding sorrowfully into a depression. The macro environment is nowhere what it was a few years ago.
For twenty years, people have told me that console games MUST be in 3d and MUST use all the bells and whistles. Now, we have a major Christmas tent pole release of a 2d game (that isn’t doing something wacky like User Generated Content ala Little Big Planet). This Industry mentality that all games on the home console MUST use its graphical capacity to fullest degree is about the be shattered (if not already by the Wii).
The NSMB Wii commercial, combined with the ad about Wii’s new price at the end, reminds me of this one almost two decades ago.
No bundle will ever surpass this… ever. You’ve heard of the Nintendo Action Set. The Nintendo Control Set. The Nintendo Expert Set. Well, this is the Nintendo Nirvana Set. ALL console 2d Mario made was bundled! There is so much 2d Mario here that it likely broke a state law somewhere.
Once upon a time, Nintendo knew it was 2d platforming that sold consoles. 2d platforming made NOA not go bankrupt (thanks to Donkey Kong saving it from the “hardcore” Radar Scope). 2d platforming launched the NES and SNES to the stratosphere (thanks to Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario World). Another company’s 2d platformer, Sonic the Hedgehog, was rocketing the Sega Genesis up. Nintendo responded with porting all previous 2d Mario (All-Stars) and was saved by another 2d platformer (Donkey Kong Country).
Since that time, Nintendo’s systems have only fallen in sales and the sales of Nintendo consoles became lopsided with more in a single territory (i.e. only America seems to like 3d Mario as the N64 and Gamecube installed base shows). The DS was rocketed by yet another 2d platformer, NSMB DS. With 20 million sold, those consumers cannot all be “Mario fans”. Somehow, it tapped into the Blue Ocean. But didn’t 2d Mario always tap into the Blue Ocean?
2d Mario is not a killer-app. 2d Mario is the king of killer-apps. The only equal it has would be Wii Sports.
And people wonder why Nintendo made a new 2d Mario. The real question is why did Nintendo wait so long to make a true Mario game again?