… seems to be doing very well.
Sales compared with other performances on the Wii
Seems like the Japanese have been waiting for a 2D console Mario almost as much as Malstrom himself! It should be noted that, from what Kotaku stated in the second link, the “first week sales” for Super Mario Bros. 5 are actually just sales from December 3rd to December 6th. The first link should indicate how anticipated this title was in Japan.
PS: I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has emailed you about this already, or if you already knew about this.
I did know about this, but it is all good.
Let us say, reader, that I have placed the Malstrom hat on you. You get to write about the Mario 5 sales bonanza in Japan. How would you write it?
Would you write it in the context of how much untapped demand there was for classic Mario?
Would you write about it and put it in a horserace with Modern Warfare 2?
Would you say that Japan hates star-finder Mario?
Would you laugh at all the people who said Mario 5 wouldn’t sell much in Japan?
How would you write it? Give me back the Malstrom hat. (Malstrom takes his hat back.) This is how I would write it…
Nintendo developers are going to be very unhappy with the big sales of Mario 5. If Super Mario Galaxy 2 bombs in Japan, you might see an end to the star-finder Mario series and that would make certain Nintendo developers extremely unhappy. Note I said *might*.
There is a war going on with classic Mario versus star-finder Mario. Classic, or platform, Mario is clearly kicking star-finder Mario’s butt. Without a doubt, Nintendo has to be realizing that they have been making the wrong type of Mario games for fifteen years.
There are many mysteries concerning the history of gaming. But the biggest mystery of them all is that the Super Mario Brothers series, which was successful beyond anyone’s imagination, was suddenly dropped like a hot potato in favor for star-finder Mario (e.g. Mario 64 and other 3d Mario games).
No one faults Nintendo for making Mario 64 and experimenting by putting Mario into a 3d realm. But Mario 64 was a failure compared to classic Mario. Instead of acknowledging this, Nintendo pressed on with “fixing” star-finder Mario until it sold as well as classic Mario. All attempts failed.
When the Wii was launched, Iwata was saying that he wanted Miyamoto to hurry so he could launch the Wii with the new ‘Mario’ game. Reggie asked game publishers how they would market the successor to Super Mario World to kids raised on GTA (Reggie was referring to Super Mario Galaxy when he said this, Mario 5 was not even conceived yet). Mario 64 to Sunshine to Mario Galaxy were apparently seen, by Nintendo, as successors to the Mario line. But customers never saw it that way. NSMB DS sales were so phenomenal, just out of this world, especially in places like Japan that Nintendo was forced to re-evaluate the Mario series. They have decided to branch the two out. So at E3 2009, we had NSMB Wii showed as well as Super Mario Galaxy 2.
What I expected to happen, which will likely occur, is this:
A skiddish Nintendo releases both Mario 5 and Galaxy: The Lost Levels. Mario 5 does gangbusters. People say, “Yeah, this is the type of Mario we want!” So when Galaxy 2 comes out, people will say, “What the hell is this? Why make sequels to Mario games that not many people like? Why not make Mario 6?” This will puzzle Nintendo. Then when our hardcore friends become enraged that the music is in midi or that most of the music is recycled, Nintendo becomes even more puzzled because they thought people liked Galaxy based on its “awesome gameplay”. If people become enraged that Galaxy 2 doesn’t match the musical splendor of Galaxy 1 and doesn’t have as many high graphic moments in it, it shows that people that like the star-finder Mario games do not like its gameplay but only its graphics and atmosphere. If this is true, then I can see a future merging of the star-finder series and classic Mario series where Super Mario Brothers 6 is a graphical odyssey complete with an orchestra score. This would satisfy both groups.
Miyamoto is on record somewhere saying that younger Nintendo developers want to make the games they grew up with like classic Mario. But Miyamoto and the older Nintendo developers told them no. “We have already made those games, we want to do something new,” he said. I even began to think that Miyamoto actually hated classic Mario. I mean, he wasn’t enthused about making Super Mario World but did so because of the SNES launch. Yoshi’s Island was considered a disappointment at the time and Donkey Kong Country claimed the 2d platformer prize. Twenty years has passed with no new classic Mario on home console. Miyamoto knew the demand was there, but we got star-finder Mario game after star-finder Mario game.
Nintendo developers LOVE 3d Mario. This is why we keep getting so much of them. We will get a sequel to Galaxy before getting the first Wii designed Zelda game or any Starfox title or any other missing Nintendo franchises. There is a 3d Mario for the DS in the works at this moment because they love making 3d Marios.
Why do they love 3d Marios? Game developers like to be intoxicated by their own creation. They prefer a work where they can run around in and imagine this world they *created*. A 2d Mario game does not allow this. 3d Mario is also a puzzle-action game where 2d Mario is an arcade-action game. Puzzle orientated games are so much easier and more fun for the game developer to make (which is why Zelda is infested with them). However, it isn’t as much fun for the consumers.
The way how classic Mario has been treated, and so much emphasis (and budget) given to 3d Mario, made an observer like myself believe that Miyamoto truly hated classic Mario.
So there will be many Nintendo developers unhappy with the big success of Mario 5. They want to make more 3d Mario even when sales suggest they have no business making them (like Galaxy 2).
Classic Mario has always sold. It sold fantastically on the NES and SNES. It sold well on the Gameboy and GBA. It still sells well on the Virtual Console.
3d Mario does not always sell well. It sells OK in America. But it doesn’t sell well in Japan and other areas. No one is fighting to get old copies of Mario Sunshine. A used game store will have tons of Mario Galaxy copies up.
Every indication in the world shows what the market wants. Yet, what has been amazing to me, is the denials of the classic arcade gameplay.
When people said NSMB DS sold because it was just a Mario game, they were denying the arcade gameplay. When it was suggested that classic Mario be put on home consoles, they screeched and screamed that 2d Mario belongs on handhelds and must never go to home console. At E3 2009, when Mario 5 was unveiled, game journalists ignored it and many showed a hostility to it from their reports.
Now that Mario 5 is selling left and right, the latest denial is that the game is selling only because of “nostalgia”. But the game is selling to people who have never bought a classic Mario game. How can they have “nostalgia”?
The reason why Mario 5 sells is very crystal clear: it is because of that arcade gameplay. The arcade gameplay is the same reason why Wii Sports sells too (which is also denied and the sales are said because the game is “casual” whatever that means).
Arcade gameplay is old school gaming. For decades, Cranky Kongs like myself who would hit the later generations over the head by saying how much better games used to be… were right. Perhaps this is the reason why there is so much denial over the arcade gameplay that Mario 5 and other games like Wii Sports have. No one wants to admit that gaming has been in decline.
Above: Malstrom in monkey form. 15 years? Talking about how great the Atari and 8-bit eras were? Of how easy games are today and how weaksauce gamers are now? Yeah, that’s me. Now I just need a pointy stick so I can swipe at the hardcore. “What have you done to my gaming you sick creatures!?” *poke* *poke* “Mark your time, hardcore, mark it well. Your graphics won’t hold up forever, and people will come back to ‘real gaming’.” (laughs)
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