Master Malstrom:
It’s not saying much that Brawl sold more than Melee since you’re comparing the install base of the Wii to the Gamecube which is like comparing a continent to an island. Every Gamecube sequel on the Wii sold more than its Gamecube iteration due to the Wii install base. Mario Kart, however, broke out.
Just because Sakurai says he wants Smash Brothers to become more popular doesn’t mean he actually wants it to be so. This goes with all the Nintendo developers. What they are really saying is what they want popular is WHAT THEY WANT TO DO as opposed to what you may actually want.
Shall we go through the examples?
2d Mario is more popular than 3d Mario (especially when budgets and marketing are identical with both, its not even close). Yet, Nintendo only wants 3d Mario to become ‘more popular’ and is intentionally sabotaging 2d Mario. They don’t want it to be popular.
Metroid Prime is the most popular of the Metroids. Sakamoto only wants his vision of Metroid to become more popular. He doesn’t want Retro’s path to be more popular. In fact, Retro is no longer allowed to do anything with Samus. If Retro made a Metroid game, it would have to use a character other than Samus thanks to Sakamoto being a child and saying ‘this is MY character. You can’t touch her!’
When Nintendo shows off a demo of Zelda, they choose what gets gamers excited (see the Gamecube or Wii U Zelda demos). But when the actual game appears, Nintendo intentionally chooses an art style that they like despite the rest of us hating it. So instead of that cool looking Gamecube Zelda demo, we got Aonuma’s crapfest called Wind Waker. Now, did anyone want a HD version of Wind Waker on the Wii U? I think most people would have preferred another Zelda game instead.
If Nintendo was trying to grow the market, they wouldn’t have done the ‘omg 3d’ with the 3DS or this insanity with the Gamecube connectivity with the Wii U.
This is what I’m trying to get across. Nintendo is not trying to ‘grow the market’ or ‘expand gaming’ this generation’. Doing that mean Nintendo had to make games they did not enjoy making. What Nintendo wants to do instead is to grow the market and expand gaming of only the games they want to make.
Nintendo saw Nintendo Land to take a beginner gamer and to ‘raise them up’ to buy the 3d Mario, Metroid, or Zelda games. Nintendo was infuriated that Wii Sports buyer would buy Wii Sports and would not buy the 3d Mario or Aonuma Zelda.
When Sakurai says, “I want Smash Brothers to be more popular,” he means HIS niche concept of Smash Brothers. With Wii’s install base, Brawl should have sold much more.
I think there are many people disappointed with Brawl and will be skipping the Wii U version of Smash Brothers. A killer app it will not be.