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Mario to Shake His Groove Thing
After the news earlier this week that Mario would be shooting hoops in NBA Street, I decided that Nintendo had reached the end of its tie-in rope with Mario. I was wrong. The newest Dance Dance Revolution title for the Gamecube will be called Dance Dance Revolution with Mario. From the article: "As the title suggests, Dance Dance Revolution with Mario is a new installment in Konami's DDR dancing game series, featuring characters from the Mushroom Kingdom. Details on the game haven't been disclosed yet, but from the released images, DDR with Mario seems to play similarly to DDR, with familiar backdrops featured in the 3D installments of the Super Mario series." Ow.
This comes as no surprise to me - I always feel like dancing after I have eaten hallucinagenic mushrooms.
I'm conflicted. On the one hand, this would seem to be a really dumb use of Mario. People already know what DDR is, and don't need a product tie-in to make the sale. In fact, if I was presented with two versions of DDR, one Mario-filled and one 'normal,' I'd go with the normal one.
That said, I'm really glad the GameCube is *finally* getting a version of DDR. For the most part I enjoy the games released on GameCube more than those released on PS2 or XBox. But one of the notable exceptions I wish GameCube had has been DDR, and it looks like this opens the door for future releases.
So, overall, I'm pleased with this announcmenet, because I've been wanting a GC DDR. At the same time, I wish they didn't have to make another Mario tie-in...
-Trillian
Of course, with all the exercise he gets (Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Baseball, Mario Trout Fishing-xTreme), you think he'd be in better shape. Just what IS his diet anyway?
PS: I like Mario Golf, etc, but this just seems like they are renting Mario out for money. Why not just make Mario Basketball if you want him to play?
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Hey Everybody! DO THE MARIO!! Take One Step and Then again!
Well, hey why not? As long as the product is high quality, its not like its eroding the brand. There was an article not too long about about how Nintendo was branding everything in sight, rather than developing new franchises. I used to be a bit miffed over how they put his face everywhere, but really, how many franchises does Nintendo need? They've got a big enough cast that they can actually make a fighting game out of it with 30 characters from like 10 franchises (star fox, metroid, zelda, kirby, pokemon, mario, fire emblem, f zero, earthbound, donkey kong...). Really, some of those franchises don't do as well as the best, so its natural to help trim the bottom line with some extra income from Mario to help offset the less than stellar F Zero GX sales (still an awesome game and a better buy daily).
Yes, people will buy it because of Mario. Will it be a crappy game because of Mario? Will Mario be crappy because he's in the game? My answers are no and no. Really, whats going on is Nintendo is trying to attract games over to their system, and they're using their own new "seal of approval" to do it. Nintendo gets a popular game on their dominated console (sadly), the game makers get a dose of more sales, and cube owners get more games.
Mario, by and large, will always be judged by the flagship games that bear his name, rather than the one offs with his face on it.
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Seriously, I look at this as a corrolary to the article posted yesterday. And I think Woody says it best: this is nothing but shameless franchise whoring.
Not every game has to be innovative. It's DDR for a platform that had no DDR game before. It's still a good game. Kids (and others) will get a kick out of the inclusion of familiar and loved characters.
Nintendo's happy, Konami's happy, gamers are happy.
If the game does not appeal to you, it's a pretty good clue you're not the intended audience. Go back to playing manhunt - that's bound to make the world a happier place.
Do they feature the Princess shaking her booty in a latex mini-skirt?
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
What are you talking about? They're not just selling the same thing repeatedly. (Well, some older games are getting ported to their handhelds, but that's different). They're just taking a character(and his related world/universe) and placing him in unsual games, and seeing how it affects gameplay. And a lot of it turns out being pretty darn cool.
I think it's a pretty fascinating way to come up with new gameplay. Mario brings with him a whole bunch of cool stuff. His famous abilities, yoshi, parahnia plants, turtle shells, shyguys, etc... all stuff that doesn't make any sense outside of the mario universe. And then the designers have to find ways to make all of those strange things fit in to a new game type. That's a great way to spur some innovation. And it can be made to work.
So someone might buy Mario Golf, or Mario Tennis, or Super Smash Bros. just because they recognize Mario. Or maybe they want a golf/tennis/or melee type game. Either way. they're still getting a damn fine game, and if you've actually played any of them, you'd know that.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I think I'll expand on your point for you.
For many of these games, any character would do, but Nintendo has no reason to introduce a new star character for each new game series they make. If you take Mario out of Mario Kart, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Party, and anything else, you'll end up with games that still need to have some character associated with them. Why would they want to introduce new heroes and heroines for games without storylines?
The fact is, these games that everyone is complaining about, aren't the best games ever made, but they are in their own way one of Nintendo's strengths. Beginning with the original Mario Kart, Nintendo has been developing lines of games with simplified mechanics that groups of people can play. These games are simple, accessible and yet still fun. They're something you can play with just about any group of people.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.