Why is Mario so popular?

So i see people just loving Mario games and I hate them. They are very hard with simple control and the Mario character is super lame.

I find him and the many characters in the game to be simple yet quite endearing. The same can be said for the stories in the games as wel. The gameplay is usually quite refined. I also enjoy the very colourful look and feel of the games.Archangel3371

1.Face of one of the biggest video game companies in the world

2.Over 20 years old

3.Usually high quality

4.Family friendly

5.Very simple to learn, anyone can play it

6.Nice and colorful

7.Advertising, advertising, advertising.

1.Face of one of the biggest video game companies in the world

2.Over 20 years old

3.Usually high quality

4.Family friendly

5.Very simple to learn, anyone can play it

6.Nice and colorful

7.Advertising, advertising, advertising.

crimsonman1245

Well Mario pretty much single-handedly saved the video game industry in the 80s, so..

So i see people just loving Mario games and I hate them. They are very hard with simple control and the Mario character is super lame.

alim298

You must be 14 years old right? Anyone 20 or older would know why Mario was/is so popular. 

i havent really enjoyed Mario since Super Mario World

it's the moustache man

[QUOTE="alim298"]

So i see people just loving Mario games and I hate them. They are very hard with simple control and the Mario character is super lame.

JuanGrande386

You must be 14 years old right? Anyone 20 or older would know why Mario was/is so popular. 

They are very hardalim298

[QUOTE="JuanGrande386"]

[QUOTE="alim298"]

So i see people just loving Mario games and I hate them. They are very hard with simple control and the Mario character is super lame.

alim298

You must be 14 years old right? Anyone 20 or older would know why Mario was/is so popular. 

Well you should play Super Mario Bros. on NES. That is the game that made Mario popular.

[QUOTE="alim298"]

[QUOTE="JuanGrande386"]

You must be 14 years old right? Anyone 20 or older would know why Mario was/is so popular. 

lazyathew

Well you should play Super Mario Bros. on NES. That is the game that made Mario popular.

If you play video games at all then you are playing them in the house that Mario built. Best platforming franchise ever hands down.

Mario is the face of video games because it appeals to everyone both young and old, casual and hardcore. Casual gamers can enjoy and beat the games, and hardcore gamers can enjoy collecting everything while mastering the games.

because he's gaming'smost popular icon and even to ths day his games continue to be good.

Mario's pure.  It's great gameplay to its most basic level and it's executed well.

Well Mario pretty much single-handedly saved the video game industry in the 80s, so..

JML897

Basically

-Top notch responsive controls

-Incredibly well designed leves with great hidden collectibles and secrets

-Easy entry level, but also offers high level of challenge for those who want it

Mario is one of the handful of core franchises (along with Zelda and Metroid) that Nintendo's core console fans became fixated on during the ongoing drought of third party support that started with the N64 and continues to this day. They always liked Mario/Zelda/Metroid but as time passed they lost interest in all else. Even late in the N64 era hits like Goldeneye could emerge from left field, but the reception to quality games like RE4 and Xenoblade was remarkably cool in later generations.

After the early days of the GC (where games like Eternal Darkness and Miyamoto's Pikmin failed to make a dent, while anything with Mario flew off the shelves), third parties and Nintendo decided to work with or around the obsession rather than fighting it (see the screenshot below).

Mario is popular because unlike any other franchise its the most whored out in gaming history. There are more Mario games than anything else. So you will be hard pressed to find someone who isn't aware of the brand after being plastered on so many games.Pedro

Isnt there like 12 Call Of Duty games on the Xbox 360??? How many Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk games were made before they killed them off??? Yes there is tons of Mario games but come on thats Nintendos bread and butter besides Zelda and they continue to sell millions of copies.

While the mood of these games is often light, childish, (almost annoying so for me), the level design in a lot of these games is brilliant. I was very impressed by the Mario Galaxy games. I thought Mario's sun had set, but those games proved otherwise.  As for the mood, sometimes I guess I need it. Last week I finished Spec Ops the Line which kinda messed me up :)  Mario Galaxy to the rescue!

Mario himself is simple and yet, he has so much personality, along with the rest of the cast! And not only that but the games are generally really well done. The quality of the games is what gets me.

[QUOTE="JML897"]

Well Mario pretty much single-handedly saved the video game industry in the 80s, so..

StaticOnTV

So yeah, I would say Mario just about single-handedly saved the industry.

[QUOTE="StaticOnTV"][QUOTE="JML897"]

Well Mario pretty much single-handedly saved the video game industry in the 80s, so..

JML897

So yeah, I would say Mario just about single-handedly saved the industry.

Some of the greatest games ever made are Mario.YoshiYogurt

[QUOTE="YoshiYogurt"]Some of the greatest games ever made are Mario.The_Last_Ride

[QUOTE="The_Last_Ride"][QUOTE="YoshiYogurt"]Some of the greatest games ever made are Mario.DJ-Lafleur

I know why Mario is so popular but that doesnt mean I have to like him.

It's hard not to like Mario.

It was one of the first games that actually had an end, He revolutionized platforming with Super Mario 3 & Super Mario World, and then pretty much set the standard for 3D camera/character control with Super Mario 64. And then Super Mario Galaxy pretty much gave us the most expertly designed platforming levels ever, its near perfect scores are proof of that.

And I don't think Mario is that "milked" sure they're a lot of different series involving him but they usually only get 1 game per console. So for example since 1996 there have been only four 3D Mario games, the Wii got 2 of them. Same with Mario Kart, Paper Mario and the 2D marios except for the NES which got 3.

Also keep in mind Mario is almost 30 years old now. Actually he is 30 if you count the Mario Bros arcade game as his first game instead of Super Mario Bros on NES/Famicom.

Okay, I was hoping that this thread would die, and that I could hold my tongue, but it didn't, and I can't. Being as I'm someone who has actually been alive for every Mario release, I can say unequivocally that development of the series peaked at SMB 64. Every single game after that is Nintendo cashing in on sheep buying a product that hasn't changed in any significant way in almost 30 years. I may be a cynical asshol*, but I can't abide their business strategy. Mario, Zelda, and Metroid have all been around since '85, '86, and '87 respectively (longer for Mario if you count Donkey Kong). Stop milking a franchise like it's your only form of sustenance and come up with something new. All the Mario series has brought to the table in the last decade is some graphical updates and some gimmicks. Although I've said it before, and it will be a sad day when it actually happens, Nintendo is going to go the same way as Sega in the next five years or so if they don't pull their respective heads out of their own posteriors with due haste.ESPM400

Say it ain't so? :o Mario milked? Absurd. The games that really milked is COD. :|

Okay, I was hoping that this thread would die, and that I could hold my tongue, but it didn't, and I can't. Being as I'm someone who has actually been alive for every Mario release, I can say unequivocally that development of the series peaked at SMB 64. Every single game after that is Nintendo cashing in on sheep buying a product that hasn't changed in any significant way in almost 30 years. I may be a cynical asshol*, but I can't abide their business strategy. Mario, Zelda, and Metroid have all been around since '85, '86, and '87 respectively (longer for Mario if you count Donkey Kong). Stop milking a franchise like it's your only form of sustenance and come up with something new. All the Mario series has brought to the table in the last decade is some graphical updates and some gimmicks. Although I've said it before, and it will be a sad day when it actually happens, Nintendo is going to go the same way as Sega in the next five years or so if they don't pull their respective heads out of their own posteriors with due haste. EDIT: @Vickman178, since his inception in Donkey Kong, Mario has been featured in almost 200 games. If you don't call that 'milking it,' I don't know what you can.ESPM400

Well with mario there isn't much to hate. It is simple, but there is room for self-created challenges. The series never tries to follow what's popular at the time. For example, Dead Space 3 is getting hated on at the moment for straying towards more of a third-person action shooter (same with Dead Space 2), but Mario doesn't do this. Of course, Mario reinvents itself every now and then (Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, Mario Galaxy, etc.), but it never reinvents itself to follow the crowd. Also even when it does change things up, it still goes back to its roots and releases games that are more traditional of it. There's something for everyone with Mario which cannot be said for most games.Minishdriveby

Reading your post made me think of how some other developers would have gone with a Mario "reboot" to make him darker and grittier (see Bomberman Act Zero). I'm glad Nintendo's never really done that.

The closest a Mario related game has come to being dark and gritty is Luigi's Mansion.