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I've heard this said many times by people, been discussed by people online. Is Mario a Sell Out? Is he selling out because of the never-ending supply of sports games, and other random titles that get the Mario name? Well, I'm just gonna put in my two-cents in this editorial. Feel free to email me and disagree or agree, and I may put your comments up. Well, if you look at Mario being in other games, beside his trademark platform games, then he's been a sell out since the NES era, over 20 years ago. He appeared in random titles, a referee in Tennis and Punch-Out, a construction worker in Wrecking Crew, and a random character in a Pinball game, a Golfer, and even a Doctor. Mario is no stranger to being in games other than his typical platform adventures, and this was all back in the NES era. Yet back then we never saw anyone saying Mario is a sell-out, so why now? Let's jump to the SNES era. He appears in a Kart Racing Game, which started a special genre in racing itself, which has been copied countless times. I'm sure everyone's glad he sold out there. Before I jump to the N64, I want to make a point of mentioning some educational games Mario showed up in, some even for the PC rather than a Nintendo System. Yes, these may be considered a far stray from Mario's typical games, but they helped kids learn, and what's bad about that? I myself learnt a little from Mario is Missing when I was younger, and there is no way I ever would have played the same game without Mario characters, so the educational titles were good to have. Now let's jump on up to the N64 era. This is where the sayings of Mario selling out really started to appear for the first times. We saw Mario once again not exclusively stay with his platforming genre, in Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Super Smash Bros, Paper Mario, Dr. Mario 64, and 3 Mario Party titles. People started to talk. Mario is really stretching himself thin, he's appearing in everything. Now let's go to the Gamecube era. BAM! This is where people everywhere were saying he's selling out. And I can understand why it started. We saw many Mario Games. A Mario Party 4 came out in 2002, and every year after that we got a new Mario Party. Mario showed up in multiple Sports and other random titles as well. And then it happened, a game that really got people going. A DDR Mario Game. It was like Nintendo was asking for it. People seemed to have a enough, and were saying everywhere how he's such a sell out. Nintendo will put him in anything to make money. Now for my whole opinion on the matter. What's the definition of a sell-out? it seems that if anyone decides to make a little money, even if how they are doing it is decent, they are called a sell-out, no one is allowed to make money without becoming a sell-out. And if that's the definition, yes, Mario is a sell-out. And so would other Video Game Characters, but I'm not going to stretch that, no other video game character in history has been in many different types of games, or games period as Mario. But getting back to my question on what's a sell-out? Well in my opinion, a sell-out, or, you're selling out when as you do so, you compromise your quality or integrity. Now Mario isn't real, he has no integrity. But games can certainly have levels of quality. Now let's look at the level of Quality in these Mario Games. Are they low? Not at all. Look online at game rankings for these games. There usually average, or higher. Just because Mario appears in these games doesn't mean he's selling out. If they games were of lousy quality, of lousy effort on the time of the developer, then he would be a sell-out, but their not. They are always great quality games. Take any of them, and stack them against another game in that genre, and you'll see alot of the other games in that genre are of far less quality. So, I'm glad Mario is branching into so many genres and new franchises, they always produce a game of high quality. I'd much rather play a Mario Party than any other Party-Type Game. I'd rather play Mario Tennis than alot of Tennis Games, same for others as well. The second Mario goes off into some random genre and makes a game of low quality, then fine, I'll say he's sold-out. But I can't see it happening, Mario will appear in more genres, but they will always be of good quality games. Written by: Joey Date Written: May 25th, 2007 |
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