The Video Game Critic

I was wondering why there was such a gap between 2d Mario console games with Mario as the main character from 1991-2006. Since just about every game in the series has been a mega seller, I was wondering why there was such a drought.

Because, not counting spinoffs, there were only two Mario games at all. One of them was Super Mario 64, and the other was a second attempt at Super Mario 64. In any case, Super Mario 64 was such a success that even if Nintendo had put out another Mario game before Super Mario Sunshine (say, in 1999), it would still have followed that formula. Heck, they're still milking it after two decades.

jon wrote:I was wondering why there was such a gap between 2d Mario console games with Mario as the main character from 1991-2006. Since just about every game in the series has been a mega seller, I was wondering why there was such a drought.

Why are you overlooking Hotel Mario and Mario's Time Machine?

Come on, man.

There was 2D Mario... they were all just handheld... I think with the big push from companies to jump into 3D there was this belief that 2D games on a console wouldn't sell copies. Obviously that turned out to not be true since Rayman sold very well and a few other 2D games did well, but many companies were afraid to release those types of games, which sucked.

Super Mario Land 2 was in 1992. And Nintendo didn't discontinue original 2D Mario family platformers on their handhelds afterwards. Subsequent releases from Super Mario Land 3 onward just starred Mario's archrival, Wario.

Yoshi also starred in several console spinoffs after this date, with the acclaimed Yoshi's Island five or so years into your time period even going as far as being labeled as Super Mario World 2 by Nintendo of America. Not viewed as a proper Super Mario Brothers title today on forums, perhaps. But it's still one of gaming's greatest 2D platformers, it's set in the Mario world, and appeared a full five years into your time period. Sound evidence that Nintendo hadn't abandoned anything, it just was mixing it up a bit.

And like the other similar thread, 2D Mario actually wasn't dormant during this time period. We saw one of the first remasters and compilations in history with Super Mario All-Stars in 1993. We saw an acclaimed port of the original Super Mario Bros. end up as one of the highlights of the small library of Game Boy Color exclusives. Amd we also saw the All-Star remasters of SMB2/3 ported along with Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island to the GBA as some of Nintendo's biggest 1st party releases on that platform.

With the 3D craze at this time, I feel like Nintendo did well to not ignore their 2D roots. A proper original SMB platformer or two would've been welcomed on their late 90's and early 2000's handhelds that were so 2D-centric, but we saw so many excellent ports that it's easy to give them a pass.

Because Nintendo had other characters (Yoshi & Wario) for the 2D platforming games in that period:

1994 Wario Land 3: Super Mario Land 2
1995 Yoshi's Island (Super Mario World 2)
1997 Yoshi's Story
1998 Wario Land II
2000 Wario Land 3
2001 Wario Land 4

Good point. So the Mario series wasn't ignored, they just wisely (for the time) invested their time into 3D games. I supppse one could say that this actually helped make the "new SMB "series more successful when they went back to 2D.

I was just thinking about this. It makes absolutely no sense considering Nintendo came back in 2006 with them. Perhaps it was desperation as the Wii being popular was a must considering them getting decimated by Sony for the last 10 years. Come to think about it, maybe I hold it against Nintendo and that's why I haven't played them. Here I was in the late 90's and early 2000's just itching for some 2d platform greatness, totally blindsided by what the 5th gen had become. The PS1 if you do some digging had some 2d games. But if you thought the PS1 shunned 2d, the N64 and Gamecube practically eliminated it.

jon wrote:I was just thinking about this. It makes absolutely no sense considering Nintendo came back in 2006 with them. Perhaps it was desperation as the Wii being popular was a must considering them getting decimated by Sony for the last 10 years. Come to think about it, maybe I hold it against Nintendo and that's why I haven't played them. Here I was in the late 90's and early 2000's just itching for some 2d platform greatness, totally blindsided by what the 5th gen had become. The PS1 if you do some digging had some 2d games. But if you thought the PS1 shunned 2d, the N64 and Gamecube practically eliminated it.

and in the end 2d games held up WAYYYY better in the long run than the pixelated 3d games

It is interesting to note that New Super Mario Bros on the Wii outsold Galaxy by a factor of almost three to one.