Does he still shine as the brightest STAR?
 

Do you think Mario has lost his luster. I mean do you think he is as popular as he was before?

This thread was brought up at another forum and just wanted to get a variety of opinions.

Ehm... I remember a time when he had his own TV-show, had his head on cereals... I even got stickers of him!

Not as polular no, but hes still up there, methinks.

Well not as popular as his prime in the late 80'S through early 90's. But he is still somewhat of an icon for games.

Not as famous as a before. But he'll always be an icon of videogames.

I think BreakABone is the only one who can spell popular in this topic.. :D

Well.. I think he's not what he used to be, but he still have a little bit of popularity left in him..

I still think he's as popular... :unsure:

Why are you asking? Let me guess, Mario Sunshine? :D

Now that Nintendo isn't in the top spot, neither is its mascot. And with the graphics driven industry Mario won't redeem his stardom if future Mario continues to look like an N64 title...

Hey, I didn't even bother trying! :D

Well this has a bit to do with Mario Sunshine. Not in the way most people think though.

I'll reply a bit more when there are a bit more thoughts on the subject.

That's why Neo spent money to buy a SPELL CHECK feature!

Well just to add a bit more fuel to this before I reply. For those, who don't think Mario is as popular as he was before.

In the year 2001, Mario had 2 games in the Top 20 best selling games of the year. He releases to my knowledge 3 real games not counting the spin-offs like Dr.Mario and Mario Party 3.

Super Mario Advance which was a part of like a 13 year old game become the 5th best selling game of the year. So you have to wonder how much higher he would have placed if it was a brand new game.

Well, if it were brand new, a game like mario advance may or may not have sold well. It wouldnt have its already large fanbase, or recognition for its past games.

I think its popualrity is still large you just dont know it cause there isnt a media frensy around it (cereal, toys, movies, cartoons) like there use to be.

He's not the central star he used to be. Remember when his name was muttered by kids more then Mickey Mouse?!? That's not happening now. But I still think he is the most recognizable videogame icon out there. The last (original) Mario game was Paper Mario. It sold very well and it made a couple of top spots on the EGM Gamers Choice Awards.

The N64 game of the year voted by EGM was Paper Mario. The online vote (were the fans voted) put Paper Mario in second.

Paper Mario was also the runner-up for RPG of the year, both EGM and fan votes, behind FFX.

So even on a dying system, Mario still stood out and made N64 users happy, myself included. Plus, look at game sales for Mario on GBA:eek:

So I say, let the sales do the talking. We all seem to be pretty excited about Super Mario Sunshine.....

I think Mario is still more popular than Sonic, Zelda, and Crash, and any other game chariter on the market....

The reason he looks like he lost popularity is the fact that he has went almost 6 years w/o a (normal Platform) game