The way it works is this: The people catch hold of something, and make magic. It makes a ton of money, because people can recognize magic. Then other people with investment money get involved. Gradually, the magic oriented people are outnumbered, the fun of their average working day declines, and they leave or simply get shouldered into some niche somewhere by the unimaginable torrent of motivated people who have something else on their mind.
No one involved in Mario, Zelda, Metroid, or Contra has been anywhere near the design team at Nintendo for decades. These guys own the rights to call it “Mario,” but if they weren’t making games where you can turn Mario into an elephant, they could be just as happy making sweat pants with writing on the ass. And the magic is off somewhere else, doing its thing.
These guys own the rights to call it “Mario,” but if they weren’t making games where you can turn Mario into an elephant, they could be just as [miserable] making sweat pants with writing on the ass.
FTFY. But also nice one, I loled. And you’re absolutely spot on with what you’re saying too.
I’m not sure if I’m missing sarcasm here, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder is freaking amazing. There’s so much creativity packed into that game, that almost every level they introduce a new mechanic that could easily be it’s whole entire game.
Oh, I dunno about any of the newer Mario games, I was just taking people’s word for it.
I was agreeing with the way that successful brands/IP tend to get milked to death by business types long after the creative types have moved on. But tbf I think Nintendo is one of the few corporations where they have been able to maintain the creative vitality of their franchises for 30+ years, they may be an exception to that rule. Especially with Mario and Zelda, they continued to make great games long after the original creative teams were gone.
But still, all it takes is a few dumbass MBAs to ruin great things by driving away the people who make the magic happen.