Does the Mario series 'brand' just sell more games/get a higher critical reception by default?

[CM30]

And you could probably apply a similar logic to Final Fantasy/Call of Duty/Halo/Zelda/Pokemon unfortunately.

There's nothing wrong with the Mario series, the games are mostly (ignoring spinoffs) excellent, but it seems like equally good platformers can end up getting a rating far worse simply because they don't have Mario in them if even they're made by the same developers or company.

Look at Super Mario Land 1 for example. Tons of Game Boy platformers ranging from Wario Land and Donkey Kong Land and Kirby's Dreamland arguably happen to be better games, but it's Mario Land 1 that gets all the 90% ratings and talk of 'best Game Boy game ever' from the critics and something like 20 million in sales. It's funny that the same people who would argue some of said other games were too easy or short just happened to overlook the massive 12 levels Mario Land had, which is probably less than any of the others mentioned.

Does there need to be more balanced reviews given to some of the more flawed Mario games and larger series in general? And is there a general public bias in favour of Mario games sales wise?

 

[SpoonySage]

This is true of any name brand game. Lately, there has been a good amount of coverage exposing this kind of thing (especially after the Mass Effect 3 fiasco). Video game reviewers are afraid to give these games poor reviews because the companies give them advertising money and advance copies. Therefore, if they give a bad review, the company usually doesn't give them their advance copy next time.

The system is pretty messed up, but that's why you should always go with Metacritic or side reviewers that aren't as pressured by their company.

 

[Fillfall]

I've always thought it was like this..
And why do you think Mario spinoffs are so terrible?

 

[CarbonRevenge]

Well Mario is Nintendos pride and joy as that is the iconic character that helped save the company from the direction that it was heading in. Mario saved Nintendo pretty much from going bankrupt.

So I don't much mind as Nintendo needs all the money it can get as it's facing financial problems like Sony.

 

[SakuraSama]

I always thought in comparison to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, that the Mario series gets way LESS critique. The same Mario games keep coming out, but no one seems to mind. A traditional Sonic game comes out, folks say, " It's the same old thing!" A unique Sonic game comes out, folks say, " This is too different from old games!" Sonic can't win, I suppose.