We talked about this a bit in the last podcast. Smash Brothers is awesome in part because it has so many Nintendo franchises represented, but Mario Kart has always been Mario Kart. Would you want to see Nintendo open up Mario Kart to other Nintendo franchises? Or should Mario Kart stay pure Mario Kart? Or maybe something in between, where it mainly stays Mario Kart but brings in a few other franchises that fit (say, Kirby, etc.?)
Imagine this, except on Brinster and Samus in a little kart...
@Mop it up They're two completely different games, you can't just compare directly like that. Otherwise you might as well say hey, Mario Party / Tennis / Golf / etc. don't sell as well as Smash so...
@Zero I s'pose, though I'd be willing to bet that a Mario-only version of Smash Brothers would outsell the regular Smash Brothers. I'm honestly surprised Nintendo have yet to try this.
In any case, Mario Kart with less Mario would sell a lot less. Just look at the sales of any other kart racer.
@Zero It wouldn't be Mario Kart if we're throwing Hyrule and Brinstar and everything else in there. It would be Nintendo Kart. To me, it loses its charm and takes existing Nintendo IP's and throws go-karts where they don't fit. Oh yay, let's drive go-karts through Sky World from Prime 3! Hooray! Let's drive them through Phendrana Drifts while we're at it from Prime 1! Yahoo! And through Ganon's Castle and through Clock Town from the Zelda games! Groovy!
Meh. I don't mind spin-offs, but do something different for the different IPs.
@Zero If you want to make a racing game in the Metroid universe, you could do that (we already have F-Zero though, maybe you could add Metroid characters into F-Zero....I'd be cool with that I think). Being a sci-fi game, they probably would be using something more tech advanced than go-karts though. And if you wanted to make a Zelda racing game, you would probably do something more fitting with that universe.
@WrathOfSamus777 Yeah, that's another thing. I'm more accepting of Mario spin-offs because he's clearly a multi-faceted guy, his universe is rich with plenty of oddball characters, and his games aren't driven by story and/or narrative in any way. Long ago Mario switched from being a carpenter to a plumber, so he can clearly adapt to many different types of activities. Plus he's an easy-going, fun-loving person. Characters like Link and Samus tend to be more serious, so they wouldn't work as well in the whimsical spin-offs Mario gets, and neither would their universes.
@WrathOfSamus777 Well I wouldn't mind either of those, but let's be honest, they have like 0% chance of happening. Mario Kart + Friends may happen... someday. Plus just getting a Metroid or a Zelda racing game wouldn't give me insane Pictochat or WarioWare tracks!
@Mop it up Thank you, exactly. The Mushroom Kingdom is a very happy and care-free place so why wouldn't they be racing go-karts and playing golf and tennis?
@WrathOfSamus777 Because they're mortal enemies? Mario and Bowser I mean. Also why would you build tracks going through your castles?! Tracks everywhere!
@Zero OK, but what I think might work though, is if Nintendo decided to make some kind of epic RPG that spanned multiple Nintendo worlds. Like Super Mario RPG but maybe in 3D and with a turn-based battle system and with Nintendo characters from all their different IPs. That would get my attention.
And technically, Wario is part of the Mario universe, so maybe Nintendo could add WarioWare tracks. Kind of a stretch, but Wario is Mario's alter-ego.
@WrathOfSamus777 Because they're mortal enemies? Mario and Bowser I mean. Also why would you build tracks going through your castles?! Tracks everywhere!
It really makes no sense if you think about it.
Lol but the Mario universe is more whimsical so it doesn't have to make sense. How does eating a mushroom making you huge? Or tiny? It just does!
Plus, Samus is supposed to be hunting bounty and doing her Chozo training, not racing go-karts.
@WrathOfSamus777 I get what you mean but I still think it's weird that Mario and Bowser would be racing each other. I mean, weird if you take this stuff too seriously. Also, I feel like Metroid and Zelda are "exceptions" more than the rule when it comes to the whimsical nature of Nintendo franchises, and really it's mostly just Metroid, because Zelda has all kinds of weird and crazy things happening in its universe. We must not forget this dude:
@Zero Yeah, I thought it was weird at first that Mario and Bowser would be hanging out and racing go-karts and playing tennis & golf together too, but it is consistent with the overall innocent nature of the Mushroom Kingdom. And I think it's been established that Bowser's beef is that he's just jealous of Mario because he has a major crush on Peach and so he keeps kidnapping her. But then when he does kidnap her, he doesn't do anything with her. He never holds her for ransom asking for money or anything, he just likes having her around. Like in Mario Sunshine, you go through all that to get to the fight with Bowser at the end, and Peach is just chilling out floating around in the pool with an umbrella and a drink.
Majora's Mask was definitely the most odd of the Zelda games which is where Tingle came from, but Tingle is easily the most odd of the Zelda characters. I don't want to be racing around in a go-kart as Ganon racing through Hyrule Castle or Ganon's Castle. I'm all for a Zelda spin-off, but I would hope Nintendo would try to do something different for Zelda or Metroid.
I would say a resounding yes. However if Nintendo had any concerns maybe at least they could keep the core game pure and sell the full Nintendo line up as large DLC. They could keep the servers separate for online Mario only players.
Sonic & All-Stars is excellent because they include friggin' anyone! Racing against Monkey Ball and Skies of Arcadia and Shogun 2 and Team Fortress characters is great!
