Girls are more likely to play as an ambiguously gendered toadstool thing than a guy to play as a girl...
Actually in Super Mario Bros 2 (US/EU) version I always played with the Princess, due to the floating. But I have mixed feelings with the article. From a hardcore gamer perspective who is a little bit reluctant towards the change Nintendo brought with the Wii, I can understand that Nintendo has become a bit disappointing.
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But let me play Devil's Advocate for a bit. For the casual gamer perspective, all those hardcore games are frightening. The graphical pooha, and really extensive gameplay is way to much to take in and enjoy the game. From these guys I can understand that they would prefer the more simpler graphics and gameplay. Within 5 minutes they need to know what to do and how to enjoy the game. "RTFM" is an evil concept for them.
Although the hardcore gamers are the ones who made the industry, they are now the minority. And the big money does lie with the casual gamers. The article also accuses Nintendo for being a Big Business Company, but it completely forgets that Nintendo is a big business company. With the N64 and the Gamecube, Nintendo has lost a lot to the competitors. So much even that the Wii was actually a last desperate act for Nintendo to keep a foot on the ground as a console manufacturer. If the Wii had the same result as its predecessors, than Nintendo would have gone the way of Atari and SEGA. They would be third party game developers, having to do with the what the hardware manufacturers gave them.
Also most of those hardcore gamers had already made the transition from Nintendo to MS or Sony. Maybe buying the gamecube as a cheap 2nd console. But bought the Wii thinking it would be some great new thing for them. Well
newsflash: the Wii became what it is because of all those new casual gamers and not the hardcore gamers. And the casual market is what Nintendo aimed at and not the hardcore gamer.
So concluding, does Nintendo have to throw away the business strategy that got them big money again, for the one that was going to a dead end as a hardware manufacturer. I think not.
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So what is my opinion. I don't have the time, nor the money to buy every cool game. These days I maybe buy 2 to 3 games a year. So if the output is only 5 hardcore I don't mind. I can't play them all. Also Nintendo isn't the only developer. Third party developers are also coming with good games (and bad ones). The author of that article is not wrong about that Nintendo does seem to take the easy way out with some. But I do think that article is severely biased, and thus hard to take serious.