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New Super Mario Bros. U director on the popularity of 2D Mario compared to the 3D Mario games

December 26th, 2012 Posted in General Nintendo, News, Podcast Stories, Posted by Valay

2D Mario games tend to sell better than the 3D entries. New Super Mario Bros. Wii outperformed both Galaxy titles combined, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 is quickly catching up to Super Mario 3D Land despite having been released nearly a year later.

New Super Mario Bros. U director Masataka Takemoto was asked for his thoughts as to why he believes 2D Mario games are more popular than the 3D ones in this month’s issue of GamesTM. Takemoto responded by noting that some players may not be as comfortable with 3D controls, and “maybe a wider range of people were more accepting of the New Super Mario Bros. series, which may have seemed simpler to them.”

Takemoto’s comments in full:

“I don’t think it’s because one game is better than the other. It’s just that compared to 2D, there seems to be more people who are not as comfortable with 3D controls. And maybe a wider range of people were more accepting of the New Super Mario Bros. series, which may have seemed simpler to them.”

Thanks to joclo for the tip.




  1. 3 Responses to “New Super Mario Bros. U director on the popularity of 2D Mario compared to the 3D Mario games”

  2. User avatar

    By I_am_Error on Dec 26, 2012

    He’s right. Brain… can’t… handle the 3rd dimension. Life as we know it… so hard to live… walking in 3 dimensions. Must… dumb down titles… for the masses. Casual gamers… mean… money…

  3. User avatar

    By thomas on Dec 27, 2012

    Meh, Nintendo continues to churn out mind-blowing 3D titles despite this and if we really only get 1 2D Mario per console, I’m fine with it.

  4. By Arriant on Dec 27, 2012

    I agree with thomas. As much as I dislike the NSMB series, I can at least take solace in the fact that they will continue to make great games regardless.

    I really can’t blame them for wanting to continue NSMB. They’re easy to create and they sell insanely well. The fact that they don’t try to make all of their games just as accessible in an attempt to cash in on them is admirable.

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