The failures of the mustachioed Italian
If you ask someone – who has never played a console in their life – to tell you the name of a video game character, surely the immediate response is that of “Mario”. And it is normal, since in the vast majority of cases their releases have gone down in history for being a complete success, selling tens of millions of copies and transcending beyond the scope of geek until positioning itself as one more component of the current popular culture.
However, if we look a little further we will find some titles that were not so graceful in favor of the public and passed through the stores with much more pain than glory. Today, International Mario Day is celebrated, we are going to look precisely at those forgotten ones, who did not sell as they should but who continue to be, in some cases, great Nintendo developments for their main character.
Oh, and why is March 10th the day of the Japanese plumber? Well, very simple: MAR10. If the name itself says so. March 10, that is, March 10. Come on, here you have that top 5 games that did not sell what was expected of them. Oh, and a heads up, we’re only going to focus on those titles for which there are audited figures, as some of the early years have been lost in limbo.
Super Mario All Stars Limited Edition
This game, which was more like a collection made up of the first three titles of the character together with The Lost Levels he failed to convince fans to checkout, most of whom had already played some of them. It only sold 2,240,000 copies. A quick way to get some extra money.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
One of the several attempts by Nintendo to mix its classic characters with the RPG genre that, as we can see, didn’t quite work. It arrived in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance, failed to sell more than 2,150,000 copies Worldwide. As you’ll soon see, this isn’t the only Mario RPG title on the list.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Speaking of the king of Rome, he peeks out of the door. For many a cult franchise title, nothing could be further from the truth, since in a matter of sales only managed to sell 2,140,000 sets Worldwide. Of course, if you are fans of the genre we recommend that you give it a try.
Super Mario Strikers
After the success of the spin offs from the saga like Mario Kart or Mario Tennis, those responsible for Nintendo thought that a soccer game starring characters from the Mushroom Kingdom would be a guaranteed success. As you can imagine, it backfired on them, selling only 1,600,000 units.
Mario Superstar Baseball
The relationship between Mario and sports is troubled. With baseball, it’s probably the worst of them, since in 2005, when the GameCube version came out, it received terrible reviews and even worse sales, with only 1,050,000 copies sold worldwide.
And you? What is your least favorite Super Mario game?
