This is a direct response to the article on Why Mario Should Retire, and why that article is ridiculous, way off point and incredibly premature.

First off, what place does MSN have in the say on whether or not the Nintendo icon should retire? I don’t care what you say or if this disclaimer is at the end of the article:

“Patrick Goss is employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this column are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft.”

Any commentary from Microsoft on Nintendo is like Fox News commenting on Obama. If 1up.com or ign.com were to write this article I would take it more seriously, probably not agree, but would see the article as objective and a real talking point, but I can’t get past the fact that this article is coming from msn.com.

Reason #1 - Mario is like wine; it matures over time

The mario games are timeless. In the last week I have had a classic gaming urge reinvigorated. What game did I go to first? Super Mario Brothers on the NES. The game is 20+ years old and it is just as fun as it was when I first made the run through World 1-1. About a year ago when Super Mario DS came out, I about pooped my pants when I saw the first preview video. They took the ultimate classic gaming platform and made it feel new. I loved every minute of that game, and would be in line to buy the second installment on it’s launch date. And with Mario Galaxy, I was blown away. Although I found it incredibly easy to beat, I unlocked everything, I played it like a junkie. If Super Mario Brothers on NES is as fun as it is to play now after 20 years, how are games like Super Mario DS and Mario Galaxy going to paly in 20 years? I would bet my money on effing fantastic.

Reason #2 - Mario has been a pop icon for 20+ years and is showing no signs of stopping

As a kid Mario was the ultimate. I still have a plush doll and a weird Super Mario Brothers 3 suction bounce toy. I remember Nintendo as if it was the most popular band on the planet and Mario was the lead singer and keytar player. Now, fast forward to present day, all the kids like me that dreamed of having all the cool stuff that their parents would never buy for all the sudden have jobs and purchase power. There are vinyl toys, tshirts, candy and the Super Mario TV series has just found new life on the Blockbuster new release wall, and these young at heart young adults are eating them up. Companies wouldn’t be producing this stuff if they weren’t making money doing it. Retire Mario now, please, give me an effing break.

Reason #3 - Mario is a chameleon…or a tanuki

Mario is the king of reinvention. The largness of Super Mario Brothers 3 and the transformative characters were genius. Wait!? Mario can fly…and he’s racoon…that is so GRAWESOME! Then Super Mario World came around and we got welcomed to the epic graphical world map and treated to watching Mario bitch slap Yoshi into eating shells and doing his dirty work (don’t deny it, you’ve jumped off Yoshi to reach the edge of cliff, and let him plumet to his death). I don’t even really have to say anything more than the title of Super Mario 64. To this day Mario 64 is considered one of the most revolutionary platformers. Nintendo seamlessly transferred the Mario world into a 3D environment. Mario Sunshine wasn’t what everyone was expecting but it was outside the box. Then we have Mario Galaxy. Even though the difficulty level wasn’t super high, the fun factor and newness of this game was so off the charts that I didn’t care. Now this isn’t intended to start a who is better than who flame war, but honestly do you see Halo or GTA ever reinventing themselves that radically over this long of a period of time, no effing way.

Reason #4 - Mario’s Cameos are AWESOME and aren’t new

I love seeing Mario in other games. I remember thinking man, I bet a fighting game with all the Mario characters would be awesome, then Smash Brothers came out, and it was awesome. And if you are going to argure that he is going to get warn out as a character because of cameos then he should have been warn out a long time ago as a referee in games as far back as Punch Out and Tennis, or as the golfer in Golf.

He has been a cameo since the 1980s, if it was going to get old it would be old by now, it’s still not. To say that a Mario cameo is going to get is like saying an effing Bill Murray cameo would get old.

In conclusion, I think Gaming Goss is a douche and should be banned from ever talking about mario again.