Revealed: Why Mario isn't in Wii Fit

by Chris Greenhough { Apr 22nd 2008 at 4:00PM }

Had you described Wii Fit to us three years ago, we'd have gambled our entire gashapon collection on Mario, a man with a quite ridiculous number of pastimes, being on the front of the box. A title such as, ooh, we don't know, "Mario Workout" wouldn't have been out of the question. Not any more, though -- not in the age of the expanded audience. Nowadays, Mario doesn't have a divine right to appear in every vaguely sporty Nintendo game.

And we're glad about that. Not only do we totally dig Wii Fit's sleek, minimalistic look, but Mario is already in enough stuff, and even Mario's daddy, Shigeru Miyamoto, agrees with us (great minds and all that). As Shiggy explained to MTV's Stephen Totilo: "We wanted to create it so that people of all ages could look at it and feel it was for them. I think [including Mario] might have limited its ability." So including Mario might limit the appeal of something? How novel!

Gallery: Wii Fit

Tags: exercise, exergaming, fitness, mario, miyamoto, shigeru-miyamoto, shiggy, totilo, wii-fit

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sonic_13 @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:07PM

Mario is THE video game character. He is the most widely known and when most people (especially non-gamers) think about video games, Mario and crew probably come to mind.

By removing Mario from the equation, it is almost like they are removing the video game qualities from the game. Games like Wii Fit suddenly transform from being just another video game to specialized application that makes doing a certain activity fun.

It's very odd to think that a large part of Nintendo's success with non-gamers has been achieved by minimizing Mario, but it is true.

adolson @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:17PM

FINALLY! It's about time they cut back on whoring Mario out. I was starting to think we'd see Mario Mountain Dew or something.

I grew up with Mario games, and in the GameCube era, I got really sick and tired of Mario being in every first-party game. I'm surprised they didn't toss him into WindWaker or Twilight Princess. Outta the way Link, Mario is off to save a princess AGAIN.

I wish they would cut back to only Mario and Paper Mario serieses, but I know it ain't happening anytime soon. But still, this is a start.

TheOverlord#2 SPEAKS: YOU READ IT NOW(Brawl: 1461-5875-9923) @ Apr 22nd 2008 5:51PM

Don't diss the Dew!
I loved Game Fuel although i've never played Halo.

And MD needs to put a blue drink out with green, red, orange, turquoise(Baja). :P

Gewurztraminer says: R.O.B. is the last Cylon! @ Apr 22nd 2008 7:24PM

Never had the Halo Dew but Baja Blast is the best thing about Taco Bell.

Also, according to Wikipedia (yeah, i know) there are/were more types of Dew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_dew#Other_Mountain_Dew_flavors

HellsHammer @ Apr 22nd 2008 8:34PM

Haha, too late. Mario has his own Shasta Soda in the early 90's.

Chachi @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:16PM

i just figured it was because he's not fit, so why would people want to learn fitness from a fat guy?

NinKenDo @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:30PM

As much as I love Mario games, I would have to agree that it's a good idea not having a cartoon mascot attached to this title. It needs to have somewhat generic looking characters and Mii support to give it the broadest appeal possible. Now I wouldn't be opposed to a Mario title somewhere down the like that makes use of the balance board, in fact if Wii Fit takes off in a major way I'd say we can almost count on it.

Brento @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:34PM

The ladies that watch Oprah/Sex in the City/Desperate Housewives wont be getting themselves up on the Wii Fit board to work out to Mario and the gang. The Wii Fit game is targeted for adults not the kids.

SoshiKitai @ Apr 22nd 2008 4:40PM

GIVE MARIO A BREAK!!!

Geez... plumber, hero, kart-driver, board-player, rpg-brawler, fighting-brawler, olympics-participant, tennis player, soccer player, basketball player, baseball player, teacher, doctor, surfer, Miis, etc etc etc...

Give the fat man a break, he really needs to catch his breath.