Nintendo, on the other hand, probably thought that everyone would just rave about the greatness of these games and posted this tweet about both Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2. I am not saying they are not great because they ARE great. There is no denying that they are among the best platformers- that’s a fact. But it looks like the gamers were not on the same wavelength.
The response came immediately and it was quite overwhelming. One user Heriberto just went ahead and said quite matter-of-factly that the price was “way too fing steep.” Which, yes, that is roughly the feeling of many others too. Then there was Nick who just wrote “Not worth $70.” as his entire contribution to the discussion. And he was not alone – quite a few users were telling Nintendo to “Lower the price” or saying that they would not buy it for that amount.
You can actually see from the replies how divided the gamer audience is on this topic. For example, Jackpot 🎰 is very enthusiastic and says “Fantastic games worth every penny” and admits that he was suffering while making the choice of which game to love more. Meanwhile, just below him, Aj Segovia is saying “70$ for 2 games that barely changed??? No thxs” which has such completely different energy.
The main theme of the conversation was pricing, which was also the case with some of the threads. One of the arguments consisted of someone saying that if you consider the inflation, the prices are still reasonable, but the other side were saying that these are pretty much the same games that people have already bought several times – first on the Wii, then on the Wii U, and finally in the 3D All-Stars collection. Plant was very direct and stated that it is “very much a slap in the face that you are selling mario galaxy AGAIN just 5 years after selling it on switch 1.”
Speaking of 3D All-Stars, that also got mentioned over and over again. A number of users claimed that they already had those versions and were not going to spend another $70. DragĂłnX was especially outspoken about that, saying in Spanish that he has the Wii, Wii U, AND 3D All-Stars versions but they are insane if they think he will pay $70 for another copy. He even responded to someone else in Spanish telling them that they are available on Wii U, which is basically… one of the very points of the argument people are having.
In addition to that, the remake vs. re-release issue was brought up time and again. Christian Maccise and Rukasumi both said that the games “deserved remakes” rather than being just ported again. That would again lead to the question what is Nintendo’s thinking if they are assuming people are really willing to pay premium prices for titles that they have practically bought several times in different formats?
But among the comments there were also some actual game discussions. Nathan shared his completion screen with everyone and was wondering if it was hard, he replied that he did everything in 48 hours. Ultra called Galaxy 1 “dogshit” which is like… really? hot take alert. and AJackOLantern was involved in a long and deep discussion about how, although Galaxy games are great, at the same time they suffer from being fed with “unnecessary baggage” that prevents them from being the absolute peak of the series.
But mostly it was about the price tag of $70. For example, Miles said that the new graphics were amazing but he would not consider them worthy of that price, even though he was fortunate enough to have a Best Buy certificate. CrazySoft Limited suggested a price of $30 instead, which honestly seems to be in better alignment with what the market is willing to pay for games that are more than a decade old at this point.
The whole thing really laid bare how complicated the pricing for games has become. On the one hand, these are without a doubt amazing games that have not lost their charm at all. soundtracks, level design, gravity mechanics – everything still tops in gaming quality. But on the other hand, $70? For games that most people have in different formats? That’s a tough sell.
However, Nintendo has always stuck to their guns when it came to pricing. They rarely drop the prices of their first-party titles significantly, and they certainly know the value of their IP. Yet the consumers’ reactions indicate that maybe this time they went too far. But then again, not necessarily – there were surely people who were on the side of the games just like the critics.
When everything is counted, it is obvious that players like the Galaxy games, but they are also very doubtful about this new release being worth the price. The debate is still going strong even after several days and new responses are still coming in. It would be interesting to find out if Nintendo is going to pay attention to this feedback or if they are just going to let the discussion continue. Whether they do it or not, it is still another testament to the strength of the Mario community – whether they are praising the games or criticizing the business practices behind the games.
Many gamers also discussed how these titles compare to experiences on PlayStation and Xbox platforms.
