Can Mario last for as long as Mickey Mouse has?

[Mount Wario]

Do you think Mario has enough fame or staying power to still be alive in the next 90 years or so? Or do you think he's not even close?

 

[Moldomré]

Possibly.
As long as they don't mess it up

 

[winstein]

I believe that Mario has earned his place in video game history that he would always be alive. He accomplished the following:

• Gave Nintendo a financial boost which practically saved their company.
• Starred in a couple of early influential video games, referring to Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros.
• Had a media and merchandising blitz during the late 80's and early 90's, and that includes the Mario cartoons and various comics.
• Set the standard for 3D character movement thanks to Super Mario 64.
• Has a prolific record with his games, as Mario has starred in at least one game starting from 1981 (at the very least 1982 has DK Jr. and 1984 has a couple of Hudson-licensed Mario games), so he will always be present.
• Mario is Nintendo's mascot so he's present in promotional materials.
• Mario is one of the few video game characters to be recognisable outside video games.

I mean, popular literary works may not all be well-known to the public at all times, but works like Sherlock Holmes, Journey to the West and the various Shakespeare works managed to be retold because of their well-known classic status. It's pretty easy to sell Mario short because he's a very popular video game icon so we are accustomed to Mario's strange world. I do acknowledge that Mario doesn't have many cross-media references so it would be a bit shaky to last that long, but that's why Mario is branching out to a new film that is going to be closer to its source material compared to the very deviated Mario film in 1993. Personally I would like Mario to have a new animated series and comic book though.

It would be similar to how Sonic managed to last through a rough patch of his life, such as his 2006 game, and while his popularity was not what it once was, he managed to make a huge impact at one point of his life that the cycle of popularity feeds itself. BlazeHedgehog puts it best:

“When something gets popular enough for a long enough period of time, it ends up taking on a life of its own. Once enough fans embrace it, it cannot be killed or destroyed. Think about Transformers, and how sometimes there were many years between movies or TV shows, but were still Transformers fans out there on message boards or at conventions. There will always be Transformers now, in some form or another, until the eventual extinction of the human race. The same is likely true for Sonic the Hedgehog.”

I believe the same could be applied to Mario.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Ray Trace]

Even if his parent company could undergo changes, he'll remain a classic icon for generations to remember. While I don't think Mickey Mouse is as prominent as he was in his golden days, most people still remember him, and there will always be generations of newcomers to grow fond of their content. Even if games like Super Mario Bros. are dated today, they're very competently designed so that many people can still enjoy them, especially games like Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

 

[Noct]

Of course. Mario is one of the most iconic characters in all of gaming and is very much deeply ingrained into our culture and society. He has that very same timeless factor and staying power that characters like Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny has and his legacy will stretch on until the very end of time.

 

[winstein]

I wonder what a person in 2081 would think of Donkey Kong the game when the play it in its entirety. Would be great to hear from them.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Teedgee]

Mario will get games depending on what kind of technology there will be at the time. Maybe there will be Virtual Reality Mario games.

 

[Mount Wario]

That's already happening.

 

[Koops]

And it's failed badly.