Star Fox indeed looks gorgeous. I'll have to nab that one.
Rabbids may be the first time I favor the portable version over the console. I just kinda feel like I have enough minigame compilations.
Sega, Capcom and Ubisoft also have three things in common: character brands.
As much crap as the band gets, Sonic still is a top performer for Sega. Capcom has the Street Fighter folks and Mega Man, never mind Resident Evil, and Ubisoft has found nice niches with The Rabbids.
Not to bury each devs other titles, but brand recognition is a very powerful force. It's why people buy Coca-Cola more than Royal Crown.
There's no denying that, for sure. And I don't think there's anything wrong with brand name recognition, either. That's not ALL they've been doing, though.
Rabbids were a new IP when the Wii launched (albeit attached to Rayman, but the public perception even in the early days was that the Rabbids one-upped him), so I think Ubi deserves props for that. Sega, though they did not develop it, did publish The Conduit. And even though Sonic is an established brand, they put considerably more weight behind him on the Wii than they did during the previous generation, presentation-wise. As for Cappy, they may have struck out with Zack and Wiki, but they also created a crossover fighter so orgasmically awesome that nobody cared about their dance partner being some near-unknown-in-this-hemisphere anime company. Then there's Monster Hunter, which isn't quite as established here as it was in Japan. Besides the original (2004), Tri is the only other home-console entry to make it to the U.S. and Europe.
If you want to talk someone who made it on the brand recognition alone, I'd point you towards The Force Unleashed. The Wii version is generally respected as a decent, even if maybe not must-have, 3rd party title. Once I finally got to play it, I found the gameplay to be...tolerable, and the visuals are positively HIDEOUS, even by GCN launch standards, much less today. When a gamer is fed that as an example of a brand-name 3rd party title, I sure as hell wouldn't blame them for sticking with Mario. Or Sonic.
Also on DeviantArt, Rumble, DLive.tv, and the Fediverse (@freespeechextremist.com and @bae.st)