Nintendo is often referred to as the 'House of Mario', in a play on Disney being known as the 'Mouse House'. Both Mickey and Mario are instantly recognisable brands for their respective companies, but is Mario now being overused by the Japanese giant?

Shacknews.com put this to Nintendo of America senior director of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta, who defended the Big N's over reliance on the Mario brand.

"We think we're putting out the right number of Mario games based on what fans are asking for, based on what our own developers' creative visions are...The key to that is as long as there's innovation is occurring within the game play, as long as there's new features, then marrying the characters and the IP that people love is the right call from our standpoint."

An argument amongst Nintendo fans is that as well as seeing older franchises, such as F-Zero, brought back to the forefront, new IP's would be welcome from the company who can boast one of the biggest and most popular gaming character back catalogues in history. Scibetta believes though that they are creating new IP like experiences...only using the characters we know and love already.

"If we didn't put Mario on it, then it would just seem like a new IP," Scibetta said. "Because there's those new game play dynamics..we think there's the innovation there that will keep people interested and keep the Mario brand fresh."

And what are these new game play dynamics?

"If you look at something like Super Mario 3D World, the game play on that one that I find really cool is those transparent warp points. Usually you used to go into one and pop out the other, and that was the end of the game play experience. Now, there's a whole dynamic there where you can navigate in there, try to avoid enemies, try to get a better advantage. You could theoretically make a whole new game with those kind of game play dynamics."

You can read our hands on impression of Super Mario 3D World, but is the introduction of clear warp pipes innovation enough to justify the release of a third Mario game in two years? Let us know in the comments below!