Unpopular opinions about the Mario series

Dr. Luigi D. Broski said:
Are you saying the Mii invasion is mandatory?
Click to expand...
Yes, when playing single player in Fortune Street, you are required to use a Mii. All Mario and DQ characters are only playable in multiplayer.

Not sure why they made that choice, but I can see some benefits. Like, in multiplayer, you can't view dialogue for a character you're playing as, so that can be a little disappointing if you always use the same character.
 
Here are some more of mine;

-Peach and Daisy are equal. I like them in their own ways.

-Don't take any of this the wrong way, but I'm fine with the fact Waluigi isn't playable in Smash Brothers Ultimate. I like the character, but some of his obnoxious fans did some bad things after finding out he's an Assist Trophy.

-I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mario is better than Luigi.

-Pauline's "Jump Up, Superstar" song gets annoying after a while. What I meant when I said "Super Mario Odyssey wasn't that good".
 
ArthurEngine said:
Here are some more of mine;

-Peach and Daisy are equal. I like them in their own ways. Eh, I always liked Peach more. Daisy's just okay.

-Don't take any of this the wrong way, but I'm fine with the fact Waluigi isn't playable in Smash Brothers Ultimate. I like the character, but some of his obnoxious fans did some bad things after finding out he's an Assist Trophy. What a character's fans do in no way affects my opinion on the character, but Waluigi wasn't my most wanted and I'm still okay with his assist status.

-I've said it before and I'll say it again, Mario is better than Luigi. I see them as equal, tbh. I only slightly lean towards Luigi because I'm color biased.

-Pauline's "Jump Up, Superstar" song gets annoying after a while. What I meant when I said "Super Mario Odyssey wasn't that good". Totally agree, it was novel at first but in actuality it's really overrated and there were far better themes in Odyssey.
Click to expand...
Just my two cents.
 
I don't believe MatPat's silly fan theories.

Except for the one that says the JumpMan is different than Mario.
 
  • Daisy > Peach > Rosalina
  • Right now, Yoshi as a franchise has more stinkers than it does good games.
  • People like to call Super Paper Mario's story deep when it really isn't all that deep? It's definitely one of the more creative plotlines in the franchise and I like its characters, but the game's bogged down by its repetitive gameplay imo.
  • Super Princess Peach is an underrated gem.
  • I prefer Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze to the original Rare games.
  • I've never understood the appeal for Mario Golf.
  • The new courses in Mario Kart 8 are really unfun in terms of course design; it's really clear they spent more time making these tracks look good rather than fun to play on.
  • Super Mario 3D World is a really good game that got a lot of undeserved hate. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time.
  • The Minion Quest side games included in the Mario & Luigi remakes are some of the best games in the entire franchise.
  • The New Super Mario Bros. games booting you out of the level when you die is EXTREMELY ANNOYING! I know they want to give you a chance to use inventory items before jumping back in, but there are many other better ways to do it.
  • By extension, Mario games really need to ditch the lives screen. There's way too much wasted time getting booted out of the level then reloading back into the level when other platformers just respawn you back at your original point. They already ditched lives in Super Mario Odyssey but still show your coin count going down - to be frank, I think this is a really annoying mechanic not many people think about but video editors definitely do and all that time adds up.
  • Mario Kart 64 sucks and is overrated as heck.
  • I really don't care what his fans have done, I still want Waluigi in Smash.
  • The Ice Flower is like the worst power-up in the series. I wanna kill enemies, not freeze them. It wouldn't be such a problem if the New Super Mario Bros. games didn't constantly give you them. It's like every other level, that's what you're using. It gets old fast.
  • Super Mario Maker 2's Super Mario 3D World style is stupidly limited and outside of the Koopa Troopa Car I have zero reason to use it when making levels.
  • Phantom of the Bwahpra from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a better song than Jump Up, Super Star! from Super Mario Odyssey.
  • King Boo's spin-off design is more charming in my opinion than his Luigi's Mansion design, as simple as it is.
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 still needs a sequel.
  • Super Mario All-Stars is the superior way to play the original platformers.
When you make your first post only to get hated on instantly.
 
Last edited:
Pokerninja2 said:
  • Daisy > Peach > Rosalina I'd put Daisy after Rosalina but I agree that Peach > Rosalina
  • Right now, Yoshi as a franchise has more stinkers than it does good games. Not really imo, New Island still had solid gameplay despite its general uncreativeness and I wouldn't call any other recent Yoshi games bad at all
  • People like to call Super Paper Mario's story deep when it really isn't all that deep? It's definitely one of the more creative plotlines in the franchise and I like its characters, but the game's bogged down by its repetitive gameplay imo. I haven't played SPM but I've heard it takes its plotline a bit too seriously. TTYD and Color Splash had the right idea on that front (creative plotlines but still keeping the focus on gameplay).
  • Super Princess Peach is an underrated gem. Yes it is.
  • I prefer Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze to the original Rare games. Haven't played the originals but I do enjoy the modern DKC games
  • I've never understood the appeal for Mario Golf. Eh, I enjoyed World Tour personally but haven't played the others. I can see how golf isn't for everyone
  • The new courses in Mario Kart 8 are really unfun in terms of course design; it's really clear they spent more time making these tracks look good rather than fun to play on. I rather enjoyed MK8's new courses myself
  • Super Mario 3D World is a really good game that got a lot of undeserved hate. Just a case of wrong place, wrong time. Fully agreed. Very fun game.
  • The Minion Quest side games included in the Mario & Luigi remakes are some of the best games in the entire franchise. Can't agree as long as Dream Team exists
  • The New Super Mario Bros. games booting you out of the level when you die is EXTREMELY ANNOYING! I know they want to give you a chance to use inventory items before jumping back in, but there are many other better ways to do it. Eh, it's a minor nuisance at worst
  • By extension, Mario games really need to ditch the lives screen. There's way too much wasted time getting booted out of the level then reloading back into the level when other platformers just respawn you back at your original point. They already ditched lives in Super Mario Odyssey but still show your coin count going down - to be frank, I think this is a really annoying mechanic not many people think about but video editors definitely do and all that time adds up. This never bothered me at all. Lives are pretty pointless though and should be done away with tbh
  • Mario Kart 64 sucks and is overrated as heck. Haven't played MK64 but I see where you're coming from with this (overrated games that haven't aged well at all--see Mario RPG 1)
  • I really don't care what his fans have done, I still want Waluigi in Smash. Waluigi was never my most wanted to begin with but my opinions on the character are affected in no way by his fans.
  • The Ice Flower is like the worst power-up in the series. I wanna kill enemies, not freeze them. It wouldn't be such a problem if the New Super Mario Bros. games didn't constantly give you them. It's like every other level, that's what you're using. It gets old fast. Redundant, yes, but at least it's not actually bad like Spring Mushroom is.
  • Super Mario Maker 2's Super Mario 3D World style is stupidly limited and outside of the Koopa Troopa Car I have zero reason to use it when making levels. Haven't played Mario Maker 2 yet but I thought the 3D World style looked pretty neat
  • Phantom of the Bwahpra from Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a better song than Jump Up, Super Star! from Super Mario Odyssey. Fully agreed. All the way. Jump Up Super Star is overrated as heck.
  • King Boo's spin-off design is more charming in my opinion than his Luigi's Mansion design, as simple as it is. Agreed but that's probably just because I haven't actually played Luigi's Mansion
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 still needs a sequel. They'd better improve those dang awful physics from the original. Then maybe I'd consider it
  • Super Mario All-Stars is the superior way to play the original platformers. Agreed for all except Lost Levels
When you make your first post only to get hated on instantly. No worries, people share their opinions here all the time ans it's very much encouraged. No one will hate you for it
Click to expand...
 
I got some more hot takes fresh from the oven:
  • Piranha Plant is just an okay addition to Smash overall but I feel like Smash didn't need a character as non-descript as a generic Piranha Plant. I'm not complaining about its inclusion but I hope it's a one-off and that actual characters are still being considered priority over picks like Piranha Plant. Again, not a bad character, I enjoy using it a lot, but I don't feel like it added much to the roster overall.
  • While Super Mario 64 is a good game that has had a massive impact, I feel a lot of games have surpassed it with their own ideas and takes on it since. While I've only ever played the DS port, I don't really think the freedom aspect of it was done very well and feel Super Mario Odyssey does it much better. There is an explorative nature to the levels but it doesn't feel as well-handled when you still have a goal to accomplish in mind. I'm aware you can grab different Stars irregardless of what you actually pick before you go but the game doesn't actually reward you for going off what is the intended beaten path. Odyssey's approach does that to a much better extent. There's no real point to open world enviroments if the game doesn't reward you for exploring and unfortunately while Super Mario 64 does some of that it doesn't really do to the extent it could.
  • Yoshi x Birdo is still a valid ship and you will never change my mind.
  • Mario Sports Mix was one of the better Wii titles in the series, my only issue was the super-uninteresting roster outside of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest guests.
  • Mario Kart Wii > Mario Kart 8.
  • SNES Rainbow Road is not just my favorite Rainbow Road but my favorite course in the series, especially its Mario Kart 8 rendition.
  • Mario Party is just OK.
  • I really hate how the Wario series is represented in Smash; I get there hasn't been a Wario Land game in awhile but I wish they would have given both subseries equal representation instead of just going full WarioWare.
  • The Koopalings are NOT wastes of space but should be given more unique boss battles rather than "jump on them, dodge the shell attack, rinse and repeat". Super Mario World did this the best of all the games imo.
  • Not sure if it's necessarily a hot take or not but really do love it when the Mario RPGs deviate from the normally fun and cheerful nature of the series to get more serious. Things like the first two Paper Mario games or Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story or even something like we got from Super Mario Odyssey are exactly what I want out of a good Mario series story.
  • I love the babies, especially Baby Peach and Baby Daisy. Should have given Baby Rosalina red hair to reference Rosalina's storybook though.
  • Funky Kong, Wiggler, and Honey Queen should come back for Mario Kart 9.
  • Bowsette sucked and I am SO glad that trend is dead.
  • They should either just stick to Mario or go full hog and do Super Smash Kart or something, don't just stop halfway (or better yet, do both!!).
 
Last edited:
You know, I've got a certain opinion to share myself.

The final areas of most Mario RPGs drag on for far too long in an attempt to be "climatic," and I don't like it at all. It's extremely annoying and actually makes me dread reaching the end of a Mario RPG at times, because I know that before the final boss I'll have to suck 2 hours out of my day for the overly long and repetitive level beforehand.

I know that some of these areas, such as Bowser's Castle in Paper Mario, use this long length to get you to use every skill you've acquired so far. But it doesn't feel any less repetitive. Bowser's Keep in Super Mario RPG, while long, kept things fresh with most of the level being behind random doors with different content behind them (so I could avoid all the annoying diagonal platforming areas, thank goodness). However, after that, it felt the need to throw in the Smithy Factory, and that was no fun at all.

The list goes on. Later Mario RPGs added a pipe to alleviate backtracking once you made it to a certain point, but still drag on much longer than necessary. Partners in Time had Shroob Castle, and while you can't not call an evilized version of the main hub area epic, it still felt the need to throw a Chain Chomp at your pipe and nearly double the length of the level. Neo Bowser Castle in Dream Team had four entire areas to get through, in both the real and dream worlds, and it's just ridiculously long. You're even forced to fight Kamek a total of 3 times over the course of that single level. Talk about repetitive.

At least Sticker Star and Color Splash have their final levels at a decent length, but that's probably just because of their different level structures in general, and I can't really picture their final levels in a different Mario RPG. But they have the right idea: "You've already gone on this long adventure, so why do we need to make the final level triple the length of all the others?"
 
Doctor Healmore said:
You know, I've got a certain opinion to share myself.

The final areas of most Mario RPGs drag on for far too long in an attempt to be "climatic," and I don't like it at all. It's extremely annoying and actually makes me dread reaching the end of a Mario RPG at times, because I know that before the final boss I'll have to suck 2 hours out of my day for the overly long and repetitive level beforehand.

I know that some of these areas, such as Bowser's Castle in Paper Mario, use this long length to get you to use every skill you've acquired so far. But it doesn't feel any less repetitive. Bowser's Keep in Super Mario RPG, while long, kept things fresh with most of the level being behind random doors with different content behind them (so I could avoid all the annoying diagonal platforming areas, thank goodness). However, after that, it felt the need to throw in the Smithy Factory, and that was no fun at all.

The list goes on. Later Mario RPGs added a pipe to alleviate backtracking once you made it to a certain point, but still drag on much longer than necessary. Partners in Time had Shroob Castle, and while you can't not call an evilized version of the main hub area epic, it still felt the need to throw a Chain Chomp at your pipe and nearly double the length of the level. Neo Bowser Castle in Dream Team had four entire areas to get through, in both the real and dream worlds, and it's just ridiculously long. You're even forced to fight Kamek a total of 3 times over the course of that single level. Talk about repetitive.

At least Sticker Star and Color Splash have their final levels at a decent length, but that's probably just because of their different level structures in general, and I can't really picture their final levels in a different Mario RPG. But they have the right idea: "You've already gone on this long adventure, so why do we need to make the final level triple the length of all the others?"
Click to expand...
This never really bothered me that much, mainly because for the most part they all had fairly placed save points.

Also I don't think it's fair to count Bowser's Keep and the Factory as one area considering they're both separate with the latter being the definitive end of the game, even if they're both in the final leg.
 
Last edited:
Pokerninja2 said:
This never really bothered me that much, mainly because for the most part they all had fairly placed save points.

Also I don't think it's fair to count Bowser's Keep and the Factory as one area considering they're both separate with the latter being the definitive end of the game, even if they're both in the final leg.
Click to expand...
I mean no, they don't feel cheap, just overly long and redundant. I often find myself with this desperate feeling to reach the end, or at least get something fresh and fun.

I never said they were one area. I simply said that Bowser's Keep was fun, but the Smithy Factory after it was not, and they should have ended the game at Bowser's Keep (and if they had to have the factory, they could just remove the repetitive trainwreck of a level before the final boss). The sheer clunkyness of the game, especially concerning the diagonal platforming and battle system, didn't really help either because I just wanted to put an end to my misery. Smithy Factory may very well be one of the biggest reasons for my general dislike of that game.
 
I wanna rephrase one of my opinions from my previous comment: I still stand by liking Mario games when they are more serious, but I still really like its lighthearted goofiness. What I think I moreso meant is that I like it when the Mario universe is treated less like an arbitrary world for Mario to platform through (which admittedly is good in its own right for things like the New Super Mario Bros. games), but more like an actual place where actual people actually do stuff, most commonly seen in the Mario RPGs, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Odyssey, and even the upcoming Luigi's Mansion 3 with the main cast going on a vacation to a hotel. I just feel a greater sense of immersion when it's treated like that in a game.
 
The point is that I don't notice a difference.

Bowser's Castle is the low point of SMRPG, the challenges aren't very fun to play, they lock the most powerful equipment behind them, and the only way to know which equipment is locked behind which challenge is to use a guide.
 
Dr. Eggman said:
The point is that I don't notice a difference.

Bowser's Castle is the low point of SMRPG, the challenges aren't very fun to play, they lock the most powerful equipment behind them, and the only way to know which equipment is locked behind which challenge is to use a guide.
Click to expand...
The locked equipment was annoying, yes, but I felt it added variety to the game by being able to choose your path. And the ability to avoid the clunky diagonal platforming was a definite plus.

And no, as long as all the "______ Way" areas or all the annoying maze areas or Smithy Factory exist, Bowser's Keep is certainly not the low point of the game.
 
The lowest part of SMRPG is the underground levels.
 
Lowest point for me is Moleville to Booster Tower. I've always just found that part of the game to be a total slog.
 
Not surprising that Super Mario RPG hasn't aged all that well, considering it's the series' first take on the genre. At least its successors improved on the formula.

The villains are still cool tho
 
The thing is that pretty much everything about Super Mario RPG is great except the actual game itself. The story and characters are great, but the platforming sucks, the battles suck, and the areas suck. There's a good reason Super Mario RPG is my least favorite of the RPGs.

I'd love to see a remake of the game, as many of the game's flaws are there solely because of its age, but I also know that a remake will never happen because Stingy Square. Shame, too; had it been released on better hardware it could have been a genuinely great game.
 
Doctor Healmore said:
The thing is that pretty much everything about Super Mario RPG is great except the actual game itself. The story and characters are great, but the platforming sucks, the battles suck, and the areas suck. There's a good reason Super Mario RPG is my least favorite of the RPGs.

I'd love to see a remake of the game, as many of the game's flaws are there solely because of its age, but I also know that a remake will never happen because Stingy Square. Shame, too; had it been released on better hardware it could have been a genuinely great game.
Click to expand...
I feel ditching the whole isometric angle they were going for and streamlining it with the rest of the RPGs would go a long way to fix a lot of its clunkiness. For the most part you're moving in diagonal angles, which is harder than moving in the cardinal directions like you can in Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi, especially when platforming gets involved.

Also bring back Big Yoshi while you're at it. Give him the spotlight he deserves!
 
Last edited:
Yeah the gameplay is the main reason I still haven't finished the game. I think I was spoiled by PM:TTYD being my first Mario RPG, but idk the gameplay in SMRPG is a bit primitive in comparison. The story, characters, and designs are great and I agree a remake would be great. I think the Dream Team engine would be a perfect fit for a SMRPG remake, though since the 3DS is dead it might need to be rebuilt for the Switch.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back