Do you support same selectable characters?

[winstein]

Mario games are known for having a huge cast of playable characters, and Super Mario Kart is the first one where you not only select multiple characters, but also have another player to select their character too. Prior to that, multiplayer games were restricted to Mario and Luigi, and in Super Mario Bros. 2's case, only one player is allowed to play a level.

As you can guess from this topic's title, it's about selecting the same character.

Mario games do not tend to support this feature, as they prefer to keep every character distinct. In fact, it's only through online gaming that there is finally the ability to use the same character, starting from Mario Kart DS. Even then, it's still rare to select the same character, especially in a local setting. Correct me on this, but I think Mario Golf (N64) might have this option too since that game had selectable colour palettes. Otherwise, I believe Mario Kart 8 is the first game to properly allow multiple people to select the same character (Mario Kart Wii relies on a glitch to do so). If any Mario game supports selecting the same character, do provide any example you can think of!

One series that I would love to see the support of selecting the same character is Mario Party. The only instance where Mario Party allows the same character to be selected is in amiibo Party, where to my knowledge, is only possible for the CPUs, and because of the supported amiibo at that time, a few characters couldn't get this feature (Daisy, Waluigi, Toadette and Spike). Here's one video to show what I mean (2 videos included!):

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZknyeX4sjcc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpbme140PUY

I wish Nintendo allowed the option to select the same character in every Mario series. How about you?

Thank you for reading.

 

[Parakoopa144]

I don't really mind. It doesn't really fit continunity, but Mario is a series full of princesses, magic turtles, italian plumbers, mushroom men, and all sorts of wacky stuff, so I guess it fits.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Same character selection could cause a lot of confusion, but if you could choose palette swaps like in Smash, then that sounds like a great idea. It was a pretty stupid design choice in Mario Sports Mix to include palette swaps, but prohibit same-character selection.

 

[BBQ Turtle]

I'm not hugely keen on identical characters being able to be selected by two different people, but I'm fine with palette swaps being able to be selected at the same time, as long as they don't take up extra character slots *ahem*MetalMarioGoldMarioPinkGoldPeach*ahem*. Mario Kart 8 is the only example of this I can think of though, excluding in online games.

 

[Ray Trace]

yes this needs to return in a future game.

also, baby mario should turn into baby luigi's colors while baby luigi should turn to baby mario's colors for the lulz

 

[Czario]

Depends on the series. I'm fine with it for Mario Kart but it'd just look stupid in Mario Party.

 

[Toka Hebizuka]

I'd like to see it just so I can use pallet swaps of characters like in Smash.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Smash Bros. has been doing this, and also, I support multiple people selecting one character. Mario has never known to be coherent so why not have multiple Marios. It also deals with the headache me and my irl friend that both our favorite Mario character is Mario.

I don't really mind. It doesn't really fit continunity, but Mario is a series full of princesses, magic turtles, italian plumbers, mushroom men, and all sorts of wacky stuff, so I guess it fits.

Continuity doesn't really exist, and if it does, it's barely anything. Even series that used to have a shred of continuity had continuity thrown out, ahem, Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi.

I'm not hugely keen on identical characters being able to be selected by two different people, but I'm fine with palette swaps being able to be selected at the same time, as long as they don't take up extra character slots *ahem*MetalMarioGoldMarioPinkGoldPeach*ahem*. Mario Kart 8 is the only example of this I can think of though, excluding in online games.

The only bad thing about character slots is that they take up pixel UI space on the roster and occupy a negligible amount on the disk space (like palette swaps). Any other argument supporting that "they take up slots" is not valid.

Depends on the series. I'm fine with it for Mario Kart but it'd just look stupid in Mario Party.

Mario Party is stupid to begin with, Gander boy.

 

[Ray Trace]

Depends on the series. I'm fine with it for Mario Kart but it'd just look stupid in Mario Party.

Mario Party is like really, really, really stupid to begin with and I think clone characters actually fit the stupid mood it has.

like imagine a match of four Warios killing each other, i think it would make mario party even more hilarious

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

 

[Wintertime Peach]

Yeah, I really wish it were possible for more than one player to be the same character in Mario Party. I always struggle at choosing my CPU opponents in Mario Party, because there aren't enough characters that I hate. I wish I could make all of the CPUs be Waluigi, because he's the only character I truly hate and I don't feel bad for him when he loses.

 

[ルイージ]

For main series titles that contain multiplayer for any reason (e.g. Super Mario 3D World, etc.), I do think that that cohesiveness of allowing only one person to be one character is working out all right. Cooperative play in these games is more interesting if not everyone is exactly the same character, and thus you figure out who's going to play whom. (Plus, in those games, there's character-to-character interaction in the story, even if it may be small, which would be awkward for palette swaps.)

But for spin-offs such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, I think it's all right for there to be palette swaps. Personally, I'm not a big fan of them, but I mean, they're spin-offs. We're not exactly looking for some kind of internal integrity here. The whole gimmick behind those games is "pick your favorite character to play as", so not allowing people to do so seems strange.

EDIT:

Of course, there's this-

you: okay, palette swaps in spin-offs
me, an intellectual: co-op in luigi's mansion where you aren't forced to play as luigi, make it happen ninty

 

[winstein]

Sometimes I wonder why people didn't use hacks to make the same character selectable in Mario Party, whereas people had done this in Mario Kart. There are instances where people hacked Mario Kart 64 to select the same character, for example. I would love to see a Mario Party 3 game starring Mario exclusively, for example.

Smash Bros. has been doing this, and also, I support multiple people selecting one character. Mario has never known to be coherent so why not have multiple Marios. It also deals with the headache me and my irl friend that both our favorite Mario character is Mario.

I wanted to mention Smash Bros. in the OP, but I felt that the combination of Smash Bros. being a fighting game (so it's expected to be able to do so) and it being not exclusive to Mario makes me feel like it's not worth mentioning. But yes, Smash has historically allowed for the same character, and in older games, selecting a Team battle forces even same characters to have the same colour palette.

I have taken that screenshot before, and it's based on one of the videos I posted in the OP. Nice to see it still have some use! If you look closely, you can see that two of the Marios are facing each other in the middle panel.

Thank you for reading.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

you: okay, palette swaps in spin-offs
me, an intellectual: co-op in luigi's mansion where you aren't forced to play as luigi, make it happen ninty

that was actually planned in Dark Moon, but the developers didn't want to sacrifice accessibility of download play. Fair trade off. But playing as Mario and spamming "OVER HERE" when a floor is cleared and "GOOD JOB" when I'm trapped in a carpet in Scarescraper would've been AMAZING I tell you.

If you look closely, you can see that two of the Marios are facing each other in the middle panel.

STARING CONTEST.

 

[winstein]

I am honoured to be mentioned in a recent Supper Mario Broth Twitter post!

like imagine a match of four Warios killing each other, i think it would make mario party even more hilarious

Here's a video on amiibo Party, featuring only Warios:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF8LpaMLg24

Thank you for reading.

 

[Magikrazy]

yes, but only if there are alternate color schemes to pick from so as not to confuse duplicates for each other

 

[Fawfulthegreat64]

Yeah. And it's not like they have a shortage of alternate costume sources, even already in the games. One of each character is ideal imo, with other versions of them as alts rather than separate slots, with exceptions where necessary (such as the Baby Mario Bros.)

It also leads me to how the argument is often made that the "echo characters" (can I call them that even in Mario spinoffs? I feel like it fits) don't take much additional development time and thus aren't taking the place of a more unique character, which is true, but I feel like making them all separate is bloating the roster to look bigger than it really is if you combine versions of the same character. Mario Kart 8 for example, if Metal, Gold, and Tanooki Mario were alts for Mario, Dry Bowser was an alt for Bowser, and Cat and Pink Gold Peach were alts for Peach, sure that wouldn't free up space for other characters but the roster size would feel more genuine, if smaller in number. I'm glad Smash is doing this thing now (and for characters that are more distinct and separate at that, like Daisy, who should still be her own slot in Mario Kart)

If Mario Kart employed alternate costumes (beyond Yoshi, Shy Guy etc), that would also make duplicates of the same character online have more variety in appearance.

 

[Koops]

If multiple people prefer a same character, then... ok.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

My friend wants to play Super Mario Party and this is going to get pretty damn annoying if neither he or I can both play as Mario.

 

[winstein]

I will forever be grateful for the person who did this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ0e9bDtvow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsUEzTl0enA

...but I wish it's done on Mario Party 3 instead of Mario Party 2.

I imagine LeftyGreenMario and Baby Luigi wishing that some of the Warios are replaced with another character if they are winning.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Wintertime Peach]

I would love to see a Mario Party 3 game starring Mario exclusively, for example.

Here you go:

Spoiler: Four Marios in Mario Party 3

Bonus:

Spoiler: Double Peach and double Daisy

(Sorry about the bad quality )

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

I imagine LeftyGreenMario and Baby Luigi wishing that some of the Warios are replaced with another character if they are winning.

Thank you for reading.

I like one character winning and the other three are Warios. That would make for a great Mario Party though I wonder if I should still change controller schemes to screw over Wario or, nah, that's too time consuming.

 

[winstein]

I would love to see a Mario Party 3 game starring Mario exclusively, for example.

Here you go:

Spoiler: Four Marios in Mario Party 3

Bonus:

Spoiler: Double Peach and double Daisy

(Sorry about the bad quality )

It's really cool to see! How are these achieved? Is it through cheat codes or the use of ROM-hacking? If it's through cheat codes like GameShark, I would like to try that too.

Thank you for reading.