Things that suck about.... any Mario game.

In the Mario Kart games, a blooper, one of the most useless items, can be obtained in the same position as a bullet bill, golden mushroom, or basically any other useful item (as low as 9th in Wii, 6th in 7 and idk about 8/8DX) How do they think that a blooper is as useful as any of those items?
The only reason I can think is that the Blooper affects only the people in front of you, so basically if you are in a lower position, you affect more people.

Thank you for reading.
 
Ironically I think the Blooper was buffed in MKT for the sole reason that you get a combo of every player affected by it, so it technically benefits you more than in other games.
 
If the Blooper sidetracked the racer in front of you. They dropped the Pow Block item anyway, so I guess the blooper could fit this role.
 
All Mario Karts have absolutely barren single player. It's either racing or battling. People like Mission Mode for a reason (despite all its flaws), but it never seemed to have seen light again.

Also I really, really didn't like Mario Kart online on the brief time I spent on it but maybe I just never ever liked multiplayer online games in general
 
Getting a coin from a item box when you already capped out at ten coins and could really use a throwable item or a super horn to defend yourself from incoming red/spiny shells.
 
At least just grabbing a coin does give you a mini-boost even when you're capped. Not that it makes a difference but hey, not entirely useless.
 
Mission mode was awesome in Mario Kart DS. I remember there was something similar in Mario Kart Wii, but that was online only and can't be played anymore outside of homebrew. I would love to see that return in a future game.

Honestly, I never really cared for the coin mechanic returning in Mario Kart 7 and 8/8 Deluxe. I wish there was an option to turn off coins appearing in multiplayer races like there was in Super Circuit.
 
The coin item is the second worst item in the Mario Kart series, after the Spiny Shell. Not only is it next to useless while racing and that it appears in mono-item races with a high frequency, the one battle mode it would have been useful in (Coin Runners), it doesn't even appear at all.
 
Luigi is really inconsistent when it comes to talking. Either he's fully articulate like in Odyssey and Paper Mario (but not Sticker Star) or he shares his brain with his brother and awkwardly stares and makes some man noises. And when he talks he sometimes talk with a thick accent like in Color Splash (why).
 
Luigi has two modes, Articulate and Scream. I enjoy that his articulate nature seems consistent enough when it's there, as apparent in Luigi's Mansion when he talks about things through the gameboy horror in comparison to Paper Luigi. He really only gets different in Alphadream imo, and I guess color splash too randomly.
 
I wish Luigi was in "Articulate" mode more often. He has so much personality, but it feels wasted when he doesn't get the chance to speak. Although I will admit that LM3 has no problem showing off Luigi's personality, despite his lack of dialogue.

Nintendo needs to send the Mario Bros to speech therapy.
 
The voices for Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Wario suck in Mario Party 1 & 2
 
The characters didn't do enough voice acting than they used to, with some delightful exceptions. The most notable exceptions being Pauline singing a full cover of Jump Up, Super Star! and Wario saying lots of things in WarioWare Gold. I think the one who is worst off is Waluigi, because when Martinet did a Vine with the characters, he never did Waluigi at all.

It's true that the voices might seem very unsettling for how cartoonish and exaggerated they sound, but I think that most of the Mario characters have appropriate voices that it felt charming overall. Like yes, Toad has a raspy and loud voice but I prefer that over the generically high-pitched voiced in Mario Kart 64.

Thank you for reading.
 
Reusing Daisy voice clips with the only changes being that the decibel level increases.
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, Mario Party 6-7, and Mario Super Sluggers are examples of reasonable volume.
 
Personally I think Toad in MK64 sounded kinda cute, and if he had kept that voice I might bear him more than I do, the raspy voice is obnoxious to me and a major contributor to my distaste for Toad.
 
I'd agree it would've been better with the traditional RPG gameplay, but for me since the gameplay in the RPGs is a means to advance through a good story, and it's never been so bad it brings down the story imo, I'm fine with SPM and would prefer it any day over the games that don't bother having good gameplay OR a good story.

Another thing, Sticker Star's gameplay is arguably better or worse than SPM's, but I'd tolerate it just as much if it made up for it with a good story to keep me engaged like SPM did. If the game isn't gonna bother with a story, I'd rather it just be a main series game so I can run freely jump around a platforming environment, slow-paced games focused on NPC interaction and turn-based battles that don't have a story are really not my cup of tea. SPM may have mediocre gameplay but at least over 10 years later I can fondly look back on the characters & narrative that just really clicked with me and I still find myself drawing fan art of to this day. I can't say that for anything Paper Mario has touched since.


But you did remind me that once upon a year or so ago I wanted to aspire to port SPM to TTYD's engine since the assets are compatible, so we could experience what SPM would be like with the traditional Paper Mario battle system. Unfortunately reality hit that one hard, having compatible assets alone is hardly enough to make such a thing. Though there was a recent Blender importer for TTYD I saw footage of on Twitter that might remove some of the hurdles but that sort of project is still far off. Might be possible in PM64's engine with Star Rod but then the SPM assets would have to be rebuilt in the N64 style.

Well when I first played SPM I was only 8 (9 by the end of my first playthrough) and had never played the previous entries so I actually really liked the gameplay because it wasn't hugely complex but it was also really unique and had an element of depth and progression which all the Mario games I had played up to that point lacked. I very much did not find either the levels or the bosses too easy!

Now as a 16 year old I can see, sure it had its flaws, and maybe it would've been better if they'd played it safe with the gameplay, but I don't think it was that bad. If they could just remake this game with less annoying level design and a more balanced combat system it truly would be a masterpiece, but even as it is, it still is to me.
 
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As for things which suck in Mario games:
  • Can't usually skip the credits.
  • SMG has you play through the whole game twice for 100%
  • SMS is quite monotonous and has quite a few annoying levels.
  • SM64 is sort of hard but not really in a good way, I spent so long scanning every inch of the castle to find the wing cap and after all that it was looking at a light on the ceiling!? Even after Noki Bay in Super Mario Sunshine (which, btw I played before SM64) I never would have thought of that and I can't say I enjoyed looking for it.
  • SML and SML2 are too short
  • All of the Mario RPGs I have so far (maybe besides SPM) have me engage in battles with the same enemies over and over again which can be infuriating.
  • SPM has a severely unbalanced combat system.
  • TTYD has unnacceptable amounts of backtracking and Chapter 6 is very boring, at least gameplay-wise (besides Riverside Station and the Smorg battle.)
  • NSMB games have next to inexistent stories.
  • SMG2 was going to reveal more about Rosalina's backstory but this idea was axed.
  • DKCR is really tedious to get 100%.
  • Paper Mario 64 has Bowser as the main villain and final boss despite being such a story-oriented game.
  • Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games doesn't really have anything special to it.
  • Mario Party 9 has a lot of games which are heavily or even entirely dependent on luck and the things in the museum cost so much that it will take me years to buy everything.

I think that's one bad thing about every Mario game I own.
 
I'm much less impressed when I see Bowser as the main villain compared to an original one such as Cackletta, Fawful, or Sir Grodus. And for a game called "Mario Story" I would expect not to see Bowser kidnapping Peach and Mario having to defeat him and then save her, especially when that's the crux of the main story and final boss fight.

I haven't actually played PM64 so no spoilers please, I just know this from internet research.
 
Ignoring the fact that it's called Mario story not because it has a plot but because of it's art style, you do realize that they also kidnap Peach and you have to save her right.
 
Yes I know that PM64 features Bowser as the main villain and final boss and that he and Kammy steal a Star Rod with divine power (I've watched the intro when you boot up the game but nothing further) and they kidnap Peach whom Mario must save, but that's about it so don't spoil anything else for me please.

If I'm not mistaken, "Mario Story" is the English translation of the game's original Japanese name, which was given due to the game's emphasis on plot/character/dialogue/etc. elements and the English name "Paper Mario" came from the artstyle.

So to summarise, I do highly anticipate playing PM64 but I would rather dive into it being able to hope for an original main villain and final boss, instead I cannot expect either.
 
I don't mind Bowser as the villain in PM64 because it's the first time we see his schemes unfold in an RPG setting, and they add enough to make it an enjoyable story. But I don't think he needed to be the main villain again after that, at least not played-straight. Dream Team might get a pass because he was a twist villain which is something new, but honestly the RPGs rely more on narrative so repeating the same plot setup every time doesn't work as nicely as it does in the main series, which focuses more on the levels and mechanics. That's why I prefer these days the RPGs having new villains for their stories.

Also, PM64 has plenty of original bosses which is more than I can say for any Paper Mario after SPM.
 
If I'm not mistaken, "Mario Story" is the English translation of the game's original Japanese name, which was given due to the game's emphasis on plot/character/dialogue/etc. elements and the English name "Paper Mario" came from the artstyle.

Nope, it was purely due to the style. Just like Yoshi story.
It's just the western folk came up with a better name and with all future sequels the title of "Mario story" was dropped even in Japan.
 
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