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

How do you derive the name "Mario Story" from a papercraft artstyle?

Well, that's besides the point anyway because Paper Mario 64 is undoubtedly a game which was intended to have more powerful story elements than most games in the franchise and whilst I get the impression it succeeded in that in many ways, having Bowser as the main villain imo is not one of them.
 
The same way Yoshi story did. It looks like a pop up book.

And it may have more story elements than most Mario games but that's really not saying anything and even by rpg standards the Paper Mario stories are pretty weak.
 
Repost from my TheTopTens Remix:
"I can read a book about a tragic love tale, and that has a sad and good story, but of course it does, you expect it to. But to see this in a Mario game is entirely surreal and this remains one major reason why I love this game [SPM]."

So sure Paper Mario isn't the best place in the world to get a deep story but it just isn't replaceable by books or films. And FYI, I'm not into any RPGs besides Mario RPGs and Ocarina of Time.

Haven't played Yoshi's story but OK.
 
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Well I'm not going to derail this topic anymore than I have already but I'm just going to say I absolutely hate SPM and it's melodramatic generic story and leave it at that.
 
MiracleDinner said:
As for things which suck in Mario games:
  • 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.

I think that's one bad thing about every Mario game I own.
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That light thing was a cue at least? I mean, the ceiling does cast a light at some point in the game. Anyhow, it's a classic "secret", and you're the first one to complain how cryptic it is. I can imagine it can be cryptic, but you can't say there's at least a hint for it, it's not as seemingly random as you make it out to be.
 
Eh, I never really noticed the fact that there was no light when I had nine stars and there was light when I had ten and I never would have thought that it was a secret entrance to a level.

More generally, I prefer to have a challenge in that I know what to do and it actually takes skill and practise to do it like The Perfect Run, rather than just continuously scanning a single location to try to find something hidden. I find Super Mario 64 gives me the latter kind of challenge more often than the former.
 
Out of curiosity, I sincerely don't mean this as an attack as I had a similar experience: were you a child when you last played it? I got lost in N64/PS1 games a lot when I was young, when I revisited them at an older age I found it was more straightforward than I previously thought. If not, it's still understandable to miss a hint or two, everyone does occasionally.
 
I only played Super Mario 64 briefly before I dropped it and I don't plan on picking it up again any time soon (UNLESS of course the mods!)

I've got the better variant where I can play as Luigi and Wario anyhow so.
 
I assume you mean Super Mario 64 DS
I intend to get that now that I have a 3DS in VG condition since I wouldn't have been able to play it on my DS Lite which has a very worn down D-pad. However I am aware that even though I will be able to use the circle pad the game still treats it as digital input so I can only move in 8 directions in one speed. Hopefully the new courses and characters will make up for it 😃
 
All these cool new locations get introduced in spinoff games, and then you never see or hear about them again. So much wasted potential with places like Neo Bowser City or wherever Electrodrome is. Imagine exploring the Metro Kingdom, except futuristic. Heck, even Toad Harbor would be a charming place to explore. Nope. Back to grasslands and deserts.
 
It's especially a shame when said locations even get fleshed out as societies in their own game, then their existence is forgotten, like Beanbean Kingdom and Rogueport. It would be awesome for some of those Mario Kart track locations to be adapted into RPG areas to explore and meet the locals. Who hopefully aren't Toad pasted a few dozen times.
 
Bowser II said:
All these cool new locations get introduced in spinoff games, and then you never see or hear about them again. So much wasted potential with places like Neo Bowser City or wherever Electrodrome is. Imagine exploring the Metro Kingdom, except futuristic. Heck, even Toad Harbor would be a charming place to explore. Nope. Back to grasslands and deserts.
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Neo Bowser Castle from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team could've been an interesting expansion of the original Mario Kart 7 track Neo Bowser City, but we got something different. 🙄

But for most locations, I can't say if a lot of the one-off ones can really be revisted. They probably can be in the spinoff sports games, would be neat if we had Stardust Fields as a soccer field, but I think coming up with new locations generally works better for Mario's new adventures.
 
One thing I like about 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy1, is the hub worlds to access the courses. As opposed to world maps. I wish games like 3D Land and Woolly World did that. Even more annoying is they decided to have linear world maps, if they're gonna do world maps at all I'd at least hope for them to be overhead and/or branch out like NSMB.
 
Rainbow Road has never been my favorite course in any Mario Kart. It's not because it's typically the most challenging track to race on: I like to have a good challenge driving and I've played tougher racing games with pretty hard tracks (Burning Rangers on S difficulty in Sonic & All Stars Transformed anyone?). No, it's because I find its aesthetics boring. All of its BGM sound practically the same. In contrast, Bowser's Castle had atmospheric scary tunes, threatening tunes, and just outright hammy baddy tunes that mix it up. Rainbow Road is pretty much: it's happy, it's in space, it's ethereal, for practically all times it appears in. Not to mention, it's always just a random floating road in space. Mario Kart 7 at least tried mixing it up and 8 gave us an artificial Rainbow Road which was a nice change of pace but neither were my favorite tracks in Special Cup regardless (7 had DK Jungle and Rosalina's Ice World while 8 had Bowser's Castle).

I'd like to see other takes on Rainbow Roads for once. Have a Rainbow Road set in a dream world in the day time, sorta like Rainbow Coaster and Rainbow Downhill from Mario Kart Arcade GP except wackier and perhaps even psychedelic at points. Make a Rainbow Road be like a party house with rainbow tiles and a giant disco ball. Maybe even make it Christmas themed. Anything for a change of pace.

BTW, I do realize what I said also applies to the circuits and yeah, I do agree that I don't care for most of them too. They tend to be extremely generic, boring tracks, just with a Mario character slapped on it. Luigi and Mario Circuits tend to be just bland, while any other character that gets it is bleh too. I get it that they're supposed to be the beginner tracks but damn, Wii Luigi Circuit and Wii U Mario Circuit is so boring to race on, I'd just rather race on Mario Kart Stadium or Yoshi Park 1 from Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 any day of the week.
 
The UI in Odyssey is horrendous. I'm over this minimalism fad. It's disguised as trendy but really it's just an excuse to be lazy.
 
I for one, like its UI. I don't think it's "horrendous". It fits the Mario design really well: simple, clean, easy to understand, and it conveys as much information only as it needs to. A UI shouldn't be cluttered, confusing, or distracting, which Odyssey's UI doesn't have at all.

I mean look at this
IxSl0nc.jpg
 
I also think that Odyssey's UI design is generic and bland. Like, take a look at the health meter from previous games.

Power_SM64.png
Life_SMS.png
SMG_Health_Meter.png


All bright and colorful, with some artistic design behind them and more than just three colors used.

And look at Odyssey's

SMO_Normal_Health_Meter.png


I could also get into the coin counter but you get my point...It's just...boring.
 
I'm a sucker for a cleaner, simpler UI, but it depends on the game. I like how clean the UI of MK8DX is. It's clear that MK8 stepped up Mario Kart to a new level of modern, and the UI reflects that. Odyssey, despite being a new game with fancy graphics, still has that goofy Mario feel throughout. Personally, I think the health meter and stuff should be in a texture that reflects the current kingdom. Maybe that would be too much work, I don't know. But it would contribute to the overall feeling of adventure while still allowing the UI to feel modern.
 
Yeah. If you wanted an "easy mode" for younger people though I could see 8 health working.
 
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