Here, we talk positively about less-liked Mario (franchise) media

winstein

winstein

Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality
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winstein
It's not a secret that Mario has got over a hundred games under his belt, and that number will grow. However, not every game released is universally liked, and are in fact more likely to attract criticism first and foremost. So while we have properly beloved games like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Party 2, we also have games that are popular to ridicule, such as Mario Party 10, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, or even the later Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. Here, in this topic, if there's a game that is likely to attract scorn or questioning on that game's enjoyment, it's qualified as a talking point. It is also requested that when talking positively about a game, it is followed in spirit, rather than by to the letter (so for example, sarcastically mentioning a game's merits would really be a letdown.

Perhaps I'll start with a couple of what I would like to say.

Paper Mario Colour Splash's reception was already a sore point by the time it was revealed, unlike Sticker Star and Origami King. In fact, it was reacted to negatively because it has pretty much a similar setup as its predecessor, and even then interview with one of the producers didn't help to quell the smouldering grief that some fans felt about it. Despite all of this, I still gave this game a go, and it is a wonderful experience overall. For one, it looks very amazing, and the use of papercraft is very creative. The scenario design is also quite creative that I looked forward to see what's next, because the level design allows for all sorts of creative things, like the 3D rendition of a Super Mario Bros. 3 level. The concept to use paint as a source of life is kind of amazing but also a bit scary, given how the game shows how it could be abused. In this way, the use of papercraft to convey a concept is a very brilliant idea. It's even got a type of follow up in concept in the next game, Origami King, where the concept of folding a character having an altering effect is also rather amazing.

And then, there's the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which is usually derided for its low budget animation, but I really liked the idea that Mario and friends travel to different locations, and it's got its fun moments. Mario talking about Italian food is funny, but I love that because it establishes that there's more to Mario than mushrooms, and I'm also a bit fond of the King Koopa design.

So what are some positive things about infamous or less-liked games that you would like to convey?

Thank you for reading.
 
winstein said:
And then, there's the Super Mario Bros. Super Show,
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wait i thought everyone loved it though, even if in an ironic way or something

anyway idont have anything to say on the topic ive not actually played that many mario games and what i did play doesnt realy get criticised often
unless mario sunshine counts
 
Paper Mario Sticker Star is cool and awesome and great.

It fun
 
I saw a few episodes of the Super Show several years back and really enjoyed it. Always wanted to find some more of it. Same goes for the Kirby anime.
 
mario movie may be a mess, but its a beautiful mess at that

try as hard as you can, illumination, but your movie wont surpass the live-action movie in terms of how enjoyable it is
 
People can be stupid yes but as pro-modern PM as I am it's still not fair to call them as such over as trivial a thing as this.

Like yeah I'm upset not more people like sticker star onward but at the end of the day neither can I blame them nor do I really care much.

Also I will take this opportunity to say: NSMB always has been and will always be cool and good.
 
Here to say Mario Party is the Citizen Kane of gaming.

Glowsquid said:
Statements like this are very much not necessary.
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Tbf this is rather mild and is expressing a bit of a frustration that's not really a personal attack that may have been worded poorly, but maybe my brain's still fried from typing what could pass off as entire Shroom sections about not one, but two super aggressive bad faith 4chan infographics.
 
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It's-a me! I'm drunk. said:
Here to say Mario Party is the Citizen Kane of gaming.


Tbf this is rather mild and is expressing a bit of a frustration that's not really a personal attack that may have been worded poorly, but maybe my brain's still fried from typing what could pass off as entire Shroom sections about not one, but two super aggressive bad faith 4chan infographics.
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Those posts definitely did look draining to make
After making two posts that big, you probably have to take more time to let things sink in better
Best not to just plunge into things willy nilly


Anyway, Doki Doki Panic is good if that counts
Glad most people didn't get the Lost Levels
 
Koops said:
Also I will take this opportunity to say: NSMB always has been and will always be cool and good.
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I think the first two games are legitimately solid games that unfortunately get dragged down with the reputation of the rest of the series. It's a shame. I wouldn't even say that NSMB2 and NSMBU are bad games either. Sure, they don't really bring a whole lot new to the table, but it's not like the foundation that they had to work with wasn't good.

On a similar note, not sure if Super Mario Galaxy 2 counts? But I feel pretty much the same way there, though admittedly with a much more favorable view of SMG2 than NSMB2/NSMBU.
 
The modern Mario Party games are my favorites, especially 10 and Star Rush, which are my favorite games in the series.

I played Paper Mario Sticker Star and I thought that it was fine, plus I like the game's soundtrack. Out of all of the Mario RPGs that I've played, this one is probably the least frustrating to 100%. Collecting all of the stickers for the museum is a lot less frustrating than Color Splash's Roshambo Temples, Dream Team's Mad Skillathon + Boss Battle Ring, and Paper Jam's Attackathon + Battle Ring.

I also didn't hate Mario's companion from that game (Kersti). This could be because of my bias towards female characters which makes it difficult for me to hate or even dislike female characters. I mean I can definitely see why other people hate her, but I just don't. I think that I prefer her over other companions that Mario has had such as FLUDD, Cappy, and Huey. Starlow is another near universally hated character that I can tolerate. She was funny in that one cutscene from Paper Jam where she is inside a pipe along with the bros, Ludwig, and Larry, and she uses her Supernova Sparkle attack, only for her to come out of the pipe coughing. 🤣
 
zelen !! said:
wait i thought everyone loved it though, even if in an ironic way or something

anyway idont have anything to say on the topic ive not actually played that many mario games and what i did play doesnt realy get criticised often
unless mario sunshine counts
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That is the thing: if something is only enjoyable ironically, it would qualify because it usually implies that that something isn't enjoyable on its own merits.

Super Mario Sunshine could qualify because it's considered the least enjoyable Super Mario 3D platformer game.

It's-a me! I'm drunk. said:
Here to say Mario Party is the Citizen Kane of gaming.
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Even though Mario Party is a solid series, the fact that there are a few people who clearly considered a bad series sometimes make me wonder if it's not very well-liked. Perhaps it's the case, because reviews of that game tend to average on the lower end, even compared to the Mario Sports games. Only a few Mario Party games can really be considered relatively universally enjoyable, especially Mario Party 2 and Mario Party DS (Mario Party 3 is usually compared unfavourably to Mario Party 2).

Waluigi Time said:
I think the first two games are legitimately solid games that unfortunately get dragged down with the reputation of the rest of the series. It's a shame. I wouldn't even say that NSMB2 and NSMBU are bad games either. Sure, they don't really bring a whole lot new to the table, but it's not like the foundation that they had to work with wasn't good.

On a similar note, not sure if Super Mario Galaxy 2 counts? But I feel pretty much the same way there, though admittedly with a much more favorable view of SMG2 than NSMB2/NSMBU.
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Super Mario Galaxy 2 might not really count only because it tends to be rated very highly, and it's also certifiably great by many fans. However, you can make a point that both the latter New Super Mario Bros. games have their criticisms, especially NSMB2.

Thank you for reading.
 
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I've already voiced my liking of Yoshi's New Island (I may be biased because I modded the soundtrack but fuck it, why not tinker the game so I enjoy it more) and I'll gladly continue enjoying the game. I really think it's a solid platformer, even if it does live in the shadow of the SNES version, but if it's the only Yoshi's Island game you have access to, I'd advise playing it. If you use Citra or modded your 3DS, just install a music mod pack for the game and enjoy it that way, you'll have a better time.

I also love Mario Party. Even Island Tour had me derive some enjoyment out of it, even if I do hate the board gameplay. I had a lot of fun with Mario Party Advance and I enjoyed its single player campaign and its quirky dialogue.
 
I live for threads like this.
JULIA_BRAIN.png
*cracks knuckles*
  • SNES Mario is Missing - with SMW Sprites and easy to play and understand gameplay, it gives children of the 90's a feel good experience of Luigi & Yoshi travelling Earth, with a bonus of maybe learning a few new trivia things along the way.
  • Yoshi's Story - No Time Limit, Exploration Encouraged! It's so fun to look for little secrets and aim for high scores in this title! Also the choice of color Yoshi for every level! So cute!
  • Paper Mario Sticker Star - The battle system allows for playing any style of fight you want! It has a simple feel good story to progress through, a fresh breath after the intense stories of its predecessors, bringing us back to the roots, the Mario species classics, with new antics of course! It also hones in on making fun use of the paper dynamics while introducing non-paper existences, opening new doors of exploration for its successors. Bowser Jr. also makes a debut here, a more personalized Koopa Jr. if we're being honest.
 
on the topic of mario is missing... ive never the edutainment games but dam do they have genuinely nice art sometimes (particularly in the snes version of mario is missing, and also somwhat the dos version, and the dos version of time machine) no kidding
see https://www.mariowiki.com/Category:Mario_is_Missing!_images and https://www.mariowiki.com/Category:Mario's_Time_Machine_images for yourself

for these big photos? wahtevre they are? theyre patricularly good in time machine but both get to be good
Parthenon_MIM.png
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GreatWallofChina_MIM.png
(mario is missing)
Galileo_Galilei_MTMDX.png
Menlo_Park_MTMDX.png
Padua_MTMDX.png
(marios time machine)
even the pics in the dos version of mario is missing can have absolute Vibes with how colorful and possibly weird they are
Nairobi_National_Park_MIMDOS.png
Golden_Gate_Bridge_MIMDOS.png
Louvre_MIMDOS.png

and some of its sprites (less so for time machine, turns out) arent even that bad
MIMMSDOSLarryKoopaSprite.png
Coins_MIMSNES.png

i dont know and dont realy care how the games actually play but i kind of adore the art tbh

also soon after writing the post i realised oh the marios time machine big phots are probably meant to be viewed in 4 by 3 which is interesting!
 
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ObieStar said:
None of y'all even mentioned the bottom of the barrel, oh god.

King Koopa's Kool Kartoons is uncanny and had a creepy moment where a child who sent in fan mail was told that Bowser knew his location. Look at it.
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I remember hearing bad stuff about Mario Ice Capades but I don't know much.
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So this is something I don't understand: how is what you mentioned about King Koopa's Kool Kartoons and Mario Ice Capades being praised or positively talked about?

Thank you for reading.
 
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Bringing up Color Splash again, the only real problem I have with it is the Roshambo temples; those really make me suffer. However, I actually can live with the rest of the game, I like the variety of settings it has and the humour is great. Huey is also a great character.

Still, I won't deny that Origami King is a big improvement; that might even be my favorite Mario game on the Switch right now and was my favorite game of 2020.
 
My main gripe with modern PM was always, and continues to be, the unnecessary shackles they put on the character design. It's absolutely not because "it's not the first 2 games" given the THIRD game is my favorite, with its predecessors being my second and third favorites. Origami King managed to be a great game despite those restrictions, but I remain against them to begin with. Even TOK would have been miles better if allowed the creative freedom to design brand new characters touching on the Mario world and not being limited to original paper-themed ideas. Paper is best as a supplemental thing to the art style and maybe a few mechanics that take advantage of flatness, not the entire point of the story and properties of the world and every original character must only work in a paper world. Paper has absolutely nothing to do with why i love the stories of the first three games, and even TOK's best highlights are the places they explore areas that don't rely on paper, such as Bobby's story. I do love Olly, but I think "origami-come-to-life" would have worked with the main characters being treated as their normal selves in a flat art style, with the living origami employing magic to "flatten" the characters in canon to fold them. Basically how I imagined the TTYD curses worked in-universe.

TL,DR: the first three games basically had the approach I prefer. Flat, cartoony art style that creatively affects visuals of mechanics & transitions, but otherwise just a grand epic RPG with Mario characters as well as new introductions to the world. And of course no character restrictions in sight. TOK was a good game despite the insistence on modern PM elements, not because of them, at least to me. The highlights were the things that felt reminiscent of the pre-SS games.

But, that's not the point of the topic. As far as positives about unpopular things go, there are a few elements of Sticker Star that, while the game as a whole is the worst in the series, I prefer these elements over the later games. One is the art style: it doesn't beat TTYD's but it's honestly nice to look at, still has rigged models with cartoon shading, and some smooth animations. I also think that SS has a better battle system than Color Splash. It lacks a random chance of an unwinnable battle, and the bosses are possible without the 'weakness' item, allowing you to beat them traditionally for a challenge (even though Kersti yells at you for it). The music is also top-notch.

The Mario cartoons are just a good time, i'm surprised they're unpopular. They're definitely tie-ins and not meant to be the main media with the characters, and on that note they do their job well, for the era of the series they happened in. I'd have taken a higher-budgeted animated film based on the shows for the Mario movie over the gritty live-action-reboot we actually got. Which, speaking of, though I'd have preferred an animated film, I enjoy the Mario movie as its own thing, when not trying to view them as the same characters from the games. It's fun to watch still.
 
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It alright.

It a bit lukewarm but it alright.
 
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