Mario Characters who are dead or forgotten

[LeftyGreenMario]

Their recurring cast has expanded overall, not contracted over the years. Bowser Jr., Toadette, Rosalina, Captain Toad, Pauline's revival, the eventual addition of Diddy Kong, these are all regulars in Mario spinoffs since the 2000s.

there was a very obvious change in priorities in the mid-Wii era when there was a sharp dropoff in original characters in Mario spinoffs

There isn't evidence supporting a sweeping change from updated design philosophy. While the smaller cast of original characters may be the case for the Paper Mario series, the Mario & Luigi series after Dream Team suffered severe budget issues that wounded up eating the company from inside. While the new assets made for their last entry, Paper Jam, were strictly from existing Mario establishments, it was not out of creative differences but an act of cost-saving desperation for a company that was on the verge of collapsing. They already decided they cannot make a spinoff featuring deep-cuts due to these extreme constraints so they went for existing characters (saves money from having to design new ones or making deep cuts). They already have the assets from Sticker Star. Might as well focus on just Mario & Luigi sprites and use the existing rich library of 3d models for the sprites they'll reference off.

Supporting the idea that it was budgetary constraints and not creative differences, AlphaDream remade Superstar Saga but had a seemingly arbitrary, conglomerate mish-mash of reused assets and new assets. The Bowser's Inside Story remake featured a handful of entirely new characters that added virtually nothing to the game which would be a glaring challenge to the idea developers simply cannot have or don't want original characters.

This all is coincidence IMO that Mario & Luigi games showed a noticeable decline in new characters just as while Paper Mario went through that change but I don't think any declines of new characters happened during other Mario spinoffs games because it assumes they were rich in new characters to begin with. They really weren't. The Camelot sports new characters were restricted to handhelds while console versions were generally treated as the "main" establishments.

Meanwhile, new characters are getting created all the time. We just had a new release where people noticed that Mario characters were phoned in (Sparks of Hope); Origami King had a set of new characters, the Vellumentals, the main villain, the major supporting villains Legion of Stationery; the main supporting protagonist; Super Rush has an evil snowman. The movie is clearly altered Mario characters, and we even have costumed Koopas like eyepatch Koopa and spiked Paratroopa; also a crowned Penguin.

Looking outside the RPGs, Toadsworth definitely needs to be brought back. The way Nintendo treats him since his last proper appearance in 2013 is evil. No, I don't want a regular ass Toad filling his role. Give the funny old man pls.

I do agree. I like the idea of an elderly steward to who looks after Peach. We don't have many elderly characters and it was definitely a shame Nintendo sees no use for him. He could've easily fit in the upcoming movie, a movie that's not shy filling Spike in for a role.

I think in terms of actual volume, Mario as a series has more one-offs and characters who vanished after just a few games total than it has near-perfect attendees.

That should go without saying.

 

[Larry Koopaling]

Their recurring cast has expanded overall, not contracted over the years. Bowser Jr., Toadette, Rosalina, Captain Toad, Pauline's revival, the eventual addition of Diddy Kong, these are all regulars in Mario spinoffs since the 2000s.

That's certainly true. But that said, it seems to me that nowadays it's still usually preferred a larger cast of recurring character (and fewer one-off characters), whereas it formerly was the opposite, with a smaller recurring cast and more one-off characters. There are exceptions, of course, but the 'creative approach' of say the first Paper Mario has largely no equivalent in modern games.

 

[Ray Trace]

You know, I'd say they're better off just reusing familiar characters than making one-offs nonstop (they're already there and they're resourceful, why remake an asset when you can just reuse say a Shy Guy model perfectly and achieve practically the same results). Look, I like Brighton and Twila as much as the next guy but their only purpose is to be one and done hosts for Mario Party 6, and that's completely fine, they don't need to return in a future Mario game. Whereas, spin-offs aren't exactly all that much creative in the character department either if you want to take a broad look of how characters are used throughout the franchise. Paper Mario has only ever used the basic Mario cast + one-offs, the one thing it barely does is make use of some familiar Mario characters that already exist, namely Wario, Waluigi, Toadette, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, etc. In fact, putting characters like these in major roles rather than making up new characters IS the creative route to go through than making one and done characters based off a particular species; people clamor for the likes of Wart, Pauline, Tatanga, Tryclyde, etc to return as playable roles since forever, and perhaps even want them to play a role in the RPGs. Games like TTYD did do it to a certain extent where we got Toadsworth or Toadette (Mario & Luigi takes steps further by giving the Baby Bros. and Bowser starring roles), but let's not pretend that they were taking good advantage of the Mario cast either. Even by the time Super Mario RPG rolled around, we already have a ton of one-off stuff that could have been used instead such as the Jewelry Land shit from Yoshi's Safari, the Wario Land characters such as Rudy the Clown, the weird shit from Super Mario Land and 2, and the weird characters from Wario's Woods (you win a medal if you know what Aqualea looks like).

That's also the fate of practically ANY spin-off series that has its own spin on the main games in a giant franchise. Mario isn't particularly unique. The characters exclusive to Hyrule Warriors will never see the light of the day in a Zelda game. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Snap never gets acknowledged at all in mainstream Pokemon and you will never see a talking Grovyle adventuring with a shiny Celebi in a mainstream Pokemon game. And this doesn't even include the bevy of game series that has a different cast in every entry, namely Fire Emblem. And these are just Nintendo series, the ones that I know best.

 

[SomeGuyIThink]

Tatanga needs to return

 

[MnSG]

While technically part of the Donkey Kong series, it's rather sad that K. Rool and the Kremling Krew have fallen into obscurity. Heck, not counting the Smash Bros. series, K. Rool's last Mario spin-off appearance was Mario Super Sluggers (almost 15 years ago).

 

[MP7IsUnderrated]

Remember the koopa master from Mario Party 7? He was the guy at the top of Pagoda Peak who would decide if you win depending on your coin count, always been a koopa fan lol, and the koopa master is one of my favorite designs for a Mario character, something about an old koopa is just so goofy and i love it

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

It's a real shame none of the costumes in that game became Mario Kart Tour gacha fodder or something