Most Playable Enemies came from older Super Mario games compared to newer (SMW2 and later) ones

winstein

winstein

Justice is not limited, it is a universal quality
Awards Committee
MarioWiki
winstein
marioparty5.jpg

I've noticed recently that, for the Mario series, it's rare it is to have a playable enemy beyond Super Mario World. I think if we compare to the playable enemies we got in Super Mario games after Super Mario World, the number easily gets dwarfed by the amount of enemies in the first four Super Mario games (Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 the USA one, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. Not even Super Mario Land or its sequel benefit from extra appearances, thus they were excluded.

I'll illustrate this with the enemies playable in spinoff series (they include Mario Party, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Baseball). With who got playable so far, they came from the following games:
  • Super Mario Bros.: Blooper, Hammer Bro, Koopa Troopa, Goomba, Koopa Paratroopa, Lakitu, Piranha Plant (in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)
  • Super Mario Bros. 2: Shy Guy, Ninji
  • Super Mario Bros. 3: Boo, Dry Bones, Spike, Chain Chomp, Boom Boom, Fire Piranha Plant, Fire Bro, Boomerang Bro
  • Super Mario World: Kamek/Magikoopa, Monty Mole, Wiggler, Chargin' Chuck
  • Other games:
    • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Fly Guy
    • Super Mario 64: King Bob-omb
    • Super Mario Sunshine: Petey Piranha
    • New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Stone Spike, Ice Bro
    • Super Mario 3D Land: Pom Pom
Note that for this list, I omitted certain characters that are more significant than being a mere enemy or boss, like the Koopalings, Bowser Jr., and Dry Bowser. But from this list, we can clearly see that the playable enemies from the first four games account for more than 75% of representation. Perhaps it also says something that the enemies in other games are based on the enemies in the first four games, so like New Super Mario Bros. Wii had two reps, but those two enemies are based on Spike and Hammer Bro, a SMB3 and SMB1 enemy respectively. In other words, original forms of enemies from later games don't seem to be playable (for example, Whomp: they may humorously drive a moped in Mario Party 8, but you can't play as them so it don't count).

Perhaps it speaks of how entrenched the older games are where their more recognisable enemies came from them. Super Mario Bros. the first game requires no introduction, since every single enemy from that game is iconic in some form, with Super Mario Bros. 3 and World having their share of recognisable enemies. Super Mario Bros. 2 is a bit of an oddball given that it doesn't have as many recurring enemies, but the unusual nature of that game gave rise to some recognisable faces, the biggest being Shy Guy.

Is this a major problem? Well, to be fair, I doubt that most people would bother to notice that the enemies tend to come from older games. So you can say that it's not much of a problem. What I do think is that, from this observation, I get the feeling that the more modern enemies are probably not designed as playable candidates. This could turn out differently in the future, of course, but it felt to me that from the later games, it's the friendlier species got highlighted better compared to the enemies, like Piantas, Nokis, and the Lumas. (Speaking of the friendlies, the lack of playable demand is a topic for another day...)

So perhaps to end my post here, the question is: would you be interested to see more enemies from later games (SMW2:YI and beyond) get more playable appearances?

Thank you for reading.
 
I mean for what it's worth Ms. Mowz counts as a playable character and she's part of the Little Mouser species originating from Yoshi's Island

Anyway yeah I wouldn't mind later enemies becoming playable. Obscure/one-off ones too. Imagine a Wizzerd firmly grasping a steering wheel with all four of its grabby hands.
 
All it is is nostalgia baiting + those enemies have been around longer so people are more likely to remember them (similar to how Pokemon has a focus on Gen 1). Honestly, I'd rather they scoop up the last of the Super Mario Bros. playable characters first, poor Cheep Cheep, Spiny, Buzzy Beetle and Bullet Bill were never playable in the games, even though I do like these guys and wouldn't mind seeing them playable, Bullet Bill especially.

Though technically, some of them were playable in Puzzles & Dragons alongside others, namely Bob-omb, Bullet Bill, Banzai Bill, King Bill, Bone Piranha, Cheep Cheep, Big Cheep Cheep, Cheep Chomp, Bony Beetle, Fire Chomp, Parabeetle, Heavy Parabeetle, Coin Coffer, King Coin Coffer (funnily enough specific to this game), Thwomp, Whomp, and Thwimps.

By the way, Mario Party 3 did have a duel partner system, and idk if that counts since that does include Thwomp, Whomp, Mr. Blizzard, and Snifit. Mario Party games did have a heavy focus on Super Mario 64 content, since those games gave us Klepto and Mr. I on a regular basis.

winstein said:
Other games:
  • Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Fly Guy
  • Super Mario 64: King Bob-omb
  • Super Mario Sunshine: Petey Piranha
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Stone Spike, Ice Bro
  • Super Mario 3D Land: Pom Pom
Click to expand...
Bone Goomba is playable in Mario Sports Superstars and Goomba Tower in Dr. Mario World fyi. But yeah I've noticed practically all of these more modern enemies are just variants of the classic ones.
 
Ray Trace said:
All it is is nostalgia baiting + those enemies have been around longer so people are more likely to remember them (similar to how Pokemon has a focus on Gen 1). Honestly, I'd rather they scoop up the last of the Super Mario Bros. playable characters first, poor Cheep Cheep, Spiny, Buzzy Beetle and Bullet Bill were never playable in the games, even though I do like these guys and wouldn't mind seeing them playable, Bullet Bill especially.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I think that the Super Mario Bros. 1 enemies are worth mining for some playable appearances, as a means to get them out of the way. They've made Goomba a novel playable character (because they have no arms), so maybe those iconic enemies have a chance?
Ray Trace said:
Though technically, some of them were playable in Puzzles & Dragons alongside others, namely Bob-omb, Bullet Bill, Banzai Bill, King Bill, Bone Piranha, Cheep Cheep, Big Cheep Cheep, Cheep Chomp, Bony Beetle, Fire Chomp, Parabeetle, Heavy Parabeetle, Coin Coffer, King Coin Coffer (funnily enough specific to this game), Thwomp, Whomp, and Thwimps.

By the way, Mario Party 3 did have a duel partner system, and idk if that counts since that does include Thwomp, Whomp, Mr. Blizzard, and Snifit. Mario Party games did have a heavy focus on Super Mario 64 content, since those games gave us Klepto and Mr. I on a regular basis.
Click to expand...
I do have a lot of omissions from my list so it's certainly not very comprehensive, but if we go by your list, we can see how many of these omissions come from the four Super Mario games. The only ones not from them are King Bill (NSMBW), Bone Piranha (NSMB2), Cheep Chomp (SM64), Heavy Parabeetle (NSMBW), Coin Coffer (SM3DL), and Whomp (SM64). That's 6 out of the 16 you listed (excluding the King Coin Coffer)!

I didn't think of the Mario Party 3 duel partners, but I wouldn't have counted those because they can't be directly controlled in the same way as a playable character. They have less agency than a Pokemon where you can at least control their moves, while Mario Party 3 has a simple "opponent encountered, initiate attack" mode. And certainly less agency than a Puzzles & Dragons ally because those allow you to use their skill.

Thank you for reading.
 
Ray Trace said:
All it is is nostalgia baiting + those enemies have been around longer so people are more likely to remember them (similar to how Pokemon has a focus on Gen 1). Honestly, I'd rather they scoop up the last of the Super Mario Bros. playable characters first, poor Cheep Cheep, and Bullet Bill were never playable in the games, even though I do like these guys and wouldn't mind seeing them playable, Bullet Bill especially.
Click to expand...
They're playable in Odyssey!
 
Only temporarily though!
 
SparksMarioWiki said:
I'm waiting for the day Skedaddler and Anglefish become playable. Oh man… that'll get me pumped up!
Click to expand...
Interesting choices from a recent Super Mario platformer! But what's up with Anglefish being one of your suggestions?

If I may add, I think what's particularly interesting is the amount of Mario enemies that don't fit the scope of being playable. So for example, in Super Mario Odyssey, a lot of the new enemies don't have a fully featured set of limbs (like Burrbos and Magmato), or they could be too large (T-Rex). Pickings might've been slim here, like Chinchos or maybe the Trapeetle. Maybe this cuts into how the more recent enemies rarely got playable treatment?

yoshibro75 said:
Do troops in Bowser's Minions and Bowser Jr's Journey count as being playable?
Click to expand...
When I made this topic, I envision a character's playability being tied to if you can control them as a character instead of from a menu. But it appears that in the point of view of some, just being in the party is considered playable. Which I should point out is a valid reason like any other, but I can't help but feel that the lack of expressiveness (such as in Puzzle and Dragons) doesn't make them feel the same as something like Mario Kart or Mario Party, where you get to see the character celebrate or sulk depending on if they win or lost.

With that said, I do not know the nature of those two games you mentioned, but I suppose it depends on the scope of how playable they are (things like: how well do you control their method of attack? Are their movements able to be controlled? Things like that that makes for a fully realised character).

Thank you for reading.
 
winstein said:
With that said, I do not know the nature of those two games you mentioned, but I suppose it depends on the scope of how playable they are (things like: how well do you control their method of attack? Are their movements able to be controlled? Things like that that makes for a fully realised character).
Click to expand...
Yeah, the troops in those two games move and attack automatically, and you only control their special moves, so they probably don't count as playable.
 
Ray Trace said:
All it is is nostalgia baiting + those enemies have been around longer so people are more likely to remember them (similar to how Pokemon has a focus on Gen 1). Honestly, I'd rather they scoop up the last of the Super Mario Bros. playable characters first, poor Cheep Cheep, Spiny, Buzzy Beetle and Bullet Bill were never playable in the games, even though I do like these guys and wouldn't mind seeing them playable, Bullet Bill especially.

Though technically, some of them were playable in Puzzles & Dragons alongside others, namely Bob-omb, Bullet Bill, Banzai Bill, King Bill, Bone Piranha, Cheep Cheep, Big Cheep Cheep, Cheep Chomp, Bony Beetle, Fire Chomp, Parabeetle, Heavy Parabeetle, Coin Coffer, King Coin Coffer (funnily enough specific to this game), Thwomp, Whomp, and Thwimps.

By the way, Mario Party 3 did have a duel partner system, and idk if that counts since that does include Thwomp, Whomp, Mr. Blizzard, and Snifit. Mario Party games did have a heavy focus on Super Mario 64 content, since those games gave us Klepto and Mr. I on a regular basis.


Bone Goomba is playable in Mario Sports Superstars and Goomba Tower in Dr. Mario World fyi. But yeah I've noticed practically all of these more modern enemies are just variants of the classic ones.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't really call it nostalgia baiting when these things still make very frequent appearances.

That just seems like standard to me.
 
Fawfulthegreat64 said:
wouldn't mind later enemies becoming playable
Click to expand...

I mean even tho minions play a big part in Mario world, obviously Nintendo sticks to very specific ones for spin-off rosters despite we keep getting new ones from recent mainline games.

Not to mention the main villains. This is very much a general issue how recent mainline poorly affects the spin-offs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back