If presented an option to choose a character, would you still pick Mario?

[winstein]

One of the frequent things that some fans say about Mario is that, if there presents an option to play as a different character, then Mario would not be picked as a result for various reasons. Perhaps the reason could be that a different character is normally not playable so they want to give them a chance, or maybe some thinks Mario is boring compared to the colourful cast. Therefore, I am putting this idea to the test and see how true the idea is. Perhaps not in general, but at the very least within this community.

I presented 5 scenarios which I think should cover most of the bases:

• Mario or Luigi: When it comes to two player choices, Luigi is a very common secondary character, and indeed, there are many games where you get to play as either, though based on player number (basically, Mario is player 1 and Luigi is player 2). Mario Bros. arcade was the first that presented this option, but various other games did allow this, like Super Mario Bros., or Yoshi (Game Freak).
• Mario or a different co-op character: There are certain other games where it's Mario, but he's joining forces with a different character instead of Luigi. For example, in Super Mario Odyssey, a second player can play as Cappy. The question is thus, if you could play as Cappy/Luma/Toad/other, would you have preferred them instead of Mario?
• Mario in a small team: In a few Super Mario platformers, there is an option to play as a different character that's not Mario, like Super Mario Bros. 2. Mario RPGs might also allow you to pick your own character but not many would let you put Mario in the sidelines. They might have different abilities to set them apart, which might make them superior to Mario. Would Mario seem like the unattractive option because he's not special compared to them?
• Mario in a group of all-star characters: There are some games, including from other series like Mario Kart and Mario Party, where Mario is joined by a few characters like the standards and occasionally some foes. With a somewhat larger group focusing on the all-stars, would Mario seem like a boring pick when other characters seem better?
• Mario among a large ensemble of characters: This is the big one: when you have a choice of a lot of characters, would Mario even be picked? So maybe the Shy Guy and the Dry Bones that you don't normally see playable might be preferred because they don't have a lot of baggage or expectation compared to the star of the franchise.

And there's a 6th option too, which is Mario only. This is the option you would pick if you would rather not pick Mario except for when you have no choice but to play as him. Or maybe you would probably pick this if you refuse to play a Mario game if Mario is the only playable character.

And one more thing: this is not a mutually-exclusive option. So say if you rotate among 2 characters like say Mario and Yoshi, it still counts as you would pick Mario in this case. If you will stay away from Mario at all costs, such as in Super Mario Bros. 2 where you will only pick Luigi, Peach, or Toad, then this would not count because you would never pick Mario.

All right, let's hear it from you!

Thank you for reading.

 

[Waluigi Time]

Depends on the roster and gameplay. If you give me any of Waluigi/Wario/Bowser as an option, 9 times out of 10 I'm going to pick them over anyone else. If there's significant gameplay differences between characters then it depends on how fun/useful it is to play as Mario over anyone else (outside of situations where Mario is required, which I assume falls outside of "if presented an option"). I do like to have him around in scenarios where I can use multiple characters at once like Mario Baseball.

 

[Ray Trace]

Honestly, I don't like Mario by himself. I don't often play games that have him as the only playable character, it's the reason I gravitate more towards Super Mario 64 DS than Super Mario 64 (or playing Super Mario 64 with character mods) or Super Mario Bros. 2 over Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario 3D World over Bowser's Fury. The times where I do play as him are games where Luigi is like locked to a later point in the game (like Super Mario Galaxy 2; in Super Mario Galaxy I just waited until my sister was done playing with Mario). In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if I was the only one playing, I'd park him in a bubble while I enjoy my time as Blue Toad. Probably the only Mario game I played where Mario was the sole playable character was Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door and even then he's accompanied by controllable partners. I briefly played Super Mario Odyssey but that was with mods so it doesn't count.

However, my twin sister strongly assosciates with Mario which is why he's frequently a partner in games with a big roster of characters despite my personal distaste for him. I picked him as a partner in Mario Sports Superstars when I was Baby Luigi mostly because of my sister and he occasionally ends up as a partner in Mario Kart: Double Dash, despite my second favorite character, Baby Mario, being available. In Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Super Sluggers, he's often a shoe-in for my team, despite the large amount of playable characters in that game. In games with more constrained rosters like Mario Sports Mix, he'd often be on my team too.

So honestly my choice kinda does depend on how big the teams are and who is available, but he's generally lower priority than my favorites (Baby Luigi, Baby Mario, Toadette, Toad, Rosalina, Bowser Jr., Baby Daisy, Baby Peach). If there was a Mario Sports Mix with Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and Toadette playable, Mario would struggle to find a spot on my team, but he's a priority over characters like Peach, Bowser, Diddy Kong, Waluigi, even over Luigi tbh.

 

[Salmancer]

Mario is the title character. Even if the cheat code for Luigi works from game start I'm playing initially as Mario. Even if Luigi has his brand of high jumps and sliding I'd still pick Mario, Luigi's the expert character for later.

The thing with Mario in small groups is that as the "balanced" character he has no disadvantages but also no advantages. (Er.. most of the time) When picking characters for their skills, I'd only want Mario if everyone else's disadvantages are deal breakers. I'm the kind of person who doesn't pick the All Rounders in Mario and Sonic, it's more fun to optimize and sometimes deal with the consequences of doing so when the disadvantages rear their head.

Oh and Super Mario Run just hates Mario because an update took away everyone else's disadvantage so Mario is just the worst character in that game. I still use him in World Tour because the game is balanced around that skillset, but Toad Rally is a competitive mode so why restrict yourself?

 

[Bowser Jr.]

I chose "Mario Or Luigi" because I equally like both.

 

[Hooded Pitohui]

I tend to select Mario only in scenarios where there's a small selection of playable characters and the option is not simply Mario or Luigi.

Give me a sizeable roster (I'd guess about... eight or more, plus or minus a couple depending on which characters are in the roster), and I'll typically pass him over. Give me a smaller roster than that, and I might pick him now and again or more than likely include him in a team.

If it's just down to two, I'll play as Luigi over Mario, but not the other secondary options like Cappy.

For me, there's nothing wrong with Mario. He's fine as a character, but the thing about Mario is he's pretty much guaranteed to get regular playable appearances and solo outings. Pick nearly any other character, and they'll get less playable appearances than he gets! So I prefer playing as them while the opportunity is there.

Luigi is about the only character who can come close to getting the same near-guaranteed chance to be playable (emphasis on near since there are games Mario has missed and plenty of games Luigi has missed), so when it's between just the two of them, it comes down more to character and design preference. Again, there's nothing wrong with Mario, but I find Luigi more appealing... and I prefer green to red.

 

[Dorayaki]

I'm fine with picking him occasionally within spinoffs. But for mainline and RPGs, consider there are much more amout of Mario being the solely playable character, I think I'd go with other options whenever they exist.

 

[winstein]

As a bit of transparency, I picked Mario in every category because I like Mario. So if you want the true results that exclude someone who's biased, you can subtract one from each category and that's the true statistic.

(outside of situations where Mario is required, which I assume falls outside of "if presented an option")

That's the spirit of things, basically. It would not feel like you want to pick Mario if you only do it for completion or because the game requires you to play as Mario.

The thing with Mario in small groups is that as the "balanced" character he has no disadvantages but also no advantages. (Er.. most of the time) When picking characters for their skills, I'd only want Mario if everyone else's disadvantages are deal breakers. I'm the kind of person who doesn't pick the All Rounders in Mario and Sonic, it's more fun to optimize and sometimes deal with the consequences of doing so when the disadvantages rear their head.

Personally I do think that all-rounders are sort of an underappreciated playstyle, especially so if the character is successfully able to not be inferior to every other character with specialties. Like in Super Mario Bros. 2, even though Mario doesn't excel in any one aspect, he is not completely inferior to his friends that makes him outclassed.

Oh and Super Mario Run just hates Mario because an update took away everyone else's disadvantage so Mario is just the worst character in that game. I still use him in World Tour because the game is balanced around that skillset, but Toad Rally is a competitive mode so why restrict yourself?

Yeah, the more I play the game, the more I wonder how Mario could be lucrative to choose since every other character just have something that he can't do. Even Toadette, who doesn't have special skills, starts off big and can steal Toads from her opponent in the end. Luigi also starts small but no one else can jump as high as he is in a single leap, so he retains an advantage. The best one can say about Mario is that he doesn't have an unusual air action (e.g.: flutter jump or float), so he might control a bit better than Yoshi for instance.

I'm uncertain about what Mario could have to be better. I entertained the thought of a chance of an extra Toad per thumbs up but I wonder if that would make him too good.

Give me a sizeable roster (I'd guess about... eight or more, plus or minus a couple depending on which characters are in the roster), and I'll typically pass him over. Give me a smaller roster than that, and I might pick him now and again or more than likely include him in a team.

(...)

For me, there's nothing wrong with Mario. He's fine as a character, but the thing about Mario is he's pretty much guaranteed to get regular playable appearances and solo outings. Pick nearly any other character, and they'll get less playable appearances than he gets! So I prefer playing as them while the opportunity is there.

I think you've succinctly put down the common sentiment with roster sizes: the larger the roster, the more someone wants to try out a different character instead of Mario, who's usually going to be playable anyway. Even in the poll currently, the one with all-stars and large rosters noticeably have a lower amount of votes, indicating that the variety is too good to pass up in lieu of picking Mario.

You know what would be funny? If there's a Mario game like Disney's Golf, where the mascot of the franchise is relegated to a non-playable role. In Disney's Golf's case, Mickey Mouse is relegated to being a caddy for whatever reason, but I suppose it does allow the game to showcase some interesting inclusions, like Max Goof and Morty Fieldmouse (essentially a Mickey stand-in since Mickey's busy, basically). A game that makes Mario a cheerleader of sorts or an announcer while every other character gets playable would be an interesting experiment.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Green Lantern]

I voted for Mario Only and no other options.

This isn't because I dislike Mario, or dislike playing as him, at all; it's just that I generally prefer to play as other characters when I have the option to.

I like Luigi more than Mario and will usually choose him in games where Mario and Luigi are the only available options (e.g. Galaxy 2 or NSMB DS).

Whenever I play games like Galaxy 2 or Odyssey in multiplayer, I usually prefer to play as the co-star Luma / Cappy over Mario because I find them more interesting and unique.

In games with a small team such as Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), 3D World, and Super Paper Mario, I usually play as a different character than Mario (usually either Luigi or Peach).

In all star casts and larger ensembles of characters, I tend to default to Peach and may occasionally choose other characters (usually women) such as Birdo, Rosalina, and Toadette.

As other users have mentioned, Mario is the main character of the franchise and is guaranteed to be playable in almost all games in the franchise, he's the only playable character in many Mario games I've played such as SM64, Sunshine, and singleplayer Odyssey, and he's usually an "all rounder" character without any unique abilities compared to other options. For these three reasons I usually feel that playing as Mario is the "boring" option and I prefer to play as others when I have the chance. I also generally prefer to play as women rather than men when I play video games, which is one major reason I tend to select female characters instead of Mario when the opportunity is there.

 

[Bowser Jr.]

As much as I love Mario and Luigi (as I stated here), I'd like playing as other characters at least sometimes too, although playing as them (Mario and Luigi) is still pretty fun and it's not like I DON'T enjoy it. What Nintendo should do is maybe make at least one Mario RPG game where you can not only play as Mario and Luigi, but any of the other main characters as well. Maybe a game kind of like "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" where a team of all the main characters from Mario all team up and go up against a large alliance of all the villains from Mario, maybe from all the different timelines and alternate universes such as Paper Mario and all that, and they all have a HUGE battle for control of the Mario universe. That would be so epic. I don't know if Nintendo would ever do that, but that would be so incredibly cool. It would be the biggest Mario multiverse battle EVER. I'd also like to see Mario games where the Mario characters team up with heroes and go up against villains (both) from other Nintendo franchises such as Star Fox and Legend Of Zelda and Kirby as well. They cross over with them in Smash Bros., but that's not considered canon because its creators say it all fictionally takes place in someone's imagination so I don't think the interactions between the different Nintendo and Sega, etc. characters in those are considered Mario universe canon. It's like those interactions never happened.

 

[I'm Still Evil.]

I usually play games for long enough to pick every character occasionally, although I have some slight favorites that I gravitate towards. I sometimes pick Mario if the people I play against or with pick characters that have significant connections to Mario (Donkey Kong, Bowser, Wario, Luigi, Peach). There's a part of me that is satisfied by such themed combinations.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

If I were a petty god I would probably just change most characters in any given video game roster to Mario and Mario variants barring Wario, Waluigi, and DK. They're cannon fodder.