Unpopular opinions about the Mario series

Koops said:
is this where I butt in with my own hot take and say ToK is unironically the best story the series has ever written
Click to expand...

That's a bold statement, but is it truly unpopular? I'm sort of inclined to agree with you.
 
I haven't seen anyone else say it so probably
 
This may honestly not be that hot of a take (it may be more popular than I think it is because it does feel like the kind of opinion that should be at least semi-popular), but everyone I've spoken to disagrees with me on this except like, one person, so:

I think the Mario & Luigi RPG series is overall more engaging and more fun to play than the Paper Mario series. It has more consistent quality and the battles are more fun overall. I also think the stories are consistently better (Super Paper Mario is an outstanding exception). Not to say the Paper Mario series is bad or anything like that, obviously not, but I've seen a lot of people wish the Mario & Luigi RPG series was gone so that Paper Mario could be the main RPG series and thinking that they were taking up space. This is not a recent point of view of course (RIP AlphaDream) but it was prevailing for quite some time. (Personally I thought the two could co-exist, but... that's a bit of a tangent.)

Yes, this does mean I think most of them are better than TTYD. TTYD is a good game, but a lot of issues I have with it are virtually nonexistent in the M&L RPG series.

I would say the main thing dragging any M&L RPG story down (besides the weird sterilization of it in Paper Jam) is Starlow, but that part isn't really all that hot a take nowadays, I think a lot of people don't like Starlow these days haha.
 
I've only just gotten past the superstar saga earlygame so I can't really speak on average M&L quality but also the "M&L is stealing PM's story" is such a dumb take that is both just straight up not true and also another example of people heavily misinterpreting interviews
 
I feel that the Mario RPGs are merely serviceable in this day and age, unless they make a new Mario RPG that involves one of the other major Mario characters in a significant manner. Original characters are fine, but making a familiar Mario character a major presence in an RPG satisfies fans of the characters and even adds a breath of fresh air to the RPGs through the addition of never-before-seen characters (in an RPG, anyway).

What I mean is, Mario has a wide cast of characters, but the RPGs tend to only focus on the three or four main characters: Mario, Peach, and Bowser (+ Luigi). It's rare that Yoshi even gets involved, even if he got his turn (thank you, Mario + Rabbids). The partner characters in Paper Mario don't fill the void because well, they've never gotten much involvement beyond the game that they were introduced, have they? The same logic applies to Mallow and Geno, who only made sense in the game that they are introduced in (though to be fair, Mallow is more open for a future appearance compared to Geno despite the former's unpopularity).

Partners in Time is an example of what I mean as a positive change: sure it's just Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, but both of them have been involved in a Mario game before and so it's nice to see established characters go on a significant adventure. It's your favourite characters doing some grand stuff. Donkey Kong never even got this chance, because his DLC campaign in Mario + Rabbids is a separate adventure that doesn't involve teaming up with Mario. So in this case, a Mario and Donkey Kong teamwork RPG game has great potential, as the movie even shows that a team-up between both works spectacularly.

Likewise, an RPG that involves some lesser-used major characters like Daisy, Wario, and Waluigi (and maybe Toadette and Birdo, but they had the benefit of appearing in an RPG so it's less pressing for them) would be such a treat to me. I admit that on Paper Mario: The Origami King's feedback survey, I even mentioned that I would like to see Daisy appear as a major player in a future Paper Mario game. (To be clear, major player might even just be a non-player role like Peach, just make her have a non-negligible role, unlike Luigi in Sticker Star)

Maybe you might see me listing Daisy and Waluigi as "major characters" and do a double take here. However, I stand by my stance that both of them are major Mario characters. This leads to another unpopular opinion of mine, where I view them with a similar level of prominence as what others would consider as major like Wario and Rosalina. For one, on Nintendo's character portals, both of them have their own profiles, which is not something you see for just about any character (not even Kamek has a profile). Also, the Mario series is not known for canonity, so it's not like how Legend of Zelda dictates which characters are "canon" based on the games they star in; by saying that say, Waluigi, doesn't count because he's not in the main game, it's reinforcing the view that the main games are more canon than spinoffs and thus doesn't align with the lack of canon adherence in the Mario series, when Waluigi is more prominent than many characters in a Super Mario platformer due to his frequent appearances. Of course certain games don't get referenced often like Mario Party, but Mario Kart and sometimes Dr. Mario are plentifully referenced so it's not like spinoffs are off-limits.
(On the note of Boo in the character portal: since Boo is not established as having THE Boo in the same way Yoshi and Toad have THE Yoshi and THE Toad, Boo can't be considered a character as much as it is a species)

Thank you for reading.
 
Michaeloll said:
I agree. We are forced to play as mario in practically every game for the majority of it.... super mario galaxy, sunshine, 64 on the nintendo 64, paper mario, etc...


so why do people even play as him in games like smash and mario kart when characters like peach and daisy [respectively] are better than him? Or even luigi for smash. Mario should not be playable in smash, he should just be the game's host.
Click to expand...

I'm not even a Michaeloll fan or supporter, but I have to admit that we have plenty of things in common and we share similar opinions...
 
Michaeloll is the self-proclaimed biggest Princess Daisy fan who resided in GameFAQs around 2012-2016. He would mainly post in the Smash 4 board to try and gather support for Daisy so she could be added in Smash. He was a rather infamous user who got under a lot of people's skin, and I would say that he did the opposite of what he was trying to accomplish. Rather than getting more people to support Daisy's inclusion in Smash, he turned more people off from that character.

He briefly returned to GameFAQs in 2018 and later closed his account that same year. I guess since he got his wish and Daisy was announced as a newcomer for Ultimate, he must've felt that he accomplished his goal.

But yeah, like I said, not a very well-liked dude even by some Daisy fans. As for my opinion on him, I understand the Michaeloll hate, but I will say that he is nowhere near as bad as memoryman3. He's the other infamous Daisy fan who used to even have an account here before he was banned (good riddance). I think he's infinitely worse than Michaeloll and someone who I can actually say I strongly dislike and would have rather never met online.

Now as for what I said about me having plenty of things in common with Michaeloll, let me explain. We're both dudes who prefer the female characters in the Mario and Smash series, we're both big fans of Honey Queen and Tiny Kong, he likes the baby princesses like I do, at one point he even said that he liked Baby Peach better than Baby Daisy which made me respect him a little more. He also likes Pink Gold Peach. We have similar taste in characters and we both like the unpopular female characters, although I don't share his love for Daisy.

As for that post, it was from a topic he made in the Super Mario 3D World board where he made a poll asking which character will you play as the least. Most people responded with Mario, and that post was his response. I do agree with him that Mario is the most boring choice to play as in the spinoff games and Smash, but thinking that he should be removed as a playable character is kind of laughable. Like yes, I do find the Mario brothers to be very boring to play as, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they shouldn't be playable in Smash.
 
Koopa con Carne said:
googling who that person is (because i have nothing better to do before bed) led me to the discovery of a fandom wiki dedicated to the friggin' GameFAQs userbase
Click to expand...

I'm bloody in it.

I'm not going to link it because it's made by a troll who called me "gay" (I'm ace, so that's wrong and yes he did use gay as an insult in 2015) and the c word. I was hoping that troll would put much more effort into that page but blah and it got cleaned up by someone defending me.

"BabyLuigiOnFire (sometimes abbreviated to BLOF) is a renowned user most notably known for hating majorly hard on Super Mario Galaxy 2. She also really loves Baby Luigi for some reason."

I don't even hate Super Mario Galaxy 2 anymore, not when games like Diablo Immortal exists or practically anything Actiblizz shits out.
 
Wintertime Peach said:
I'm not even a Michaeloll fan or supporter, but I have to admit that we have plenty of things in common and we share similar opinions...
Click to expand...
you're nowhere near obnoxious.

Ray Trace said:
I don't even hate Super Mario Galaxy 2 anymore, not when games like Diablo Immortal exists or practically anything Actiblizz shits out.
Click to expand...
Well I still hate it. Just a different kind of hate. A petty kind of hate.
 
Oh...Thank you. I appreciate you for saying that.

Now I feel guilty for s****ing on your favorite character. Sorry, my bad.

And wow, I take back what I said about Michaeloll not being all that bad...
 
Last edited:
Personally speaking, Mario is typically my first choice even in Super Mario 3D World. I guess I just like the basics. It's also commendable that the developers made everyone balanced so that Mario isn't the inferior one, as in he's not outclassed by any one character so like while Luigi may jump higher, he's also got lower traction. The same can't be said for Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze, since Donkey Kong's moveset is outclassed by the other Kongs (since they have a special jumping skill AND a move that stuns enemies, both of which Donkey Kong lacks). I do think that if a follow up to Donkey Kong Country were made, they should give Donkey Kong a special property to make up. Like I guess... making him stronger so that the amount of hits he can inflict on enemies/bosses is lessened compared to others? It makes sense: he's the only one who can defeat larger Kremlings in the first Donkey Kong Country by jumping on them.

I kind of think that disliking a character because of the invasive actions of an impassioned fan is rather petty, yet this tends to happen for Daisy and Waluigi far more than any other character. So like maybe someone loves Peach and will make it clear that they can't accept someone who didn't like her (like I guess lecturing them on why she deserves to be loved when there is a trace of dissent), but nobody seems to hate Peach because of the annoyance it generated. I also felt that both Luigi and Rosalina might be similar where even an impassioned fan won't rot the enjoyment for those characters for others. Daisy on the other hand, had some people claiming that they hated her because of the actions of one fan, and the worst part is that it makes the others look bad for their actions. I sincerely hope that we are better than this pettiness; I suppose disliking characters for certain characteristics is understandable, but certainly not disliking them because of one fan's actions.

Also one last thing to mention: I think that some are underestimating the media in influencing the perception of the characters (not related to this conversation). We might think that what Game Theory or SuperMarioGlitchy4 (among others) did are harmless in portraying Mario in a negative light, but I get the general gist that they were able to successfully make some people hate Mario through slandering his personality. I don't know if this can be proven, but maybe if say, suddenly there is a barrage of Luigi-slandering videos that paint him in a bad light (maybe like, I guess, portraying him a bitterly jealous backstabber? It feels like something SMG4 would do if it mirrors their reasoning for making Mario what he is): I can foresee that his character will similarly be negatively influenced by them.

Thank you for reading.
 
Last edited:
Mario has my favorite personality and presence of the cast. So yeah I choose him the most, even if I do relate to Luigi, Peach, and Rosalina more.

I was a PM>M&L person for a long time, because I love playing as the species. But gameplay and dialogue wise I have to admit M&L is superior.

Seconding Winstein, but with my own twist , I'd love a party RPG (like how the entire Smash series is a party fight games). So think like Disgaea or Miitopia.
In fact I'll often play the Mario Party series because it's the closest thing to an RPG with the variety of main cast.
 
Last edited:
Wintertime Peach said:
Oh...Thank you. I appreciate you for saying that.

Now I feel guilty for s****ing on your favorite character. Sorry, my bad.

And wow, I take back what I said about Michaeloll not being all that bad...
Click to expand...
If you're replying to me, there's no obligation to like Mario just to please me.

That being said if you truly dislike Mario then please race and destroy 11 of him in Mario Kart Wii or something. Embrace your hatred.
 
Mario was a mistake. It's nothing but wahoos.
 
Winky the frog is actually kinda fun to control. Granted, his constant hopping makes it hard to collect items on straight paths and he has this weird delay when you input an actual jump, but what makes up for these is that he's fast, leaps high, and can kill spiky enemies.

Apparently this is unpopular enough that even the game's staff would vehemently disagree with me.

https://twitter.com/x/status/878320216819646467

Squitter sucks, I'll nod to Steve.
 
Rattly is even worse, especially in the Toxic Tower when he's forced onto you from the beginning of the level. His controls suck, and his jump goes all over the place!

(Yes, I haven't played DKC2, but this is what I've observed from Nintendo Unity's Ways to Die videos. They've shown Rattly in the Toxic Tower dying twice.)
 
Last edited:
been long since i played dkc2 but i recall rattly had this unpleasant ground movement where he'd briefly come to a stop in-between hops. it was speedier to just use his high jumping. i'd say winky was better at moving straight ahead.

though one thing rattly has over winky is a less janky hitbox
 
I mean hated the goddamn Kurbio's Shoe and Spring Mario in Super Mario Galaxy.
 
Spring Mario was just eh
 
The designers should bring back way more already established one-off enemy variations and species, like Choombas or Octoombas or the Bean people from Superstar Saga for new games and flesh them out, instead of constantly inventing original species and characters for each game. As is, it makes the Mario games feel disjointed and generic, like Odyssey or SPM were in my opinion, if there is no common thread between games' lore and canon and anything goes. It dilutes the IP to an extent and I would rather have unique characters and variations on existing species instead of entirely new ones.

In general, I wish they would stick with a canon instead of reinventing the wheel each time they make a new game, and expand on existing lore instead of adding onto it. Same with locations: it's a bit silly that we really only have the Mushroom Kingdom appear across games, but all of the other presumably equally as cool and diverse and big kingdoms like the Sand Kingdom (Tostarena) or the Beanbean Kingdom are entirely confined to one game and never seen again.

I want to know about how the society of Chain Chomps is organized, god damn it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back