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  • For a very long time I have a disdain for people being passionate about voice actors that the idea of having one is a bad thing. I remembered that I got a warning on Bulbagarden forums because I commented that I liked the voice of a particular Pokemon in the Best Wishes anime. I should probably provide context on this because it would seem like a strange idea to most of you: back then the Pokemon anime had a mass replacement of voice actors that it became a sensitive topic. Apparently commenting on a voice of a character is a hot topic meaning that even though I only received a warning, it soured me on the idea of voice acting in shows because I am rather touchy on the idea of receiving infractions. (NOTE: Commenting on voice acting as a prohibition at Bulbagarden was already lifted by now)

    There is also a case when a particular cartoonist had rejected the notion of his characters being voiced, claiming that the reason was basically that the reader's imagination of the character's voice would be "robbed". That plus the above gave me the impression that voice acting is a scourge to the enjoyment of a show. It's one reason that until now I never heard the any Friendship is Magic characters speak even though I have seen the animation. At times I wondered if a show could succeed without a need for voice acting because it seems that voice actors bring in the most money, and they even have a higher salary on average!

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    That's not to say that I held this belief for a long time, because I suppose it's based on irrational reaction. For one, I never knew for a long time that Hagar the Horrible has an animated series, and I always imagined that he has a very deep booming voice. When I checked out the animated series, I was surprised that he has a very rough voice that's not as deep as I thought, and I liked this. Another example is that it took me some time to overcome a mental block to check out Steven Universe and I think I appreciate the voice acting of that show. Even the cartoonist's particular work has a parody sketch on Robot Chicken, but because there were no official voices, I found the voices given to his characters to be quite perfect!

    Sometimes I still think that it's ridiculous for fans to latch on to their favourite voice actors while I thought of myself as free from this, but some reflection on my part revealed that I might not be so different, because I would have a character I would prefer to stick with a particular voice. And that character is none other than Mario (I bet you saw that coming, don't you?)! Although Mario has a number of voice actors over the years, when Martinet's gave a high-pitched Italian accent to Mario, it really felt like a perfect match.

    So yes, it doesn't sound like much but it's mystifying to me that the success of an animated show hinges on voice acting. Especially because to me an animated series is best enjoyed for its stylish animation over the voice acting.

    Thank you for reading.
    Uniju
    Uniju
    i think the fact that voice actors(and actors in live action works) get paid so much and their inclusion in a work is such a big part of the marketing is just a result of the fact they're very "visible" and, i'm not sure what word to use, irreplaceable? an animator might put in a ridiculous amount of work to a show but at the end of the day only an incredibly small, hardcore nerd fraction of the audience is going to notice any stylistic differences between different animators, letting go of one isn't going to change the show very much so they don't have much opportunity to negotiate for better pay, compared to voice actors who are very hard to replace because the viewers immediately recognize their voice, especially if they're a voice actor who's already very popular. this is an inherent flaw in our current economic system and the only way to fix it is to completely dismantle capitalism

    if you haven't already(i don't see it on your mal but idk if that's up to date), i highly recommend that you watch shirobako
    I previously watched a Tennis match in the Fever-Tree Championship Finals between Feliciano Lopez and Gilles Simon, and one thing I have observed is how often Faults (when the server failed to hit over the net) and Outs (when the ball bounced outside the court) happened.

    Contrast this to Mario Tennis where it's easy to hit over the net and how difficult it is to get an Out and that either shows how either Mario characters are extremely talented in Tennis or that I am shocked that reality is not exactly as perfect as Mario and gang made Tennis out to be.
    In every Mario spin-off, Luigi will eventually join Mario in doing what he does. As an example, for the longest time Dr. Mario is just Mario, but later on there's Dr. Luigi and then in the next Dr. Mario game, Dr. Luigi stands together with Dr. Mario. In Super Mario Maker, the second game added Builder Luigi. And Luigi is also doing something significant and not just standing in the sidelines! It stands to reason that when there's a new Mario game, Luigi will also be present because I guess people like him.

    Now contrast that to a Luigi spin-off game like Luigi's Mansion. In that game Luigi is doing the work to rescue Mario, while Mario has traditionally never been able to participate in the same activity as Luigi. Given the how the recent Mario games unfold, it felt unfair that Mario had to be left out of the action when Luigi is the star. I suppose if Mario is playable then it would lose a lot of Luigi's purpose. I can imagine a scenario where Luigi complained about being treated as the second banana, then Mario will politely remind Luigi that he already invited him for every activity that he participated in and that people generally love him. He then made a quick comment that Luigi never invited Mario to help with vacuuming ghosts. (Writer's comment: I am one of the few people who wants Mario to be playable in Luigi's Mansion, instead of letting him languish in paintings every game)

    What I am saying is that treating Luigi as some unpopular character is unrealistic now. Because Luigi is always together with Mario in every game that he starred in, so it's not like Luigi is unpopular (something I didn't like in Mario + Rabbids when Beep-o treated Luigi as some unknown at first). In fact, Luigi gets to do more because Mario never participate in Luigi's games while Luigi gets to participate in Mario's games.
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    nuclearminer
    nuclearminer
    ok but consider:
    mario is bland and therefore in more of the advertising, while luigi gets to have a personality and is thus liked more
    winstein
    winstein
    Mario's has a personality, and they mainly revolves around positive traits, which is also mentioned in the Nintendo Character Guide. I suppose people don't consider positive traits a personality because I guess they are unrelatable?

    Anyway, I prefer Mario over Luigi because for once a character is revolved around positive traits (and his voice matches that).

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    It's pretty wild to compare some of my opinions on certain characters back in 2011 and now. I written the comments to accompany the pictures I've drawn for the selected characters. Here are some opinions at that time:

    Donkey Kong: I am surprised that Mario had stated to start his career in 1985, when Donkey Kong was the first start of his career in 1981, as evident in the 25th Anniversary last year. Anyway, little nitpick aside, I don't have high regards on apes, so you can guess I don't have a lot of interest in Donkey Kong, as he's just a famous gorilla to me. However, I do like his necktie, which is a nice touch on Donkey Kong.

    Rosalina: As I haven't got my hands on Super Mario Galaxy, there's not much I can say about her, although I heard that she had a touching backstory, which is probably not common for mainstay Mario characters. However, she's one of the better female characters in the Mario universe, which is a great thing to me.

    Mallow: For some reason, I felt Mallow's performance in Super Mario RPG is lacklustre, probably because I often used physical attacks to conserve FP, and I heard that Mallow's best stats are the Magic stats. Anyway, Mallow's probably not as popular as Geno, since Mallow didn't have any cameo appearances in future games. Even I don't think Mallow's very highly, so I apologise to Mallow fans beforehand!

    Geno: Geno can be a puppet of a doll, or maybe a scarecrow, but one thing for certain, no matter how Geno looks, he's a pretty awesome guy. I find it strange how Geno is actually intangible that takes the form of a doll, but his personality is one of the coolest aspects. But then, I am just being too straightforward here, so I am just going to say Geno's an awesome character and leave it as just that.

    These characters are some of the examples of how my opinion had changed since, so for example I held Donkey Kong in higher regard compared to before, and same for Mallow to a lesser extent, while I am neutral on Rosalina. Unfortunately for Geno fans, I am not quite feeling the love for that one, possibly because of how important the (Smash) fans played him up to be when I don't see it, because when was the last time Geno appeared in a Mario game?

    I don't know if I should share what I drew, only because I fear it might be unpleasant to look at.
    YoshiFlutterJump
    YoshiFlutterJump
    Tbh I never understood the love for Geno; Mallow's a lot more interesting
    winstein
    winstein
    The people that responded to my query mentioned that Super Mario RPG is a well-loved RPG, and Geno represents it the best, and also for being the fan favourite. My take on this is that yes, Super Mario RPG represents a starting point for Mario RPGs, but it's also basically a Mario spin-off that only happened once. The character arc of Geno basically locks him out of appearing more (Geno comes to life and ascended to heaven in the same game). Meaning, Geno is not only an insignificant character within the Mario franchise, he's basically made for the game.

    RPG characters tend to be loved by people despite the far smaller reach compared to something like Kart and Party, so it's not a surprise that support for Geno is pretty strong. Despite this, I only noticed that only one person in the community is a huge advocate for Geno. The only reason I think that Geno support is still strong is because Sakurai mentioned Geno.

    At least with Mallow, it's far viable for him to appear in other Mario spin-offs because he's still around at the end of the game (so he's not strictly one-and-done). I won't be surprised if Mallow is prioritised if Nintendo gets to pick between him and Geno for their own ownership. After all, Mallow's character design is much more Mario-like than Geno.

    ---

    If you want to know why I like Donkey Kong better, it's mainly because he has great facial expression especially the ones showing his teeth, and he makes funny sounds. He's also very fun to control in his own games. For Rosalina, it's more that she appears in too many games at once and even get special artwork for each of the games (ex: she gets one in Mario Kart 8 as opposed to Daisy, Toadette and Waluigi), like as if she suddenly becomes popular. I think that worked, although I attribute this to Super Smash Bros.
    Many folks are excited about superhero crossover team-ups, or perhaps network-based (ex: Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney) crossovers or even video game characters team-ups, but here I am wishing that a comic strip team up would happen at some point.

    Group shots such as the one below is nice...
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    ...but seeing Kingdom Hearts made me wish that there is something for comic strips even though the nature of the works made it difficult, due to the violence involved.

    One reason is that the strength of the most popular comic strip characters could raise the profile of others. Although comic strips aren't as big as they once were, I imagine Garfield and Snoopy teaming up would give the crossover some attention. Another reason is that I would love to see a number of less popular characters appear outside of the comics since they have limited opportunities.

    It's not in demand for practically everybody, but there's at least one person who would want this.
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    I have to admit: when I seen the main character (the lady) named Sedine, my first thought is Shantae, no doubt due to the animesque design, long purple hair and body type. In fact, I can somehow see Wayforward tackling a game like this, although it's pretty unrealistic from what I can tell.
    In terms of game companies that I missed for its old approach, that company would be Popcap Games. Their games has a mixture of casual elements and making dedicated playing rather rewarding, which is something Nintendo tend to do quite well. They used to do a lot of different types of games and even create new varieties of games, which includes things like a shoot-em-up that moves horizontally (Heavy Weapon), turn-based battles using words as a method of attacking (Bookworm Adventures) and an aquarium game about shooting aliens (Insaniquarium). Sadly when they were with EA they practically only focused on what they have, and of their existing properties, Plants vs Zombies is the one they focused the most on. I mean I like Plants vs Zombies but not the way they're handled since they were with EA.

    And also because Bookworm Adventures has never been topped, and the real shame is that we may never see anything like it again. There is a game called Letter Quest that attempted to do this, but that game felt run-on-the-mill (ex: Q is an individual tile in Letter Quest) and doesn't provide a sense of action like Bookworm Adventures did (ex: Letter Quest doesn't reward big words with status effect tiles), even if it does have the right quantitative improvements (such as challenges and customisable stat boosts).
    Freddie Freaker
    Freddie Freaker
    EA will usually buy out a company, take away creative freedom from them and force them to make the games that EA wants. These games often flop due to mismanagement and EA rushing the game out, and after this has happened enough times, they will deem the company they bought as a failure and shut them down, keeping the rights to the properties that those companies.

    A current example is Bioware, as EA forced them to make an open world shooter that's also a "live service" they forced them to rush the game, the player dropped down very quickly and now EA is treating the game as if it doesn't exist, similar to Bioware's previous failure under EA, Mass Effect: Andromeda.

    Popcap is still alive and well, despite EA's efforts. They are developing a new game and it's the third Plants Vs. Zombies shooter spin-off, however it's not part of the Garden Warfare series, rather being a soft reboot that gets rid of all of the charm, creativity and uniqueness of the first two games. It's also more aggressively monetised because of course it is.
    Freddie Freaker
    Freddie Freaker
    winstein
    winstein
    I suppose the spirit of Popcap is carried over to indies, as they had done a valuable service by making great games while they were around. Like for example, Bejeweled 3 remains the best Bejeweled even though there is a Bejeweled Stars that takes after Candy Crush's formula, since Bejeweled 3 is very polished and very intuitive to play.

    I would even go and say that the main talent behind Popcap are already doing other things: Jason Kapalka (1/3 co-founder of the company) makes games with a focus on "violence and lust", John Vechey (another co-founder) makes a VR game and George Fan (the brains behind Insaniquarium and Plants vs Zombies) continued what he does best and ended up making Octogeddon.
    I've learned a couple of trivia that I didn't know or thought wrong:
    1) Ms. Pac-Man debuted in 1982. I used to think that it debuted in 1981 since I might have misread the year long ago, and also that it felt logical that the game was launched not long after Pac-Man proved to be a phenomenal hit. That would make Ms. Pac-Man younger than Donkey Kong, Mario and of course Pauline.
    2) Q*Bert, an arcade game character and a side character in Wreck-It Ralph, is owned by Sony. I was not aware of this and only found out about this on Hardcore Gaming 101. That would explain why Nintendo systems after the SNES never had a Q*Bert game even though on certain systems it made sense for there to be one.
    It's pretty amazing how Wario's series are very much divorced from the wider Mario series. Besides Wario himself, you never actually see the cast of characters that starred in his games, nor is Diamond City every seen. On the other side of the coin, Mario does feature in some microgames, but not personally except for the very first Wario game since it's still considered a Mario game (Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land). It's like Wario doesn't want to be associated with all the characters found in his series when in Mario games, nor does he want to associate himself with the other Mario characters in his series of games.

    At least with Donkey Kong, while yes, Mario elements are completely absent from DK games, Donkey Kong has substantial representation in the wider Mario series, such as in Mario Kart 7 with DK Jungle, or the DK stadium in the Mario Baseball games. Even Diddy Kong gets to be playable in several Mario games! To bring this point further, Mario and DK have a series of games where they share the title, and thanks to that, Pauline's also able to return (before Odyssey made a big deal about it).

    (Somehow, I can clearly imagine that Wario is at odds with the other WarioWare characters and that feeling is mutual, even though they basically had to collaborate with each other for the sake of microgames)
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    MS06Magma
    MS06Magma
    I like this separation between series and its one of the main reasons why I'm against Waluigi appearing in either Wario Land or Ware. He feels like too much of a Mario character and wouldn't fit in with what's already established for those series.
    winstein
    winstein
    I can see your point, since this is essentially my pet peeve with the treatment of the Yoshi series: even though Yoshi is classified as its own franchise and has an independent universe in Smash, Yoshi shares too much of elements with Mario that I personally have to consider Yoshi a major Mario spin-off similar to Mario Kart, Mario Party and Dr. Mario. To make my argument clear, even Smash is inconsistent with Yoshi's classification since for example, a Super Mario World stage is considered from the Yoshi universe.

    In WarioWare's case, I've wondered what the rationale behind not adding Waluigi to WarioWare, since the only time Waluigi was brought up was a question on whether Wario and Waluigi are related. WarioWare does have quite a number of interviews but they're all from Japan, and I imagine if there were a Western interview in WarioWare then it would be inevitable that Waluigi will be brought up (similar to how a recent E3 interview on Luigi's Mansion 3 brought up Waluigi). Basically it's an unanswered question that I would love to see answered one day, even if the answer is as simple as "Wario represents independence, so it wouldn't be right to include more Mario characters into them" (OK, maybe that's actually not that simple an answer). Though with that said, I would love to see Waluigi in microgames clearly as himself since even Mario and Toad gets to be in a few of them (EDIT: Even Luigi gets an appearance in a Microgame).
    MS06Magma
    MS06Magma
    Oh I'm not against Waluigi appearing in any capacity personally. Him appearing in microgames as a reference to the Mario series as a whole would be fine to me. What I meant is how some people want him to have the same role as Wario's other "friends" as a microgame host.
    Something I've noticed recently is that Garfield's Twitter stopped posting new things, at least not until there are some newsworthy updates. Normally they would post daily updates from Monday to Friday with something snappy to say, but it stopped earlier this month on August 2019. It's unlikely that the update has anything to do with the Viacom purchase only because it happened a bit earlier than that, but when I looked at Garfield's Facebook posts, there is only one possible reason: the tendency for inappropriate and sometimes not-safe-for-work replies to crop up. Seriously, Garfield's Twitter will never fail to have them, and because Garfield is a family-friendly property, the inability for those people to take the hint meant the Twitter posts had to stop so that those inappropriate content also stop coming (at least in droves).

    My reasoning for comparing to Facebook is how the replies are generally more positive and encouraging, and in fact, new posts are still being posted there. It helps that Facebook also hosts a Garfield fan group that is generally more innocent about Garfield, so I think by association they posted on the official account too.

    Sometimes I wonder whether popular fan works like Lasagna Cat and the horrific interpretation of Garfield (character) are harmful to the brand. Like yes, Jim Davis has allowed fan works to exist which would normally be considered a win similar to how Sonic fan games have free reign in its ability to be promoted, but sometimes when the result is the readiness for people to remark inappropriately by referencing said works, I am not so sure.
    Freddie Freaker
    Freddie Freaker
    I think it's a case of these works keeping Garfield relevant, as fan works made to mock Garfield can keep him in the spotlight. Without these fan works Garfield may not have a brand left to be ruined, as people just stop caring about the franchise, and some people (such as myself) will have never known it existed if it weren't for these fan works.
    winstein
    winstein
    That's one way of looking at it, although I wish the circumstances were better only because I fear that those who enjoyed Garfield this way would not like the original, but the fan interpretation. Like for example, someone who loves Garfield through Lasagna Cat would probably only prefer Lasagna Cat but not Garfield himself.
    Divorce is another topic in comic strips that I don't think is common, but it's still fascinating to see since comic strips tend to veer on the standard family dynamic where the husband and wife are together, although not necessarily having a healthy relationship (examples: Andy Capp, The Lockhorns).

    One such comic with divorced characters is Shirley & Son. As outlined by the comic below, Shirley and Roger (who isn't mentioned in the title) are the couple who undergone a divorce under unknown circumstances, and because they have a son, the son named Louis stays with his father on some days, and then stays with his mother for the rest of the time. Of note is that Shirley's neighbour Jackie underwent more divorces than her, so she seems used to the idea of a divorce. One interesting thing to note is that Jerry Bittle, the author, didn't go through a divorce himself, but he has friends who did, which is how he got material for his comic that would end up discontinued... because the author met his death on a vacation.

    c5d9ad3074ec012ee3c400163e41dd5b



    Gil is another comic I can think of where the main character's life is involved in a divorce, since his mother and his father are living at different places. The comic has essentially made it clear why Gil's parents had a divorce, and it's basically has to do with his father's attitude. I believe that Gil spent most of his time with his mother, which is probably appropriate given his mother's more positive role model compared to his father.

    ab738700b09f01333c5d005056a9545d


    A few comics has divorced incorporated into the main characters' background too: Big Nate is one, where according to the fan wiki, the titular character's mother divorced his father under the circumstance that his father has an unbearable attitude. Barney & Clyde has Barnard (he's nicknamed Barney by Clyde) remarry, and his daughter had taken a sour attitude towards him and her stepmother even though she lives with him. To a lesser extent there's Sylvia of Pickles, who is the daughter of the elderly couple. She also remarried, meaning that her son and her current husband are not blood-related.
    Comic strips with ageing characters are still very fascinating to me, since it's very rare for there to be one. A lot of comic strips prefer to freeze all the characters into the same age for years even as the environment around them had evolved, such as the introduction of smartphones. Some of the comic strips do age the characters but there is an "age ceiling" where characters stopped ageing once they reached it. An example on this is Peanuts, where even the baby characters grew up but are still stuck as children. I think Gasoline Alley might have frozen the ages of the characters in recent years but it's been years since I checked that comic.

    One example of a comic strip with ageing characters is Baby Blues which is about a couple raising a baby, but eventually they have another two children. The ages of the children while each new baby was born are different, although the age of the characters started to slow down when the third child was born. It's interesting to note that Zoe and Hammy are still extremely short (a little taller than a baby's height) even if they are not babies any more. (Top 2: 1990 comic, bottom: 2018 comic; I haven't found a modern comic with all 5 members in the family present).
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    Another comic I would like to highlight is Arlo & Janis, since the characters do age and that is best seen by their son Gene who is an adult at this time of writing, whereas he was about 8 years old when the strip started (by contrast, Arlo was 35 when the strip started). The cartoonist (who hasn't been replaced, by the way) mentioned that it's to make technological and social advancements less awkward compared to if the characters were to have an age freeze. The age gap and a gag might hint that the titular couple are within their senior years (55+) already, meaning that Gene would be in the late 20s at this point. Comparison between an early strip and a strip from 2019. Noticed how different the characters look, especially the son Gene (last panel in second comic). Top is 1985, bottom is 2019.
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    I am convinced that Sonic and Garfield both have a lot in common even though they couldn't be more opposite from each other, such as how Sonic likes to run around and Garfield is generally lazy, and how their colours are even basically the opposite (Sonic is blue, Garfield is orange).

    To list down some things:
    1) The main characters have an attitude that people like
    2) Their art styles are distinctive with their large expressive eyes
    3) Their body types are pretty similar
    4) They make wisecracks
    5) Their later works are generally considered to be of lower quality than their heyday
    6) They have a huge anti-fanbase that thrives in treating the property with a huge dose of cynicism

    I do have to say that Sonic had it somewhat better than Garfield, because at least with Sonic it's far easier to find an actual fan of the character, but it's far more difficult to find one for Garfield.
    It's interesting how there are so many Mario Kart imitators, yet there are far fewer Mario Party imitators. There were some contenders throughout the years like Sonic Shuffle (made by the same folks that handled Mario Party), Pac-Man Party and Disney Party (and to a lesser extent Crash Bash). The sheer number of Mario Kart imitator lead to more Kart racing games with quality, as we've seen with Crash and Sonic Racing (not to be confused with Sonic R).

    Because of the lack of long-running Mario Party imitators, Mario Party is still the undisputed king of party games that marry board game and a mini-game collection.

    (Yet we still haven't got a interactive element like a stage or item from Mario Party in Smash Bros)
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    Hot Cocoa
    Hot Cocoa
    *Cough* Sonic Shuffle *Cough*
    winstein
    winstein
    First of all, Sonic Shuffle is the first and last Sonic party game, so it's not all that long-running. If you are referring to the quality of Sonic Shuffle, while I can see some of the things that Sonic Shuffle did well, such as the story mode and the tried-and-true minigames, it also has several flaws that cannot be ignored, namely the long loading times and AI that can predict unrevealed cards.

    So what do you feel Sonic Shuffle did better than Mario Party as to mention it in coughs?
    Noct
    Noct
    Sonic and the Secret Rings also had a Mario Party-esque side mode.
    Even though Waluigi has already enjoyed getting a lot of appearances in games, I still feel grateful whenever Waluigi gets to appear in a new game. It's also fortunate that he appeared early enough that he's a guaranteed inclusion in the roster, such as in the Mario & Sonic games and the Mario Party games. Some cases like Mario Kart 7 was unfortunate though.

    My reasoning is due to how unique of a status Waluigi is. He's never appeared in a Super Mario (main series) game, but he's appeared far more often than a lot of characters that first appeared in Super Mario, so much so that he could feasibly stand beside the other main Mario characters. Moreover, spin-offs aren't inherently something to dismiss because they are complimentary, not derogatory to the main series. Unlike most of the characters that regularly appear in spin-offs, Waluigi gets to be something a lot of characters don't get a chance to be: playable. Yes, being playable improves the appeal of the character especially if the video game is fun, which is the case for most Mario games.

    I suppose it's true when they say that Waluigi is hardworking: he may not have the privileges that many characters have (appears in Super Mario), nor does he appear in a game that is treated with importance (RPGs, character-focused series like Yoshi and Wario, and Super Mario), but he still has frequent playable appearances where he shows his character (here's where the "hardworking" part comes in) and I felt that it payed of.

    Seeing how Waluigi gets a lot of push back when it comes to Wario and being playable in Smash only made my case clear. Sure there are people who didn't like Waluigi as to enjoy his exclusion, but at the same time the existence of detractors means that the appeal of the character is large enough to have them, as evidenced by those who actually like the character! It's unfortunate that there are quite a few people who were verbally uncool with Waluigi's unplayability in Smash, which I was disappointed with because it provided detractors ammunition to strengthen their case. Similarly there's Daisy who get a lot of dislike, but still, I do not wish for that to happen to other people's favourites like Rosalina, Geno or Fawful.

    It's a bizarre thing for me to mention, maybe even lampoonable, but I just have to get it out there.
    I recently learned that both Garfield and Space Invaders debut on the same month: June 1978. There isn't a specific day mentioned for Space Invaders unfortunately, but Garfield debut on the 19th of that month. It's amazing because within the history of newspaper comics, Garfield is somewhat younger than the middle of the timeline, but Space Invaders is practically early in the timeline of video games.
    Doomhiker
    Doomhiker
    Not only that but Space Invaders is an extremely well-known video game, like with Garfield being an extremely well-known comic strip. I would not be surprised if they were some of the most-well known pieces of their respective mediums, even for people with do not generally follow video games or newspaper comics.
    It's fascinating that despite being one of the main characters, Jon is bereft of the merchandising blitz that Garfield and his animal friends received. It's another way Jon is the opposite of Garfield, since he's relatively free of merchandising. I know Jon is not exactly the most appealing character in terms of design, probably because he might not look that great in 3D. Even Wario and Waluigi have official plushies and figurines despite their more "ugly" design! At most he's got a few figurines though.
    winstein
    winstein
    Perhaps the publishers had the right idea to focus everything on Garfield when Jim Davis pitched the comic strip idea to them. Basically the comic strip was intended to be named after Jon himself while Garfield was meant to be the exciting side character, but they wanted Garfield to be the titular character because he was meant to be the exciting one. The result is that he became the reason the comic strip is marketable worldwide.

    Even then Jon is still around and active as ever, so the spirit of what Jim Davis wanted to do is still found in the comic strip.
    MS06Magma
    MS06Magma
    When the early "Jon" strip became "Garfield" I don't think the comic itself really changed. They've both been sort of co-main characters since the beginning really.
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    Hot Cocoa
    Hot Cocoa
    Jon will always be my favorite since I found out I share my birthday with both him and Garfield.
    I can't tell if Peach is analogous to either Manny Mouse of the X-Mickey comics or Eurasia Toft of some of the Mickey Mouse comics, since Peach was a replacement of the Mario's original girlfriend Pauline (who I would say is analogous to Minnie Mouse). Manny Mouse is essentially a recolour of Minnie Mouse with some slight differences, while Eurasia Toft is a taller and more human-like figure that shares the same species as the hero. Images of Manny and Eurasia respectively:

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    (Side note: X-Mickey also has a Goofy-lookalike who is a werewolf)
    SiFi
    SiFi
    I didn't know about either of these until now, but for what it's worth, Manny looking so much like Minnie reminds me of the similarities between Peach and Lady.
    This was a thread I made years ago: https://www.marioboards.com/threads/35001/

    But somehow a zygote/foetus analogy gets mentioned in relation to Mario, like as though Donkey Kong is unworthy of being treated as an important hallmark for Mario. I think times has changed now that Mario is proud to reference his Donkey Kong origins.

    (Forgot to mention that even Captain Toad is proud to reference Donkey Kong compared to even Mario at that time, until I think Super Mario Odyssey)
    For just the reason of loving Mario reciting video game titles (such as Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour), sometimes I like to imagine it if a game has Mario as the main character saying the game's title. Some example (even though the original game doesn't necessarily have the character reciting them):
    - "Mario and the Pirate's Curse!"
    - "Mario Unleashed!"
    - "Mario's Mansion!"
    - "MarioWare Incorporated! Mega Microgame-ses!"
    - "Mario Raving Rabbids!"
    Apologies for the lack of responses, but a sickness got in the way starting from last Friday (2/8/2019), and this one felt severe (dengue fever). I can't say I have fully recuperated yet, but I am hoping that my health life goes back on track not long after that.
    Ray Trace
    Ray Trace
    Hope you get better soon. Best regards.
    winstein
    winstein
    I didn't post about this for a while because I don't want anybody to worry about it, which is why when I am almost assuredly getting well, then I went ahead and post about it. I suppose there's no such timing when it comes to somebody who isn't quite well.

    Blood check was something I did do twice, and the results was that the condition wasn't in critical (although still it still needed taking care of). So one of the things it's important to do is to keep hydrated because when the blood got too thick, that's the worst part since that requires hospitalisation where water injection will be necessary. Hydration is ideally done through coconut water or any water with minerals like isotonic drink.
    Smg2daisy
    Smg2daisy
    Yes, coconut water. And 100 Plus. You can get well soon at this rate~
    Maybe you're aware already, but have you ever checked out this repository for obscure manga? There's some obscure Mario manga hosted here. It's a really fun site to browse, not just for Mario fans. I think it already interested some wiki editors. Ganbare Mario and Dr. Mario-Kun are my favorites so far.
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    winstein
    winstein
    I have seen that website, but didn't quite delve into many of the works. I do know of the Kart manga here. Something that just caught my eye was the Earthbound (MOTHER 2) being drawn in the same style as that Plumber Peach artwork (do you know what I mean?).

    Manga Shrek is welcomed weirdness also, mainly because it's nice to see Shrek that's not some weird pun/sex icon.
    v122j8ll


    Seems like Captain Toad for Switch is free for a week (5 Aug to 12 Aug), provided that you have access to a Japanese account to download the game, plus have an active Nintendo Switch Online subscription. I would likely take advantage of this privilege by basically rushing through the game, since I am yet to play the new Odyssey-based levels. Unfortunately I don't have a Wedding Mario/Peach/Bowser amiibo so I can't unlock those levels immediately.

    I don't think the DLC levels are available, which is a shame.

    Thank you for reading.

    P.S.: I have already created a Marioverse thread about this.
    I like that Nintendo acknowledge that Mario came from Donkey Kong (arcade) in 1981, instead of implying that Super Mario Bros. was when Mario truly began. I like to think that when Metro Kingdom references Mario's arcade past, and also that Nintendo released the Donkey Kong (arcade) game on the Switch, they could refer to Donkey Kong as Mario's true origin.

    EAag4xuU0AAN0-L.jpg:large


    (Odd that Mario Bros.' sprite is based on the NES version rather than the Arcade version, though)

    Thank you for reading.
    LeftyGreenMario
    LeftyGreenMario
    How does it make you feel how the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia kinda characterized the games between 1981 and 1985 as "destined for the bargain bin"? I can provide the full quote if you think I might be misrepresenting what they said.
    winstein
    winstein
    Is that the exact wording, or is it the spirit of the term?

    In any case, given that this Encyclopedia is meant to be an official accounting of the history of Mario, it seems to me that the book didn't quite like the thought that Mario has a life before Super Mario Bros, and I find that unfortunate because what Mario has achieved before that game is the reason we even have the most defining game in the first place.

    On the other hand, the games before SMB are comparatively simple by design like how they tend to be high score games so I can see what they meant, even if I felt that it's misleading since at the very least Donkey Kong is a brilliantly-designed game and it sounded to me like they didn't appreciate the company-saving game. I hope that with how the Arcade Archives proudly allowing the original DK arcade game to be played (and being referenced in general), they won't treat their older games like old shames.

    (I will stop using that phrase because of the 1000 character limit)
    LeftyGreenMario
    LeftyGreenMario
    (Thank you for reading)

    Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia said:
    BEFORE HE WAS SUPER
    Before Super Mario Bros. took the world by storm, there was a period of time when it could have been in the bargain bins. Back then, Mario appeared in arcade games and the Game & Watch, among others, and we'll tell you about those humble beginnings here.
    They said that the original Mario Bros. served as the building block for Super Mario Bros., however, so that's some credit for these games?
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