Unpopular opinions about the Mario series

I don't feel ripped off by the 3D collection. Super Mario Galaxy did not need any polish to start with, while Super Mario Sunshine could have seen a few control tweaks. I'm honestly indifferent towards Mario 64's quality, and even if it looked like this:


I don't think it would've added a ton of value to it.

I'd say they should've put Mario Galaxy 2 in the collection to make the price feel even more justified, but I'm pretty ok with what's in the package right now. Galaxy 1 is pure happiness to play at any time, 64 is also enjoyable, and Sunshine really grew onto me despite my initial negative feelings. Nintendo has been far more anticonsumer with amiibos (20€ a piece!!!), Nintendo Switch "laggy, lacking BUT ITS ONLY 20 € " Online, and Mario Kart Tour.

Oh, and those Crash and Spyro remakes being 40 each? Yeah, Galaxy alone blows them out of the water lmao

(not saying they're bad, it's just that galaxy has reached a level of goodness that no other cartoon-mascot video game can compare to it)
 
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Yeah. Honestly I'm just happy that I can legally play Sunshine now without paying scalpers for an overpriced GameCube copy, at least until the end of March. Yes, limited releases suck and I can see why this wouldn't appeal to people who already own the game, but $60 for three of the greatest games ever made (none of which I actually own) is a pretty sweet deal, in my opinion.
 
20€ seems fair for a relatively sturdy and nicely painted figure imo. In the states, it's like $15 maybe, tax included. It's kinda skeevy they put unlockable content underneath them, but the figures themselves should around that price imo.

I don't think Galaxy is all that amazing. Just great. 8.3/10. Yeah. It has a lot of bullshit I don't fondly remember. Odyssey's better at what the first three games tried to do, though, making collection not feel so repetitive.
 
ah, damn, i forgot that it's a limited release. yeah, THIS is really scummy.

Another unpopular opinion: Odyssey is good, but not better than Galaxy. I wouldn't be able to justify this preference, maybe they're actually both on the same level and I do think it has a lot of charm that Mario in general kinda lacks. But it gives me nowhere near the enjoyment that Galaxy does for some reason and I felt quite let down by it actually.
 
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There's rumor that the bundle itself is a limited release while it'll be released later as separate games, but take that with a grain of salt. But having kids cry because they can't get physical at store and have to settle for digital, that's not cool at all. It also ain't cool they want to artificially increase the value of what's, let's be honest, a glorified ROM collection (compare this to Kirby's Dream Collection and tell me we aren't sold a little short).
 
I was just wondering why Nintendo was so... unusually generous with the Kirby Collection. This is in consideration of the fact that two years earlier, they sold a Mario SNES ROM for 30 euros/dollars.

Then again, Kirby doesn't have the same brand potency as Mario...
 
Lol I still remember that one. Saying generous means it has more content than normal, but I think the Kirby Collection should be gold standard if you're going to do promotional collection stuff. I guess it has to do with different developers in the end.

I think they also pretty much ignored Metroid at the time and the fans, well, they were in a bad state. I can't imagine how it is for F-Zero folk.
 
Kirby's Dream Collection is definitely among the greatest game compilations ever made. Yes, no alterations were made to the games themselves, but there were six of them, each ensured that the horizontal Wii remote was supported, and there was a ton of added content for Kirby veterans...and the thing only sold for $40.
 
There was a neat little booklet that came with the collection too. Fun grab bag of stuff.
 
Super Mario Advance (Super Mario Bros. 2 remake) is better than Super Mario Advance 2 (Super Mario World) and I think I can extend to say Super Mario Bros. 2 I enjoyed more than Super Mario World, and I definitely enjoyed the New Super Mario Bros. games more than I enjoyed Super Mario World.
 
SMW, by today's standards, is nothing more than ok.

It's still better than its mediocre-to-horrible predecessor, SMB3. Damn, I've seen levels in Mario Maker getting shat on for design choices similar to those employed by SMB3, such as trying out different doors until you pick the right one. There's two "stages" that basically work on this exact premise, one in World 3 and the other in World 8. Look here:


Can somebody tell me what in the ungodly mother of shit is this mess? Replaying it recently, I absolutely needed something to guide me through it because it just makes no sense which doors you need to go through; imagine how someone from 30 years ago would have fared, probably having to resort to buying some guide in order to progress. 'Cause that's what most games of that era were apparently made for; to sell you some guides. Indeed, a good amount of them were seemingly designed with a lot of unnecessary difficulty in mind.

Remember the thread that asked if there are any actual bad Mario games? This one most definitely deserved a spot in there. Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Hotel Mario, and WarioWare Snapped ain't got SHIT on the timeless masterpiss that's SMB3.
 
I think SMB3 plays fine, and I don't have any sort of nostalgia bias for it (the first time I played it was earlier this year). Some levels did have questionable design decisions though and I do think the NSMB games are leaps and bounds better.
 
Yeah, perhaps I was too harsh on it. It can still be enjoyable, something that a truly bad game would never be able to pull off. (Except Big Rigs.)

I also realise that the creators of SMB3 did not have much of a point of reference back then, other than their past creations and a select few games made by other developers. They merely built on top of knowledge that barely existed, as gaming was still in its early years since it started taking off. We can see that the Mario franchise has grown and evolved tremendously since, in which even the NSMB games already display a more clear philosophy than its predecessors.

But SMB3, at the end of the day, is still not a masterpiece.
 
i honestly forget smb3 exists sometimes. i never cared that much for it! i will aknowledge it had a huge impact on the series i just have no intentions of really coming back to it like, ever
 
I dunno why but I really enjoyed the freedom Super Mario Bros. 2 USA provides compared to how much Super Mario World tries to railroad you. Everything that has a door and all vines are re-enterable back and forth, including caves and stuff and doors to boss fights (and you can exploit that to heal yourself, not that I've had a problem with that), all doors and vines serve as checkpoints, as there are multiple doors throughout the level, and there's no bloody timer, which is the absolute worst part about Super Mario World, bar none. I also think Super Mario Bros. 2 lacks cryptic secrets, which Super Mario World has plenty of (finding Top Secret area and the Cheese Bridge exit for one) For a game that encourages you to explore to find the secrets, the timer does everything in its power to stop you from having fun. In addition, the timer just stops you from having fun taking the levels at your own pace in general, and I feel like it's super common to run up short against it as that hurry up jingle forces you to complete the level.

You know, I think a Mario game in the style of Super Mario Bros. 2 USA could actually work pretty damn well in a Metroidvania-styled game, whatnot with its re-enterable areas, focus on larger levels, lack of timer, and especially in the GBA remake where they have a focus on collecting Yoshi Eggs in the Subcon Zone (that requires trial and error to know the locations of admittedly but the game lets you re-enter rooms to try again at least for the most part).
 
Starship Mario's music is very great and underrated, wished it was used in more games.
 
There are quite a few ways where I actually like Origami King's battle system a lot more than Partners in Time's (at least by comparing Mario RPGs) because in Origami King you get multiple uses of one item and in Partners in Time you only get one use per item and then it breaks.
 
I don't like the use of the sitar (it's that Indian instrument you associate with middle eastern desert music) in the castle theme (it overtakes the organs), but that's a nitpick.

They used the NSMBDS castle theme in Super Sluggers. It's great.
 
Liking Fire Bar Sprint and Fire Bar Cliffs....

Liking NSMB2's Athletic Theme

I like Music Involving Beep Blocks

And Finally, Liking Front-running beats in Mario Kart games, why can't that Feature Be In Mario Kart Tour?
 
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