Unpopular opinions about the Mario series

From the video at least the voice acting, if done well, will be able to carry what I otherwise think is a pretty weak script (Brothership otherwise doesn't make me laugh in the slightest except when it concerns game breaking bugs). Nintendo has money to burn, they can devote more resources to voice acting. We've seen smaller scale games have voice acting for 60+ characters, and it's not like the voice actors themselves are obscure.

That being said, Mario games aren't exactly dialogue or story heavy so it's not mandatory to have the voice acting, but if they want to be serious about making these games more dialogue based then voice acting won't hurt, no?

Oh and also they should have Kevin Afghani voice full lines for Mario and Luigi, that would be splendid. Let's have hours of Mario and Luigi dialogue too, please.
 
Xiahou Dun said:
That being said, Mario games aren't exactly dialogue or story heavy so it's not mandatory to have the voice acting, but if they want to be serious about making these games more dialogue based then voice acting won't hurt, no?
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I view Mario RPG stories as Saturday morning cartoons and I do think adding voice acting really makes it pop. Good voice acting can sometimes even make a corny script make you laugh, just by the delivery of lines alone.
 
As you can probably tell by my current profile theme, I like Rosalina, but I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to keep her appearances more scarce rather than making her a regular member of the core cast, to better fit her somewhat mysterious nature.

I know that to most people that it's probably weird to want a character you like to show up less, but I feel it would have been interesting for her to be the kind of character who appears in references and easter eggs after Galaxy for a while before being made a part of the main cast.
 
I think she was already playing that role because back in 2008-2013 I remember I really was wondering if she'll eventually show up in a game besides fan service in Mario Party Island Tour and wasn't playable in Mario Tennis Open despite fan requests. If you look at her initial appearance in 2007, you'll see her roles were pretty spotty until sometime in Super Mario 3D World.
 
Xiahou Ba said:
I view Mario RPG stories as Saturday morning cartoons and I do think adding voice acting really makes it pop. Good voice acting can sometimes even make a corny script make you laugh, just by the delivery of lines alone.
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I'd honestly prefer to get a TV adaptation of the Mario RPGs that adds full voice acting over voice acting being added to the games themselves. As for full spoken dialogue from Mario and Luigi, I'm very mixed on it. Charles Martinet has never given a bad performance but I do think the times he's done full voice acting for Mario and Luigi only work in silly unserious contexts they're intended for. I think a voice direction like that of the movie is better for a dramatic story like one from the RPGs. I don't want Chris Pratt doing it though. Charles Martinet's portrayal of Mario's dad proves that he could have done Mario with that voice direction. If Kevin Afghani does it, I'd hope he takes it in a similar direction rather than just doing his version of Charles's game voice in longer sentences. That just isn't a voice direction I think works in full dialogue for a dramatic story driven context.

An example of something that's already whiplash when in text form, is Luigi responding to Grambi's heartfelt plea to save the world, which comes right after his daughter sacrifices herself, with "okeydokey." In moments like those I'd like to see Mario and Luigi actually show serious emotion and elevate the intended mood rather than be goofy and turn it into parody. Usually, Mario skirts it by being a silent protagonist and Luigi has dialogue that makes sense in that scenario, but in that case it feels like he randomly turned into his portrayal in M&L or Mario Kart and played an unfitting voice clip instead. Bowser is usually balanced perfectly for scenarios like these, since not giving a shit about the plights of other characters is part of his personality, and so him making wisecracks doesn't really take away from the plot at hand (nor does him roasting the new villain make the latter any less of a threat). Mario and Luigi are characters you'd expect to have empathy and be able to read a room. So having them play one of their sillier voice clips, or have a piece of dialogue that evokes the thought of one, after a scene like that doesn't work. If that scene was voice acted in a cinematic setting, I would not want Luigi to play an okeydokey voice clip there, amusing as it would be divorced from the story.

I think it's the fact that I genuinely hold real emotional connections to these stories and don't want them to be completely parodied by having too silly a voice direction just because the Mario brand usually goes for that. But I also don't want voice acting that tries too hard and sounds fake as a result (how i feel about the Fire Emblem voice acting I've heard in Directs). Ideally they would have voices that are cartoony enough to fit an animated movie, but not to the degree that the story can't get serious and work. The balance just feels too narrow for the risk to be worth it imo, and I don't think Nintendo is ever gonna match fan renditions here. Just in terms of Bowser portrayals, specifically for musical numbers, Peaches is fine enough but I think Man on the Internet has several Bowser songs that better capture the energy & vibe I think he should have, especially MOTI's Adventure's End with lyrics that might just be my favorite Bowser villain song ever with how it takes an already epic instrumental end elevates it with powerful lyrics that make him sound like a god, with Mario and Luigi also joining in to oppose him. (Though their vocals, while they work for that song, like i said before I don't think the voice direction established in the games with Charles Martinet, and now with Kevin Afghani continuing it, is a good fit for a fully voiced setting with a serious story).

I mean Nintendo has (rarely) struck gold with full on voice acting before, King K. Rool's voice in the DKC cartoon is perfection imo (the writing is another matter). But of course that didn't stick. I still read his dialogue in DK Bananza in Ben Campbell's voice, but it's clear his canon voice is deeper & more beastly kind of like Bowser's, which if it was used in full voice acting I'm confident I'd see it as a step down from his past portrayal.
 
Tinselina said:
An example of something that's already whiplash when in text form, is Luigi responding to Grambi's heartfelt plea to save the world, which comes right after his daughter sacrifices herself, with "okeydokey." In moments like those I'd like to see Mario and Luigi actually show serious emotion and elevate the intended mood rather than be goofy and turn it into parody. Usually, Mario skirts it by being a silent protagonist and Luigi has dialogue that makes sense in that scenario, but in that case it feels like he randomly turned into his portrayal in M&L or Mario Kart and played an unfitting voice clip instead. Bowser is usually balanced perfectly for scenarios like these, since not giving a shit about the plights of other characters is part of his personality, and so him making wisecracks doesn't really take away from the plot at hand (nor does him roasting the new villain make the latter any less of a threat). Mario and Luigi are characters you'd expect to have empathy and be able to read a room. So having them play one of their sillier voice clips, or have a piece of dialogue that evokes the thought of one, after a scene like that doesn't work. If that scene was voice acted in a cinematic setting, I would not want Luigi to play an okeydokey voice clip there, amusing as it would be divorced from the story.
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The entire scene is not the fault of voice acting, that's just a bad, constrained script and sound direction that the developers are forced to work with, especially considering that they're constrained to make the protagonists voice act as little as possible. If this was handled in any other JRPG, it would be handled with the tact it deserves and it would be fully voiced. Hell, it would be its own scripted, dynamic cutscene like you see in Brothership than two characters just standing there and talking to each other.

I really don't think Nintendo would pull off a "I should have been the to fill your dark soul with LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!" here either.

Tinselina said:
But I also don't want voice acting that tries too hard and sounds fake as a result (how i feel about the Fire Emblem voice acting I've heard in Directs).
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????

I'm not a Fire Emblem fan but this genuinely confuses me. What exactly about its voice acting feels "tryhard" or "fake"? I mean sure, the lines I heard in the Fortune's Weave trailer sound like a typical war time anime game ("There's a man I hate so much that simply killing him will not satisfy me. For that reason, I refuse to die." a Dynasty Warriors character can say this exact line and it'll fit right in), but that's mostly the script's doing, not the voice acting. Are you sure it's not because you just don't like the tone and atmosphere of the series? I mean, I know it's not for everyone, I'm not very into it myself for probably the same reasons, but like, I wouldn't describe it as "tryhard" or "fake". "Tryhard" would be Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin's trailer (plus it's also mostly the script's fault too).

 
Xiahou Dun said:
I think she was already playing that role because back in 2008-2013 I remember I really was wondering if she'll eventually show up in a game besides fan service in Mario Party Island Tour and wasn't playable in Mario Tennis Open despite fan requests. If you look at her initial appearance in 2007, you'll see her roles were pretty spotty until sometime in Super Mario 3D World.
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That's a good point. I took a look at her appearances in the Mario Wiki. It seems that she didn't really become a more consistent part of the main cast until around 2014 when she was in Mario Kart 8 and Smash 4. I still do have a weird nostalgia for when she appeared more sparingly, but I don't think my personal opinion should influence Nintendo on how they should use their characters or anything, especially when it's such a niche opinion.
 
IMO, I don't think she should have been playable in Mario Party. She just looks very awkward getting her butt burnt by Bowser.
 
Rosa said:
As you can probably tell by my current profile theme, I like Rosalina, but I sometimes wonder if it would have been better to keep her appearances more scarce rather than making her a regular member of the core cast, to better fit her somewhat mysterious nature.

I know that to most people that it's probably weird to want a character you like to show up less, but I feel it would have been interesting for her to be the kind of character who appears in references and easter eggs after Galaxy for a while before being made a part of the main cast.
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I wrote a whole paper on this subject for my literary theory class and got an A on it. My argument was basically that by including Rosalina in so much everything and also giving her "generic princess personality," they completely removed any point to her existence. I'm also not sure why they're so obsessed with giving her snow themed things? She's not Elsa just because she's also blonde with a light blue dress. Rosalina's Ice World and Rosalina's Radical Race just feel unfitting for her, at least to me.
 
Remy Redboot said:
I wrote a whole paper on this subject for my literary theory class and got an A on it. My argument was basically that by including Rosalina in so much everything and also giving her "generic princess personality," they completely removed any point to her existence. I'm also not sure why they're so obsessed with giving her snow themed things? She's not Elsa just because she's also blonde with a light blue dress. Rosalina's Ice World and Rosalina's Radical Race just feel unfitting for her, at least to me.
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I think the Galaxy Movie will probably change that.
 
Occasionally I compared Rosalina to Knuckles, where their background is tied to a specific setting but because they are popular enough, they keep appearing in situations that are not tied to the places they are strongly associated with. They even appear in games that are considered pinnacles to their series, them being Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic 3 & Knuckles respectively! Maybe for Mario, it's debatable that Super Mario Galaxy is the pinnacle, but it's the game that gets the most developed out it it (e.g.: gets a numbered sequel). If one is not the type who is judgmental on the characters' appearance, this would not be an issue, so I guess it would've only bothered those who are particular about these kinds of things.

Xiahou Ba said:
IMO, I don't think she should have been playable in Mario Party. She just looks very awkward getting her butt burnt by Bowser.
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Personally I agree with this, and think she should take on a similar role as Donkey Kong in Mario Party 5 - 8 where she is the powerful character who supports who lands on her space. It would even open up for Galaxy-themed minigames collecting Star Bits, just as Donkey Kong had jungle themed minigames for Bananas. I don't know if the ship has sailed and the public decided that Rosalina is better of playable than being a powerful non-playable entity like Bowser. Basically, I think she makes a great counterpart to Bowser in Mario Party if the latter is in his usual troublemaking role.

Thank you for reading.
 
This may be unpopular but Wario and Waluigi are on my list of my least favorite Mario characters.
 
Shortcat said that in one of his videos that a lot of people hate Dolphin Shoals; I'm literally the opposite lol. That is one of my top 10 favorite tracks in the game!
 
I don't really think there are a lot of hate-able tracks in MK8D, at least in my opinion. But Sunset Wilds is one though
 
Dolphin Shoals is a fun track, I like it.

Honestly the only track I dislike in 8 is Yoshi Valley but that track always sucked.
 
Yeah, I hear ya. Not much point in making it so winding if there's one clear-cut path that's better than the rest.
 
LuigiFan24 said:
Shortcat said that in one of his videos that a lot of people hate Dolphin Shoals; I'm literally the opposite lol. That is one of my top 10 favorite tracks in the game!
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youtubers really just be saying anything these days
 
lol so true. Someone posted a thumbnail of some Youtuber who was saying Super Mario Galaxy is overrated.
 
BMfan08 said:
lol so true. Someone posted a thumbnail of some Youtuber who was saying Super Mario Galaxy is overrated.
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Super Mario Galaxy is absolutely 100% not overrated. It's one of my all time favorite games.
 
Many Mario games have all players share lives. I'm not a fan of this because it punishes experienced players if newbies constantly lose lives in the games. I'd rather have all players get their own sets of lives. I believe New Super Mario Bros. Wii did this?
 
Sparks said:
Many Mario games have all players share lives. I'm not a fan of this because it punishes experienced players if newbies constantly lose lives in the games. I'd rather have all players get their own sets of lives. I believe New Super Mario Bros. Wii did this?
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Yeah, Wii separated the lives... didn't U undo this though? I mean I know 3D World does shared lives, but there's an easy exploit for infinite lives unlike in other games.
 
Fizzle said:
Yeah, Wii separated the lives... didn't U undo this though? I mean I know 3D World does shared lives, but there's an easy exploit for infinite lives unlike in other games.
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I know Wonder brought back shared lives.
 
The overworld theme of New Super Mario Bros is one of the most iconic themes in video game history. Maybe it doesn't have the critic support, but if you were a kid growing up in the late '00s and early '10s, this was the song you played to.
 
Sparks said:
Many Mario games have all players share lives. I'm not a fan of this because it punishes experienced players if newbies constantly lose lives in the games. I'd rather have all players get their own sets of lives. I believe New Super Mario Bros. Wii did this?
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Just remove lives entirely, it's a vestigal part from the arcade gaming days. Do FPS's, RPGs, adventure games, racing games, etc have lives? No? Then why do platformers have them?
 
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