Other Human Characters in Mario games (excluding the main Mario cast)

[winstein]

Main Mario cast, in this context, are: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi and Rosalina. Baby versions of them are included of course.

Humans besides the main Mario cast and some minor ones like Pauline and Stanley are surprisingly elusive in the Mario games:
- The Mario RPG games didn't have any human NPCs besides Peach and Luigi, and the closest to one are Toads, who straddles the line between human and fantastical species.
- Many of Mario's sports series (Strikers, Baseball) settle for existing Mario species like Koopas, Toads and Shy Guys to fill in for Mario audience.
- Mario Kart didn't really delve too much in making more human characters besides baby and metal versions of established cast.
- Square-Enix's Mario games have the White Mage, Black Mage and Ninja, which are original takes of Final Fantasy's versions of the characters, but since they are crossover creations, they will never appear outside Square-Enix's efforts
- Super Mario Odyssey's New Donk City have realistic human NPCs, but they have little characterisation due to their uniform designs. Because they are clearly designed to originate from a single location (so we can spot the foreigner in other Kingdoms), they are still considered elusive.

And we are left with some cases where humans other than the main Mario cast have regular presence:
- Mario's multiple animated series, especially Super Mario Bros. Super Show, have human characters every now and then, and many of them are exaggerated cartoonish proportions similar to Mario, Luigi and Princess.
- Camelot's Mario games add their own human characters and have them interacted with Mario, and they appear in two generations of Mario Golf and Tennis games (the N64/GBC and GCN/GBA ones). Their human characters are cartoonish people who are moderate in body proportion and have a plain face save for large eyes, matching up with how Peach, Daisy and Rosalina (and to a lesser extent Luigi) look. There are a few outliers, but very few are exaggerated in a way that Mario, Wario and Waluigi are. It's very clear that their tendency to design human characters is due to Camelot's roots in RPGs, where they do have a huge human cast.
- Mario's educational games like Mario's Time Machine and Mario is Missing have human characters, but due to their oddity and existence as license games, we will never see them again.
- Techincally Wario's series have other human characters, but they never quite mix with Mario so we don't count that until they properly crossed over.

Human characters are an odd case for Mario. Outside of the main cast, Mario tend to prefer using the fantastical species that are introduced in Super Mario games to fill the crowd, which is something I can understand since their designs stand out, and some are even rather friendly too! Moreover, the case for human characters is a precarious case: on one hand, they tend to have a generic feel in their designs so they might hardly stand out. On the other hand, because of the rarity of human characters, if a new human character were to be introduced, they must have a valid reason to exist, which rarely happens since the last time this happened was Rosalina back in Super Mario Galaxy.

Looking at this from another point of view, Mario is a human character so the sense of isolation as a human can bother some people. After all, since Mario is a human, surely other human characters besides Mario's main cast are around too. That would make the extra humans appearing in some Mario works a sort of relief.

What is your opinion of humans in Mario games: do you like to see more of them, or are they considered unnecessary in the grand scheme of things?

Thank you for reading.

 

[Alex95]

I want Nintendo to take every chance they have to add me into a Mario game. (Alex)

But yes, I would like to see more of these characters, or even returning ones.

 

[Teedgee]

Here are the ones I know:

-E. Gadd
-Pauline
-New Donkers

Well, that's it. I don't really know the ones from Mario Tennis.

 

[Natamaki]

These are good information you should read.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

Maybe we can throw in Foreman Spike in there. He's not generic and he's a pretty notable baddie in the Wrecking Crew games. He also looks like the fifth Mario plumber boy, at least his initial design. Overall, he looks like the second bad Mario. I probably like this one the most, though, we need to just change the outfit to the Mobile Golf one, but keep the shoes.

But his design in the '98 SNES game, he looks more like some Waluigi-Wario hybrid. More buff, wearing a tank top, but no beard. I don't think this Spike one really stands out well from Waluigi or Wario though.

His final design, he's a fat man on a crane. He seems like the least "Mario-looking" to me probably from his lack of resemblance to anything, but even then, he's a step above the other generic humans.

I like to see a more modern take on this character. I think he has potential to be the next new male Mario character, new in the sense we haven't seen him in Mario rosters rendered in 3D or in otherwise contemporary artwork.

 

[Qayin]

The human characters from Camelot's Mario Sport games were really just early attempts to round out the cast. Azalea in particular comes off as a prototype for Daisy as Mario Tennis 64 established her. With that noted, we can call Waluigi Camelot's greatest work.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

Camelot also was responsible for bringing Daisy back to a bigger audience as well as introducing Baby Mario. That's quite a bit of contribution to the series if you ask me.

 

[Czario]

Camelot didn't make Yoshi's Island, so how exactly did they introduce Baby Mario? Unless you mean they brought him to the spin-offs.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

They introduced him to the spinoffs you silly goose.

They even gave him a redesign, giving him lovely blue overalls and blue sneakers, which we see to this day. Nintendo thought Camelot was on to something and thus Mario Kart: Double Dash was born, and Baby Daisy, and Baby Rosalina were a result of a forced carry to term.

 

[winstein]

More than anything, if the Mario series want to introduce a new female character, I hope the body type has more in common with Mario and Luigi (or to a lesser extent Wario and Waluigi) as opposed to the doll-like figures that the current female characters have. I don't think a round nose or having some muscle/fat will diminish the female appearance at all, so I think there's no reason to stick with the usual.

The human characters from Camelot's Mario Sport games were really just early attempts to round out the cast. Azalea in particular comes off as a prototype for Daisy as Mario Tennis 64 established her. With that noted, we can call Waluigi Camelot's greatest work.

I am not sure that Azalea is designed as a redesigned Daisy, but they are indeed incredibly close in appearance that you never see them in the same game.

I do agree that Camelot has got a hit when they designed Waluigi, becuase he's apparently popular enough to be included in further spinoffs, getting even a few appearances in Game & Watch Gallery 4. He may not be well-liked by just about anybody, but his inclusion is a net win for the Mario franchise.

The real question is, given that Camelot initially wanted to design Wapeach, how would a Wapeach look like...

Camelot also was responsible for bringing Daisy back to a bigger audience as well as introducing Baby Mario. That's quite a bit of contribution to the series if you ask me.

Mario Golf sure has some unexpected roster choices. Not only do they have some established characters like Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario, Yoshi and Bowser, they have original characters, Baby Mario and even Metal Mario! I think it's cool that they have given Baby Mario some nice clothes in this game, which I guess became the standard for all Mario games to come (not Yoshi ones).

Maybe we can throw in Foreman Spike in there. He's not generic and he's a pretty notable baddie in the Wrecking Crew games. He also looks like the fifth Mario plumber boy, at least his initial design. Overall, he looks like the second bad Mario. I probably like this one the most, though, we need to just change the outfit to the Mobile Golf one, but keep the shoes.

**cut**

I like to see a more modern take on this character. I think he has potential to be the next new male Mario character, new in the sense we haven't seen him in Mario rosters rendered in 3D or in otherwise contemporary artwork.

I think Foreman Spike is a decent choice for being brought back, in the same way Pauline is brought back for Super Mario Odyssey. Only problem is, Foreman Spike never have some form of regular presence so it would make him like a strange new addition that would be compared to Wario and Waluigi, unlike Pauline who's had appearances in Mario vs Donkey Kong.

Thank you for reading.