MarioWiki Poll Discussion

Some Mario games give Mario speech in text boxes, while other games portray him as a silent character. How do you feel about this?
  1. I would prefer Mario to always have text box speech.
  2. I would prefer Mario to remain silent, and have other characters talk for him.
  3. I would prefer Mario to remain silent but not have other characters speak for him.
  4. I would prefer for Mario to receive full voice acting instead.
  5. I would prefer Mario only talk in gibberish.
  6. I am alright with Mario's speech being portrayed inconsistently.
  7. I have no opinion on this subject.
This joint poll was proposed by @BBQ Turtle originally, and was revived by @Shbig Changes after an era of languishing in the archives. If I had to be real with you guys, I find Martinet's Mario voice kind of annoying but also think it's weird to have him actually talk either via text or audio. I think the peak of his characterization is in Superstar Saga and the like, where he speaks a bunch of nonsense italian and does charades with Luigi or whoever he's with at any given time. SMRPG is good for this too.

For me, it's probably a tie between 2 and 5.
 
Punished (Real) Luigi said:
I would prefer Mario only talk in gibberish.
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Option 5. Yeah pretty much the M&L games (or the first four at least; I'm still in the early-mid stages of Paper Jam and haven't been playing much of it lately, and I've never played the two remakes though I did purchase them before the eShops closed) handled it perfectly imo
 
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I fall into the Full Voice Acting/Gibberish/Okay with Inconsistencies options. Text boxes do absolutely nothing for me and just leave me wanting to hear them speak or have the Mario + Rabbid SOH treatment where they say a line or two from the text box. Having other characters speak for Mario/Luigi is so annoying and draws out the pace, going with my favorite M&L title Dream Team my favorite cutscenes were when they're highly animated, and you could understand the events without any spoken words. Didn't drag pacing and was very cute.

At this point I want them to bite the damn bullet already and have the Bros talk. Even gibberish or small sentences I don't care, what I care about is hearing their lovely voices. I am the annoying mofo who spams the Call Mario button in Luigi's Mansion or makes him purposefully run into dust clouds multiple times for his cute sneezes cuz it's great! LM3 has so, so many new voice lines/clips that go beyond the requirements while maintaining the appeal of a silent protagonist because Luigi never outright speaks full sentences. But full voice acting would be a treat. (Especially after Charlie Day Luigi, yes I am still miffed shut up *pout*)
 
Option 3/5. Having other characters talk for you should really only be done if they have some kind of speech impairment, like not being able to hear themselves clearly. Mario, however, does not have a speech impairment, so I think he should talk gibberish, even if it won't mean anything. That way, Toad shouldn't have to cover up for him in the rpgs and party games.
 
I personally would prefer Mario talk but only speak simple phrases or sentences (like "let's-a-go") but I'm not sure if that would cover Option 4, because "full voice acting" sounds like it would mean Mario would be talking more complicated sentences.
 
Risen King Chrom said:
I personally would prefer Mario talk but only speak simple phrases or sentences (like "let's-a-go") but I'm not sure if that would cover Option 4, because "full voice acting" sounds like it would mean Mario would be talking more complicated sentences.
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I was thinking the same thing, like how Mario and Luigi do occasionally speak intelligible phrases like "Okie-dokie" and "Mama-Mia" in the M&L games but whenever they say full sentences and such it's in gibberish. I like this.
 
I'm okay with anything other than him being silent of course, recent games have always given him unique voice lines. Like my favorite voice line ''WHAT?''. But honestly, textboxes would be cool too. It'd be cool to slowly see more dialogue with Mario in the future to maybe build more character for him.
 
What is your opinion on indie games that draw heavy inspiration from dormant Mario subseries gameplay (Wario Land/Pizza Tower, Paper Mario/Bug Fables, etc.)?
  • I greatly enjoy these games, and I would like to see more made to fill the void left by official games.
  • I enjoy these games, although I would prefer more official games with Mario characters.
  • I do not like these games because of the original characters, but I would like them with Mario characters.
  • I like the concept of taking heavy inspiration from Mario gameplay, but I do not like the games that have been released.
  • I do not like these games in general.
  • I have not heard of these games/I have no opinion on these games.

As far as polls go, this one from @Turboo is fairly unique because it involves unofficial material, content that does not, in fact, feature the plumber himself in any meaningful way. Instead, as Nintendo's franchises all drift away from their roots and either disappear or drastically change, it's only natural that an independent developer or two would step up to the plate and try to replicate these franchises, or at least create something close enough to automatically appeal to a pre-built audience of dead franchise fans.

Games like Bug Fables and more recently (and notably) Pizza Tower have been gaining more and more popularity, as people begin to take notice of these types of titles during Nintendo's pretty brutal game drought as of late. I, for one, am happy to see it. It's Option 1 for me. While I think in some situations such as games trying to mimic Paper Mario (or some kind of hypothetical Mario and Luigi clone), I'd probably swerve more towards Option 2 because I think the Mario cast adds a lot to the formula, Pizza Tower showed me that a game can have entirely original characters and be arguably more endearing and likeable than the thing it's paying homage to, and I'd like to see more developers try to make something original provided its done with enough flavor to make it stand out as its own thing.