Do smartphones make difference?

Dorayaki

Dorayaki

King Bowser
Smartphone.jpg


We know smartphones and other modern gadgets exist in Mario world, but mainly in metropolis like Brooklyn / New Donky City and Diamond City, and most people from these places (Mario bros, Pauline, Wario and Warioware Inc crew) all own smartphones.

Meanwhile, if I remember correctly, the main kingdoms in Super Mario games (from Mushroom Kingdom to all other kingdoms where mainline and RPGs take place) don't seem to have smartphones.

Altho some of the Mario spinoffs have shown satellites and TV (such as racing broadcast from Mario Kart), telecom network operators seem to not exist in Mushoom Kingdom. So even if Mario brings smartphone to Mushroom Kingdom, it's also impossible for him to surf internet or make a dial.

Let's assume that smartphones can still be charged in the main kingdoms, do you think smartphones make any difference in their offline mode during the heroes journey to save the world (regarding to both mainline and RPGs)? Or they would be totally useless since heroes only need to fight with barehand or magic?
 
I don't really think we're meant to think that hard about it. If there's a scene where a character using a smartphone will add to either the humor of the scene or further the plot in some way, they'll do it. In Super Paper Mario, both Watchitt and Jaydes use older models of cell phones. If that game was made today, I could easily see a smartphone being used for those scenes. But I also don't think those scenes are intended to make any sort of big reveal about the nature of the Mario universe. It's humorous for them to be making phone calls during those scenes, so they did it. Phones exist when the scene calls for them, so yeah you can assume they exist in the Mario world but they aren't a primary focus to the worldbuilding so I wouldn't expect to see the entire cast suddenly using smartphones all the time the way most people do IRL.
 
sometimes we think about how one of the Starbeans Cafe cutscenes in Superstar Saga depicted a video conference, treating it like it was some grandiose far-future invention that was so wacky that E. Gadd would just have ready to go, at a moment's notice. not even a decade later, guess what became so commonplace that it kind of felt weird when the remake kept the tone of the original cutscene.

though, honestly, we don't mind the idea of seeing more "modern day" tech in the Mario franchise. that example just always stuck out in our mind because of the framing it had. like, if Mario randomly pulled out a Mario franchise equivalent to a smartphone in an idle animation, it'd be kinda weird that they'd choose to do that, but we wouldn't bat an eye--we'd only start to raise a brow when they start treating it like a big deal that Mario is using a smartphone, y'know?
 
I'm sure Mario games have smartphones, it's just that while adventuring, there's not really much use for it. IDK why they would portray Mario browsing social media and horrified at the inane shit said on there on a daily basis.
 
This made me think if people still play Mario Run nowadays.

EDIT: Real world exists in Mario too. It's not too farfecthed to think toads were introduced to smartphones by a human at some point lol.
 
I don't think it makes a big difference. I also think Toads have technology, since if you look carefully in the scene where Toad leads Mario to Peach, a Toad in the background is holding a camera.
 
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