Dorayaki
King Bowser
Well, in some early games, we can see that the main characters are rather just having fun with the acquaintances they know in a simple course, or some random challengers who just come to beat down their archenemy in a new way.
But in later games when the cast go to much bigger gyms and literally claim to become the best of the world, the cast becomes weird as they're less like what we'd expect from an international event. I'm not saying Toad cannot dream big to be world champion, but it feels like the world's biggest contenders are not really here to test his ability.
Such as, we've got quite more new cool villains from mainline games, who're assumed to be as big threats on a sport course, but in most times Bowser is still the only character to be allowed to excel in both. Or it could be like Olympics where every notable kingdom gets to nominate its biggest sport player, such as Florian representing Flower Kingdom.
Sport schools from early games are one of the notable examples. Yes, Nintendo obviously want us to forget the early games, but I actually like the take sport profession exists in Mario world and some people do take sports as a serious lifelong career, which makes their competition more convincing.
I think it could improve if every single new sport game gets to throw in a "threatening challenger" who'd pose as the most potential contender of the trophy for the player to defeat, make the games competitive image more realistic. I'd also like to see the take from Illumination moviews where Peach or Bowser get to contact their political alliance to participate in a sport competition.
Mario Party might be the only very consistent series that claim to be just about having fun, and has no restriction with who can participate. Also in game system, Party cannot really allow giant figures like King Bob-omb to be a party player.
