What game has the darkest theme?

[Mcmadness]

you take that back

No. Serious Mario is rubbish. It's like reading those fanfics you see of old cartoons written by people who took the source material way more seriously than it's creators ever did.

 

[Zae]

you take that back

No. Serious Mario is rubbish. It's like reading those fanfics you see of old cartoons written by people who took the source material way more seriously than it's creators ever did.

or dealing with spm.

 

[Mcmadness]

And if I may say so, this mindset that "dark and serious = better" is a very close minded mindset to have.

 

[Zae]

it really depends on whats being dealt with in particular, for mario, and some other nintendo stuff i dont think it works very well but lets say final fantasy or maybe fallout it works better since those universes are more setup to work, but making more upbeat and colorful franchises trying to be dark and serious seems like its a wasted effort as the feel and setup just doesnt collide well.

 

[Mcmadness]

Which is why I always say that if you want Mario to be serious you are playing the wrong series.

Whenever I'm looking for something more serious I'll play something else that isn't Mario.

 

[Magikrazy]

I don't think a serious adaptation of a silly or wacky series can't work. It's just rarely done well.

Scooby-Doo nailed it with Zombie Island, and Batman: The Animated Series could also count.

 

[Ray Trace]

Even so, TV shows need a good story to survive. Some video games are like that too.

Mario is not one of the above. He has a wacky, zany, fun-loving series that puts gameplay first, story second. Mario is the last series that needs a serious, dark story.

I'll bring up Partners in Time because I love that game oh so much, but I think the Shroobs were still pretty wacky, it's just that the vim thing was still cartoon-y over-the-top in general, but considered dark by Mario series standards.

 

[Meta Knight]

if you say so, never got the impression any nintendo game was really dark aside from maybe metroid

Maybe that's why I like Metroid more than Mario

 

[Mister Wu]

The funniest thing is that in taly the Shadow Queen is referred to as a witch (remember the 魔/魔王 thing), and this also fitted the story very well, resulting in a TTYD that wasn't really that dark beside Rogueport and maybe the fourth chapter.

And it's likely not a matter of censorship: in that game Mario was called "Giustiziere degli inferi" in Chapter 3, the Magikoopas of Chapter 3 were knows as "Diavolesse" and Flurrie was known as "Dea del vento". If you look at the translations of these terms and at the original Japanese version, you'll see why I consider this translation a bit special.