Mario additional characters...what's the appeal?

[Lee]

There’s something for everyone.

There's one thing the Mario spin off games have and that's something for everyone. You’re the guy who likes Superman, Leonardo and the Red Ranger? Then Mario’s the true hero of the game. You love the underdogs like Michaelangelo and the Blue Ranger? Luigi’s for you. Maybe you’re more of a badass and actually prefer Lex Luthor, Shredder and Lord Zedd? Bowser’s for you. How about Batman, Kasey Jones and the Green Ranger? You want the anti-hero in Wario. For those who actually preferred Krypto the Superdog and Alpha 5 you have the cute companion in Toad or the female equivalent in Toadette. What if you’re a prim and proper girl like Supergirl or the Pink Ranger, then you have Peach or if you like a bit more attitude like Wonder Woman or the Yellow Ranger? Daisy’s for you.

There’s a sense of achievement.

Take Mario Kart Double Dash, when you look at your screen and see Petey Piranha and King Boo you realise you’ve finished the Special cup on Mirror mode. Or in Mario Power Tennis when you unlock Wiggler, or in Mario Golf GCN when you unlock Bowser Jr. or in Mario Kart Wii when Funky Kong gets his cameo. You’ve worked hard to unlock these characters and because of that you like them more than you would normally, I mean would anyone play as Baby Peach if you didn’t unlock her? Exactly, just play Mario Kart Wii online and you’ll see her very weird appeal.

They’re not the hero.

They’re not the stars of the show, Mario is. Yeah you have your Lugi who has rightful sidekick duties and Toad who has appeared in SMB2 and NSMBWii as a playable oh and there’s Peach who helped out once (but it was all a dream) but canonically that’s it. You don’t play as a red Echidna or a two tailed fox this is Mario’s show and no one has come close to upstaging him well aside from Wario…

Breakout stars become characters in their own right.

In my Sonic piece I noted that Knuckles was part of the demise of Sonic, most people seemed to miss the point I was making in that because you have a character who is cooler than the main character people will naturally like them more as was the case with Knuckles. Mario had the same problem when Mario Land 2 the six golden coins was released, here you had an anti-Mario named Wario, despite being the bad guy of the game people loved him. What was the difference between Knuckles and Wario? Knuckles they kept as a character in the Sonic series main games whilst Wario has never appeared in a main Mario game since (yes Wario land had Mario land 3 as the title but come on, it wasn’t really was it?). This gave Wario a chance to break away and become popular in his own right whilst Mario himself isn’t overshadowed by the man in yellow.

So what say you? Do you agree with me? Or do you think they have no real appeal at all?

Originally posted at http://nintendolee.com

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I like the extra characters on Mario Cart, they often come with their unique vehicles and its kind of a status thing once you can play with them online.

I unlocked Funky Kong recently and I play as him all the time now, instead of Wario. Less people seem to use Funky online as he takes a while to unlock

It is just the same as unlocking characters on any other games, no difference really.

 

[Decarow]

I think it's the fact that people see them in other games and are hardly able to play as them. It's like the "shiny new toy effect".

Knuckles vs Wario

I think Nintendo had the right formula here. They managed to keep Wario in the Mario side-games (Kart, Party, etc.) while giving him his own series of games (Warioware, etc.), whereas Knuckles was being forced into the Sonic games and was never separated from the series. It was able to keep Wario fresh and maintain light on Mario.

 

[Dagger Dias]

You do bring up a valid point that Knuckles is far cooler than Sonic (heck even Shadow comes close to Knuckles' level of awesome) but Mario remains the top dog in his series having never truly been upstaged. Where Wario and Bowser differ from Knuckles and Robotnik is that in the Mario series these characters remain virtually unshifted from their respective roles of anti-hero and villain. You don't see games where you play as Mario AND Wario in the same title very often, at least not in the main series. You can in Mario Party and various other mini-game themed games. You play as both in Super Mario 64 DS, but that was a REMAKE of a game where you played as Mario. Peach has remained the damsel in distress, you can't play as her in many games unlike Amy from Sonic who has more entries than necessary where she was playable alongside Sonic and the others. Luigi was ALWAYS the sidekick, whereas Tails is more useful than Sonic in some games.

The characters stayed in their respective roles, other than in spinoffs or games of other genres. That's the main difference. The breakout characters got their own games. Mario's co-stars made you care about them. Well, ok, most of them. They differ from Sonic's co-stars in that sense because there are FAR too many weird random pointless other playable characters in Sonic games that went on to be replaced by other even more annoying characters. Mainstays such as Knuckles and Shadow are cooler than Sonic himself. Mario does not have anyone in his series more popular than him.

So, I believe that the numerous co-stars of the Mario games serve a purpose because they all play out their roles as they should and give you a reason to care about them. Sonic's co-stars on the other hand, as much as I like Knuckles and Shadow, they are cooler than Sonic. The long list of random other characters gave you little to no reason to care about them, thus why most people have never heard of them before and therefore they serve no purpose.