#i love the mario series i love the spinoffs i love the rpgs

[superbellsubways]

mariooooo 😭😭😭 mario games 😭😭 wahoo! yippee! 🥹 m

[freakartack]

I remember your older Ask where you explained why it might be a little weird for Waluigi to be in WarioWare, but why do you think Nintendo does absolutely nothing with him? Even Daisy is getting more attention now, and our purple beanpole is gathering ever more dust as he cries himself to sleep. :(

I can think of 2 reasons

The suits at nintendo did not personally create waluigi and so he is kind of a black sheep. He's weaseled his way into spinoffs pretty securely but that in itself is a huge feat - we've all heard by now about how wapeach was smothered in the crib, so I figure waluigi's debut was already pushing it. (For the record, I love waluigi but I'm glad they didn't beat the "wa" concept into the ground - the joke definitely would have gone stale by the time they rolled around to wababy rosalina.)

As far as I remember waluigi is WAY more popular in the states than in japan. I don't know if this still holds true today and it is possible that nintendo is catching onto waluigi's memetic fanbase but i wouldnt be surprised if there was still a disconnect between the acolytes and the purveyors of waluigi.

But i mean, two third-party (ish) rpgs just got remakes which i never thought would happen in a milliard years, so who knows what waluigi's future holds.

This would never happen but here is my pitch/fanfiction for a waluigi game: Double-O Γ, Secret Waagent

Waluigi is minding his own business when suddenly he accidentally gets roped into the MI6 (mushroom intelligence, section 6) and there is a massive conspiracy afoot. However the only other thread tethering this game to the mario series is toadsworth, who is waluigi's boss and assigns him missions (but he doesn't know that is waluigi because he is in disguise). However on his first spy mission waluigi accidentally strikes a deal with the enemy (NOT the koopas, it would be an original set of characters that never appear in another game and that spawn a bazillion gamefaqs threads called "when will they add the waluigi villains to mario tennis" and "i hate the waluigi villains"). Now waluigi is a DOUBLE agent and the objective of the game is to go back and forth between both sides and not get caught as a traitor. Unfortunately no matter what you do at the end of the game the jig is up and waluigi's identity is revealed to both sides, causing them to declare a temporary truce so they can unite and kick him out. This is the final boss. After this they will realize that they hate waluigi way more than they hate each other and peace will be restored solely due to waluigi's incompetence.

i don't know why birdo is there i think she just wanted to dress up. The end

[sonicasura]

MY CHILDHOOD IS BACK!!!!

It's so good to see Mario and Luigi's RPGs finally get their much needed love. My first experience with the series was Superstar Saga on the Gameboy Advance. Just like Mystery Dungeon, this spinoff was my very first Mario game.

You can definitely expect some Marioesque crossover shenanigans like with Kaiju No. 8 for example. I already got an idea for a Mario and KN8 mashup. No, it sadly isn't as funnily simple like dumping a Yoshi egg on Kafka. Lol

[pixies-and-poets]

Wow, I haven't really followed the paper mario fandom, although I loved the games. But that sounds really bad. If it's not too personal, what sort of things happened? (if it is i totally understand if you'd rather not talk about it)

Wheeew! Let me tell you a sad story. At least what I experienced from my perspective.

So, I first got into the Paper Mario fandom not long before Super Paper Mario's release. This was back on deviantArt, mostly. I adored the first two games, and when I heard about SPM, I was skeptical at first. It was more like a platformer? Why was the art style so strange? ...But when it came out, it ended up being my favorite! I knew that as soon as I finished it.

Of course, not everyone felt that way, and there were already people who didn't like SPM because of how different it was, or the story didn't resonate with them. But to be honest, I didn't interact with those people very much. I was mostly friends with other SPM fans, and at the time, if they liked that game they probably had played and liked the first two as well, or at least one. It was a happy time as far as I was concerned. Most people, even if they didn't like SPM, seemed to think it was just going to be some kind of weird spinoff and they'd get back to the traditional gameplay soon enough.

....And then years later, Sticker Star came out and its complete blankness of story and personality hit us all like a speeding truck. This is when things fell apart pretty quickly. Pretty much EVERYONE in the existing PM fandom hated it, for good reason in my opinion. This is also where I became more sharply aware that certain people had a resentment towards SPM, since it was either seen as the "beginning of the end" as far as the gameplay starting to go off the rails, OR people outright blamed the story for being too out-there and emotionally charged which caused Nintendo to put the brakes on all that and go in the complete opposite direction (which was backed up by dev comments that came out around the time).

So from here on out I started to feel more and more like a weirdo for maintaining that SPM was my favorite, and a game that means a great deal to me personally. But after Sticker Star, the PM fandom just became an irreparably damaged and bitter place. Initially, the blame was put on Miyamoto because the understanding at first was that he had mandated the PM series 1) put less emphasis on story and 2) no longer be a typical RPG, really, since the Mario & Luigi series also existed to fill that niche. There were a lot of ageist comments made about Miyamoto in particular. Over time, as more info came out, the blame largely shifted to Kensuke Tanabe.

Things only got worse when Color Splash was announced and it looked like more of the same. People said the worst things about the devs, especially the people in charge, and looked for any reason to hate the new game and wish for it to fail. Even though Sticker Star and the soon-to-be-released Color Splash didn't have many defenders of their own, a lot of the larger Mario/Nintendo fanbase began to grow tired of old-school Paper Mario fans, as they... we... started to develop a bad reputation. And with good reason! Looking back, the complaints were understandable but the behavior was often unacceptable. And you know what? I got caught up in it too. I'm not gonna pretend I was above it all. Those were easily my worst days as a fan of anything. I didn't go out of my way to be vocal or mean about it in Nintendo's replies or anything, but whenever I did bring it up personally or on my own stream or discord or whatever, I was bitter. In the past few years I've sometimes come across old comments I made that I'd cringe at now. You might think of me as someone who is largely positive and tries to focus on spreading joy and dwelling on what I love, not what I hate. But the PM fandom at that time was bad for me. Between the Sticker Star and Color Splash days, I was definitely not the kind of person I try to be now.

When Color Splash came out, I didn't even play it for a couple years. But in that time, I largely stepped away from keeping up with the fandom, and I mellowed out a lot, and continued to grow into the person I strive to be today. And then when I finally did play Color Splash in 2018..... I liked it!!! The writing, the scenarios, the general creativity and even the gameplay are just SO FAR above Sticker Star and I think most people didn't even give it a chance, and because so few people own a Wii U, it might be forever doomed for people to just assume it's a slightly better Sticker Star unless Nintendo ever ports it.

And by the time Origami King came out, I was soooo done talking about the series and debating it. I had just totally burnt out. But I was at least tentatively looking forward to the game itself. And whlie I don't love every choice made for Origami King, I liked the experience as much as Color Splash, if not more. It's a nonstop interesting game with utterly fantastic graphics and music, and further steps back in the right direction as far as characters and lore go.

And that brings us to today. There are people, sometimes people that I myself have known for years, who NEVER stepped away, who never stopped acutely feeling the pain of the Sticker Star days, and wage a campaign of complaining to Nintendo to this very day. Meanwhile, Origami King (and to a smaller extent CS and even SS- what I'd call the Real Paper Trilogy) has a sizeable fanbase of its own, especially among younger players. Oldschool PM fans tend to see fans of the newer games as simpletons who have no taste, and fans of the new games often write off people who miss the old style of PM as boomers who can't accept change and are forever bitter and annoying. And then SPM fans just kinda feel like our own thing sometimes, the black sheep of the family. But as someone who likes (almost) all the PM games, I've had people be rude to me just for talking about any side of the issue. One time I was talking about how much I liked Profesor Toad from Origami King only to have some stranger, unprompted, reply to me about how ALL OF TOK'S CHARACTERS WERE SHIT AND THEY ALL SUCKED AND HAD NO PERSONALITY and I'm like no??!!?!? That's not true!!! That's not true AT ALL! I didn't stream TOK when it came out, I wouldn't fucking dare, because when I did play Color Splash for the first time it was on stream and I had to deal with at least one person coming in and being like "why are you playing a terrible game?" despite my repeated warnings that I didn't want to get into a debate on the game's merits. And on the other side of things, I've seen people come up with the most specious arguments to claim that TTYD is actually a Bad Game because it has some backtracking or whatever and that PM as a series was never actually good. There's just... so so many frustrating things I've encountered in the fandom that I'd have to double the size of this answer, which is already a novella, to enumerate them all.

But yeah. I kinda want nothing to do with it anymore. I'm just going to keep appreciating Flavio in my own time.

[zeravmeta]

every so often i come across videos talking about pokemon and discussing how mainline pokemon games always have lackluster plots and like. here’s the thing on one hand pokemon mainline game plots always do tend to be super simple compared to other series and even other spinoffs within the same franchise (like pmd). but on the other hand i feel like its incredibly dismissive of what does exist (and obviously I’m the fool for watching youtube videos on subjects i definitely know more about than them) and also feels like they miss the point on what kind of stories these games want to tell.

but then I really sat down and thought about it. what DOES make a good pokemon plot for the mainline games? because they are formulaic, you always repeat the same process and hit the same plot beats throughout, much of what changes between games is just the creatures and the aesthetic along with whatever new gimmick they might introduce, but overall you can play one pokemon game and you’ve basically played them all so what changes? what really separates pokemon games from each other? what makes people love the world of pokemon so much aside from the creatures?

and then it hit me. pokemon mainline games always have simplistic plot, but a phenomenal narrative. The plot is the story that’s trying to be told, but the narrative is the presentation, the thematic core within a story. The thing about pokemon is that the plot is supplemental to the narrative, rather than the narrative being an aspect of the plot like in most stories.

True, in every mainline game you basically do the same cycle of getting your starter following the map beating the gyms stopping the evil team leader and becoming the champion. But the thing about pokemon is that the actual plot is secondary to the intended purpose of having you actually explore the world. You’re not MEANT to care about the plot details, but rather the plot is flavoring to the characters and world building.

Think of the Gen5 games for a second. People often consider these the best written pokemon games (and for good reason) but what I always notice is that people never bring up the central plot as a reason for that. Rather, the big draw of the writing is the character writing and lore: the circumstances surrounding N, the thematics of what Team Plasma represents, the Memory Link side stories. All of these you can entirely ignore in any given playthrough of a bw/2 game (you can even 100% the games without touching any of these!), yet they’re the things that stick out the most to players for years after the fact.

The same is true of every pokemon game, you don’t care about the central plot, but rather the world and the characters where the majority of the writing IS focused on: Silver’s struggle with his father, Maxie and Archie as well-intentioned villains, Cyrus as a character who wants to save the world from itself, you can ask any pokemon fan to talk about their favorite characters and even though the plots of the games are incredibly simple, they can tell you tons of things about the characters.

That’s something of a trend I feel exists in Nintendo’s biggest games: there is no plot, but you care about the world regardless. Mario games don’t have a plot but we enjoy playing through the worlds. Legend of Zelda recycles its plot basically every game but you remember the interesting dungeons, the funny and weird npcs, the actual experience of discovering the world and its lore. Kirby has no plot whatsoever but uses its aesthetic and presentation to build a world and a lore out of it, putting the focus of exploring the world to the player by giving you a mechanic that lets you skip the game entirely. Pokemon does largely the same thing with its games, but since it’s an rpg there has to be SOME writing to it, and they always attribute that to the characters. Quite literally, its about the journey, not the destination. This is particularly why I kind of love the Gen7 games, because while I do absolutely agree that the game drowned you in cutscenes, the most memorable things about it to me were the random little events you could find around the region that added so much personality, not to mention that this time the plot was driven specifically BECAUSE of the characters narrative (Lillie) rather than having it as a consequence of there needing to be a plot. This is also what I feel Gen6 failed with, because as much as I loved Kalos as a child, they focused far too hard in trying to Have A Plot that they ignored the narrative entirely: you don’t really care about Lysandre because hes never really shown to make any kind of sense, and Kalos as a region was ultimately empty. The one interesting character in XY (AZ) is tied directly to the lore they do introduce, which is his main draw as a whole, but outside of that there’s very little to it all.

This is also why i feel that pokemon spinoff games have such banger iconic stories to them as a result? because the mainline games have a very simple plot but have incredible lore, world building and narrative to them, so when a spinoff actually takes the time to add a properly written story to them its always incredibly complementary as a result and basically half of the work in writing a story is already done, so they can focus on the characters entirely. Anyone whose ever played a mystery dungeon or ranger or any of the other story based spinoff games can tell you that their stories are always incredible.

If they ever do want to make a pokemon game with a legitimate plot to it, I don’t even think they’d have to revamp the formula and gameplay loop that all games have you do, but rather add some extra importance to it. They somewhat tried to do this with HMs I feel, where you can’t progress in the world unless you beat the gyms, but instead of having the gym challenge just be something that the player is pushed into, actually making it a core defining aspect of whatever hypothetical story the writers would want to tell. They could even toss the gym challenge out entirely and try something new, but overall in order to have a good plot, they’d need to make the progression within the game have some type of importance aside from letting you advance in the world.

[game-boy-pocket]

Are there any characters you’d want in Mario Kart?

Yes. Many. I've gone over it many times but I think Mario's spinoff rosters should be used to celebrate the entire Mario franchise as well as it's spinoffs like Wario, Yoshi's Island, Luigi's Mansion, the RPGs, and it's sibling series, DKC. And it should honor it's past, not just it's present. It does do these things, but only just barely, it's still super conservative about which spinoffs it should focus, and it's references to legacy stuff is rare and usually just limited to tracks, not racers.

I truly believe if Mario Kart did a better job of celebrating the Mario franchise with it's roster and it's tracks, the idea of turning Mario Kart into "Smash Kart" would not be as popular as it is.

Anyway, to answer your question more specifically, I'd love to see any of these characteres in a Mario Kart game.

Foreman Spike - Wrecking Crew

Donkey Kong Jr - ( But please not an flat sprite, a 3D model )

Stanley the Bugman - Donkey Kong 3

Wart - Super Mario Bros 2 - USA

Wanda - Mario & Wario

Tatanga - Super Mario Land

Captain Syrup - Wario Land

Mona - Wario Ware Inc.

Jimmy T. - Wario Ware Inc.

9-Volt - Wario Ware Inc.

Dixie Kong - DKC ( I know she was in the phone game but it doesn't count )

King K. Rool - DKC

Professor E. Gadd - Luigi's Mansion, seriously how is he not in this

The REAL King Boo, get outta here with that imposter - Luigi's Mansion

Geno - Super Mario RPG ( Yes i'm gonna be one of those guys )

Mallow - Super Mario RPG

Fawful - Mario and Luigi (Even tho I don't like him that much, but he represents that series well )

Starlow - Mario and Luigi

Literally any Paper Mario partner, I'd prefer a 3D model of them but I know that's not going to happen, i'll take what we can get, even if they're alternate costumes of Bowser's mooks

Any of these would make me very happy. And honestly you could probably apply this to every Mario spinoff, not just Mario Kart. Like it's nuts to me when I see a trailer that reveals like, a blooper or a dry bones as playable and people are like "fuck yeeeahhhh, let's gooooo" and i'm just like ....what? That thing we stomp on to reach a higher platform? That's what you're hype about? Maybe I'm just coming at this from the perspective of someone who mostly plays mainline Mario games, I love Bowser's Minions, but I don't think they're "hype" to play as. I'd rather have more notable characters and bosses.

[noelledeltarune]

What's your favourite / least favourite mario game?

this is one of the hardest questions i’ve ever been asked in my life :-( i love so many of them soooo so much and i don’t think i could pick a least favourite.. it’s also important to note that i haven’t beaten a lot of the mario games i own 💀 i still need to beat superstar saga and i’m only at the beginning/early middle of BiS. i also haven’t beaten smrpg and i’m not very far in paper mario 64 or mario + rabbids kingdom battle. i’m still working on 100%ing galaxy super mario 64 ds and super mario 3d world so i haven’t beaten those either. my brother owns it but i’ve never played luigi’s mansion dark moon myself 😭

i think my favourite story in any mario game is spm (because like. yknow. if you couldn’t tell.) but i really really love like. most of them LOL. galaxy is probably my favourite of the like. 64-sunshine-galaxy-odyssey 3d platformers, i love 3d land, and all of the M&L rpgs but especially PiT and dream team are so special to me

idk if i really have a least favourite?? i obviously prefer the story heavy games but i love the platformers and spinoffs too (<- mariokart wii + marioparty 8 + mario power tennis lover especially) . i guess i don’t really get too excited about the new super mario bros series but i wouldn’t consider any of them to be BAD games. i also obviously am not gonna say anything like mario teaches typing mario is missing mario’s time machine hotel mario etc because i don’t own and have never played any of those LOL

i think the games i’m least likely to revisit are like. new super mario bros wii and new super mario bros 2 :-( . nothing against them but like you’ve played em once you’ve played em enough LOL. i still pop open 3d land sometimes i still get excited to dick around in lm/3 and odyssey i play mariokart and marioparty all the time and i still replay the rpgs LOL. the nsmb games just aren’t like as good to me. those 2 especially because you can’t play as luigi as p1 and that’s all i wanted to do as a kid LOL

[antihibikase-archive]

hi reese i hope u feel better soon :( what kind of video games do u think the blur/blight cast would play? any specific games that come to mind or genres a whole?

Thank you Ashe! :']

Hm hm! I remember making a post like this before, but it's probably outdated now,, so here's some games I think they'd like!

Hilbert - tends to enjoy mostly anything, but finds himself leaning more on story-driven games. He likes JRPGs with set characters, as he likes to see their stories unfold. Like the Tales series.

Cheren - casual enjoyer. He would spend hours collecting bugs and fish on Animal Crossing, however. And Nintendogs + Cooking Mama. Only platformer he's tried are the Kirby spinoffs, and he likes Mass Attack and Epic Yarn best.

Bianca - likes a bunch more games than Cheren does, mostly puzzle games! Tetris mainly, but she also likes the funkiness of Warioware, and likes Rhythm Heaven.

Hilda - fighting games + games with real time combat as opposed to turn-based games. She does lean more on fighting games with a little bit of story sprinkled in, like Blazblue. But also, she enjoys Resident Evil and other action game.

Nate - like Hilbert, he likes JRPGs; but he prefers it if he could put himself in the main character's shoes, so he prefers if they were nameless and silent main characters. Character customization is a bonus too! Biggest favorites are Dragon Quest IX and Fantasy Life.

Hugh - he has no set favorite, as he tries different genres that his friends and sisters tell him to; this is how he gets favorites under the strategy rpg genre (Fire Emblem or even card games), simulations (cooking simulations + business simulations like Style Savvy), and rpgs. However, he seems to lean more on open worlds with lots to explore, like BoTW.

Rosa - straight-up any traditionally "girly" game, but she has a soft spot for the girly games you would find at Gamesbox or something- she loves the charm of flash games. Speedran Princess Debut for the DS. Also a big platformer fan- definitely into Mario, Kirby, and Sonic.

[corvarrow]

2023 Wrap up and 2024 Goals

So I have been keeping track of what books I've read and what games I've played each year, for many years now. It's actually been really fun and interesting to look back and see what I ended up with, and it helps when I have to reference when I last looked at something :D So! I'm gonna put my Book/Games list year and combine it with any goals for 2024

Things I've read since Jan 2023

The Written by Ben Galley

Ariel by Steven R Boyette (read most)

STNG: Grounded by David Bischoff

Ascendant by Michael R Miller

STNG: A Call to Darkness by Michael Jan Friedman

STNG: Metamorphosis by Jean Lorrah

Denver Moon: The Minds of Mars by Warren Hammond and Joshua Viola

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

The Tiger and the Wolf by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

Witch Hat Atelier 1-11 and Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen

All That Glitters by Loren K Jones

Comments: This is an example of like...I don't even remember reading some of these items. The STNG books (picked up from a library sale) were unexpectedly decent, I believe those were ones actually written by the show's screenwriters, so they read almost exactly like regular episodes. Also, I include manga (and some visual novels) on these lists because of the large quantities of reading ~ as such, WHA was probably my favorite read this year. The art is so gorgeous and the artistic struggles really resonates with me. My favorite non-manga waaas :Ta hmm, probably This Gilded Abyss, though I did not like the ending that much. Its fine if a book is going to be a series but I think that books should be able to be read as a one-off. I guess what I'm saying is make sure the ending is reasonably satisfying for THAT book, even if you want to set up for the next one. For example I'm well aware that ADSOM is a series however it's written with a satisfying ending that I can treat as Just One Book. Which I'm going to do. (Hopefully this all makes sense)

Currently Reading: Well my first book of the 2024 list is Heaven Official's Blessing 1, since its been on my shelf for a while ~ I'm already halfway through and just couldn't finish it before the new year. I see there's a ton in this series so IDK if I'll get through it all, but I do like it more (so far) over the other series by the same author

2024 Book Goals: I have a lot of unread ebooks so I'd like to start getting through those this year, as well as a couple paperback books on my shelf that have been there for years.

---

2023 Video Games:

Baba is You

Cats Organized Neatly

Resident Evil: Village

Ghost Song

Salamander County Public Television

Cassette Beasts

The Mortuary Assistant

Vampire Survivors

Cult of the Lamb

Milo and the Magpies

Pizza Tower

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (DNF)

Celeste (again)

Super Mario RPG remake

The Darkside Detective

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

Comments: Honorable mention is MyHouse.wad ~ I haven't played classic DOOM in so long and didn't want to learn how to mod it to play this, but I watched videos obsessively for several weeks when it came out. Its super cool. The Mortuary Assistant I found....strangely relaxing, I'm pretty sure this was not the common experience LOL. TGAAC made me kinda mad, I love AA but I COULD NOT with this one. I got 3 cases in, the pace was absolutely glacial and I did not like any of the side characters so I wasn't enjoying it. Oh well. My favorite game was probably either RE:V or collectively the two Darkside Detective games I just played.

Currently Playing: I just started Super Mario Wonder yesterday after getting it for Christmas. It's cute! I haven't played any mainline Mario games in like 10 years. Seriously the last ones were like Super Luigi Bros and Mario Maker 1 (and even then I think these are spinoffs 🤣)

2024 Game Goals: I have several games in my backlog that I would consider "Large RPGs", such as BG3, and I'd like to get through at least one of them. They're really daunting because of the time commitment required to finish. I'm currently working on some stupid grindy stuff in FFXIV so hopefully (lol) I will just take a break afterwards and can work on one of them.

---

Other 2024 Goals/Art Goals

Yeah I don't like to go too wild with goals anymore. 2023 was just a hot mess year in terms of my day job, for the entire year, and my brain got pretty scrambled. I couldn't think of any silly goal this year (I did "all Ghibli Movies" in a past year for example), so I'm gonna say:

Finish at least 1 sketchbook

Do/Post more finished pieces

Finish a piece of art I've had sitting on my desk since June 2022

I did a big consolidation of art supplies at the end of the year so hopefully I won't be so daunted by what to use in general. The ink challenge I did was very helpful getting a little bit of motivation back. I also have this piece of art that's been sitting unfinished on my desk for a year and a half and I really need to finish it, LOL. I think what happened is the lineart is pretty complicated - once I finished transferring it to a nice sheet of paper I got overwhelmed with the idea of 'ruining' it and put it aside. I really need to get it done though, however it turns out, and move on, as I think the lingering thought is blocking all other pieces.

[protagonistheavy]

oooo I haven't had a chance to gush about the Nintendo Direct. It's always a good day to be a Mario fan, baby. There were lots of fun non-Mario announcements too, but nothing else got me quite as whipped up.

First off, I'm so happy to see Mario RPG get a remake that looks gorgeous. I've never played the game and likely never would if there wasn't a remake. I know tons of people love this game so I'm excited to finally have my chance at playing it myself. Unfortunately this means Genos fans will have a lot to shit about when Smash 6 comes around but a small price to pay.

I really wish we had been given more information about the new Princess Peach game! That might just be the only disappointing part of the Direct, but it's a small bump. I'm just so hyped for the idea of Peach getting a game of her own -- a game that isn't, err, Super Princess Peach lol. I really wonder what kind of gameplay it's going to have, especially since Nintendo sorta implies that it's on the same level as Luigi's Mansion, a spinoff with its own direction. Maybe it could be another RPG series, but the franchise already has a few of those... ahhhg I just want to know!

And then the star of the show, Super Mario Bros Wonder. Holy crap this looks great. In general, I'm particularly glad we get to move away from the "New" brand of 2D Mario games, which were no longer very "New" and were in fact infamous for being more of the same. I love the style with Wonder, absolutely adore the dream aesthetics and how weird it's gonna get. It looks so freaking delicious, I love the fake-2D expressions and animations, I love seeing Mario be more animated, ugh I love this.

I love how intentionally different Wonder is striving to be. So many aspects around the game are deliberately flipped around. I immediately noticed how the goombas are stationary/asleep, but the piranha plants get out and move around -- flipped from how they usually are. Pipes are more closely related to water/plumbing than before, the clouds and hills are styled differently. So many choices feel like Nintendo said, "How do we make Mario feel fresh again?" and this looks so promising.

DAISY! Oh my god! Soooo excited to play as Daisy, and I really hope her inclusion suggests that possibly other characters will be available to play. I wont get my hopes too high for this, there's sooo many characters that are worth adding, but I love getting away from "Mario Luigi and two toads." It looks like the characters each have little bonuses/advantages too, maybe? So that'll be exciting to experiment with too if that's actually true, and not just me misjudging the trailer.

What a fantastic treat. I'm not normally a huge 2D Mario fan but I love seeing this kind of freshness and creativity from the series. It looks like they've really doubled-down on smoothing out traditional Mario gameplay and add in more modern elements. I see a TON of inspiration from the Rayman games, especially with the presentation and how the Wonder Seeds (or whatever) cause some significant event to play out across the stage, much like how many of the Rayman levels go. I'm so down for this, so happy that we have a solid release date to look forward to, I love you Mario.

[shinxeysartgallery]

What genre of game is your favorite?

Definitely RPGs, especially turn-based RPGs.

Most of the series I got all that invested in are RPGs. LOL

Pokémon, Fossil Fighters, Dragon Quest, Skies of Arcadia, and the "Of Mana" series, just to name some. Zelda could potentially be loosely considered an RPG, but that's debatable. Aside from those, Sonic, Ace Attorney, and Kirby are really all that I got too invested in, and none of those are RPGs. (You COULD count Sonic Chronicles, but that's just one game.) Never got too into the mainline Mario games in general, but loved the spinoffs, which are also considered RPGs. lol So biiiiiig abundance on the RPG section. lmao

[bananawebhosting]

Harvest moon story of seasons emulator

#HARVEST MOON STORY OF SEASONS EMULATOR PATCH#

I’m going to expect that you all visit my farm. In the meantime, better step your Harvest Moon game up in preparation. Story of Seasons will be debuting at E3 next week, so if you’re looking for more details, I’m sure we’ll have something to report.

#HARVEST MOON STORY OF SEASONS EMULATOR PATCH#

Interestingly enough, players will also be able to collect Mario items to decorate their houses and farms with, like a Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, or Super Star. Named after the Harvest Moon: Friend of Mineral Town - True Love Edition romhack This is a patch for Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns that allows the player to romance any bachelor or bachelorette regardless of their gender Its NOT a sprite swap Features Gender restrictions for. Longtime series producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto returns to lead a veteran ‘Bokujo Monogatari’ development team as the series is reborn in the West with its new name, STORY OF SEASONS. Only this time around, multiplayer and StreetPass connectivity will be included, allowing players to travel to others’ farms, grow crops together, and interact with each other. Players will take up residence in Oak Tree Town, where they’ll raise crops, care for farm animals, and build a farm from the ground up. Story of Seasons is still a farming RPG and life sim, but it’s changing considerably, and I can’t wait to see what all those things entail. Released in Japan as Bokujo Monogatari: Tsunagaru Shintenchi, it’s a 3DS exclusive headed by Yoshifumi Hashimoto that looks to kickstart the series and breathe new life into what has been a bit of a stagnant series as of late. After 18 years of Harvest Moon, it’s about time for something a little different, wouldn’t you say? That’s why I’m so excited to see Story of Seasons releasing via XSEED this upcoming winter. Call it stereotypical of me if you will, but I’m a huge fan of Harvest Moon and its spinoffs - even the wannabe games.

[th3-0bjectivist]

      I alluded last week with another musical post that there were two RPG’s that made me fall in love with the genre; one of them was Super Mario RPG. It’s a surprisingly little-known fact that Mario’s original name was ‘Jumpman’, as he first appeared in 1981′s Donkey Kong under this moniker. Over the course of several decades, Jumpman went from 2-D to 3-D platforms, and I was enamored with this character and his entire catalog until it reached the 64-bit era or so. Since then, I moved on to platforms other than Nintendo and its famously kid-friendly approach, although I will admit to developing a particular fondness for this company mascot with the tale of Legend of the Seven Stars. 

     Mario has done everything from puzzle games to educational games with an occasional racing game thrown in every now and then, but the sheer magic I encountered on this particular release has yet to find a rival in my nerdy, nostalgic heart. Along the course of the storyline, you gather allies to help you defeat Smithy, an extra-terrestrial robotic antagonist, and thwart his efforts to capture all the Star Pieces and destroy Star Road. One unlikely ally was Koopa, the usual big bad of the series turned antihero to help fight along your side. But you also team up with Princess Toadstool, a spellcaster named Mallow, and a literal star by the name of Geno (why, oh, WHY Geno never got his own spinoff series is BEYOND ME Nintendo, literal cash cow you had there). Your journey sends you everywhere from the Mole Mountains to a sunken ship, and when I think back, I can't conjure a video game in existence that captured my childhood imagination quite the way this one did. It was an incredible game in every perceivable measure, particularly for its time in the 16-bit era, and mightily stands atop VALLEYS of legendary Super Nintendo titles. It also had a superb soundtrack for its time which really captured that fantasy-RPG feel and it was composed by a legendary lady composer by the name of Yoko Shimomura. This is Forest Maze, may you smash play and become rapt in memories of your childhood, as this track most certainly accomplished for me. 

[zoradementio]

Gift Yourself December: Day 7 - Mario

Wow, I managed to do this for a week! What a wonder! Anyway, I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t had at least some experience with the Mario games, whether it be the main series, RPG spinoffs, sports or kart games, or whatever. As for me, most of it was through spinoffs like Bowser’s Inside Story and Super Paper Mario. But I watched playthroughs for many of the games, particularly the ones I was born to late for to have the consoles. And man, watching Sunshine made me weirdly obsessed with Petey Piranha for a time (and to an extent, I still probably am). King Boo was also a really cool character too, particularly in Luigi’s Mansion. Sad that Petey isn’t often made playable in most of the spinoffs. At least Mario Super Sluggers had him and I loved that game, even if the used copy I own is scratched to shit, making the game almost unplayable. And hey, if Petey ain’t there, I can at least bank on King Boo being there. Anyway, yeah, those two are my bois.

[mayalaen]

Do you prefer PC or switch, in general? What kind of games do you like? Combat, farming, general life sims? Are there any series that you're nostalgic about?

How dare you ask for that much info. Unless you like infodumps. If you don’t, well, you’ve been following me long enough it’s not a surprise 🤣

I prefer PC, and up until Switch, I didn’t like handheld. I preferred console, mostly Nintendo consoles, but the others are good too.

But DAMN Switch is an awesome handheld!!! Never thought I’d love a handheld until I got the Switch!

As far as PC games go, my favorite genre is open-world quest-driven RPG.

Skyrim, The Witcher, Borderlands, No Man’s Sky, and Fallout are some of my faves.

Up until the last couple years I wasn’t good at combat/FPS games and they frustrated me, so I stayed away from them. Then I realized that part of what makes a player good is being able to hear where things are coming from, which I don’t have because of my hearing issues.

I got headphones, so now I can feel which direction sound is coming from and I’m a MUCH BETTER combat/FPS player than I thought I was!!

My next favorite would be simulation games like The Sims and the Tycoon games. Racing and tennis are the only sports games I like. I like adventure/puzzle games as well. Not just puzzle -- those are annoying to me, but like role-playing puzzle games.

Games I’m Nostalgic About: The Sims, Tycoon series, Myst/Riven, Theme Hospital, Black & White, Day of the Tentacle, ALL the Mario games including Yoshi spinoffs, and the silly little games from Sega and early consoles like Sonic, Dr. Mario, Lolo, Bubble Bobble (in fact that’s my ringtone on my phone), Adventure Island series, and more.

I started gaming back when it was all text based in DOS on a computer. I loved it then even though my family and friends were like why is that fun?!!

For entertainment, we used to go to arcades. My dad is and continues to be a gamer, but he likes arcade-type games, so he plays on Pogo.com.

We got an NES when I was 8 years old, and OH MAN I was hooked.

Back when I was going through my biggest psychotic episode when I was 25, I got into text-based role playing games/D&D because my coordination was shot with all the meds they had me on.

I found a group online that used chat and forums to play and I not only played as well as hosted my own events. I stopped playing console games for years and played more simulation games on PC.

I play a wide variety of games, but some just stick with me and I glom onto them. Some that I didn’t even expect or I wouldn’t think would interest me, like Animal Crossing.

I’m probably forgetting some games and genres, but I’ve already dumped a bunch :D

[game-boy-pocket]

Well, now that they're all finally out... my feelings on each of the new Smash Bros characters is this.

Inkling was inevitable. But that doesn't mean I wasn't thrilled to see them. Splatoon is a great new IP, though I personally worry about how similar the games seem to be 3 main entries in, but that's nothing to do with Smash. Fun to play but hard to learn. A- ( the minus is for no Octo alt ).

Ridley felt like he should have been inevitable, but was fighting against some pretty strong biases. But he finally made it and i'm very happy. I do think he could have been a tad bit bigger though. Even if they had to slow him down a bit. A

Simon very happy with this character, and honestly surprised he didn't get in sooner. Castlevania may not be as strongly associated with Nintendo as it used to be, but it's one of the first games that come to mind when you think of the NES as well as the SNES. He was in a TV show with Megaman and Pit for goodness sake. And I enjoy using him. A- ( minus is only for no chronicles alt )

Richter was a cool addition, if there was one other Belmnot to be added, i'm glad it's him... but I am more of a Simon guy. Side note, I wish they took the echo fighter character a little further. It seemed like branding clones as echo fighters is all it took to make people more accepting of the idea, only for them to just stop short of three or four new ones, and not even include super obvious ones like Shadow the Hedgehog or Blood Falcon. Anyway A- ( minus is for no symphony of the night alt )

King K. Rool being revealed was one of my top five Smash moments. Donkey Kong is not a neglected Nintendo franchise. But it has undergone some changes that long time fans don't care for, including the removal of the main antagonist, this guy, who has a gigantic personality. He's a very fun character and it's so good to see him come back ( pls appear in the next DK game pls pls pls ) He also happens to be very fun to play as. A++

Isabelle is where Smash reveals kind of started to lose me a bit. Animal crossing is a big series and all but I really felt like the one villager is all the game really needed to properly represent the entire series. You don't need a lot for Animal crossing. And the fact that Isabelle was a relatively new character, who seemingly snatched the role of series mascot from Tom Nook, well it kind of rubbed me a little wrong. She seemed unnecesary... but she is actually more fun to play as than villager, and she's cute. So I don't totally hate her. B

Incineroar was a poor way to end the base game lineup for me. Pokemon just isn't a very respectible series anymore in my eyes and Sun/Moon was the first game in the series that I found too boring to finish. Pokemon just doesn't excite me, and with each new announcement, I'm becoming actively disgusted by it. I would have loved a wrestler character in the game, but the fact that it had to be a pokemon kind sullied it for me. Yeah, I just can't pretend to like this inclusion even if it is a huge Nintendo IP. C-

Dark Samus is a character I am kind of indifferent too. I didn't think we needed her, but I think she's a cool addition to the game. A bit of a waste to make her an echo though, her abilities are very different from Samus in the games if I remember right, I honestly don't remember much of Metroid Prime besides the first one. Still, she's cool. B+

Daisy is an oddball for me. I know she is in Super Mario Land, but her main identity comes from the Mario Spinoff games, and I just don't play those games. They don't appeal to me. I like Mario platformers. And to me, if a character is in spinoffs almost exclusively, they don't count as core Mario cast members. And frankly it's a little odd to me that she's plucking turnips and summoning Toads. The citizens of Sarasaland are not Toads. And she wasn't in Mario 2... but she's not hurting anything I guess so B+, needed "Hi i'm Daisy" taunt.

Chrom is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. He's also an echo. So I don't care. C

Piranha Plant honestly felt like a little bit of an insult to me. I've always hated when Mario games start featuring low level mooks without names as playable characters in the Mario spinoffs while ignoring the likes of Wart, Tatanga, E. Gadd, or th extended DK/Wario cast or RPG characters. It's part of why I don't care about Mario spinoffs. That being said... it is, at the very least, extremely fun to play as. B-

Joker may very well be the most out of place character in this series. He's certainly one of them. Maybe I would feel different if I played Persona, but I don't. So to me he's like the worst thing they added to this game. D-

Hero felt like he should have been in Smash Bros before cloud did. Dragon Quest may not be as popular in the west as it should be. But it's definitely the most important and influential JRPG to the history of video games... that being said, I wish the DQ3 hero was the default costume. I really enjoy playing as him. A+

Banjo and Kazooie finally getting in is without a doubt my favorite moment in Smash History. Not even Sonic got me as hyped as they did. I wish there was a way to make younger fans see this character the way us old timers do without seeming like we're trying to force them to like him, but it is what it is. I love these guys and they're my most played character. A+++

Terry is a character i'm not familiar with. He just kind of looks like a bootleg Ken to me. I think they could have picked a better SNK rep. Metal Slug would have been nice, shooters are sorely under represented in Smash. Do we have anybody besides Samus representing shooters? And she barely qualifies. C

Byleth is a Fire Emblem Lord alright. But you know what, they're honestly the only FE character that feels like they're representing the gameplay of Fire Emblem particularly well while the others were just kind of generic sword slingers... that being said... was this the best way to end fighter pass 1? B-

Minmin was not a character on my Radar. I thought it would have been Springman or no Arms character at all... I am just happy ARMS made it in at all... but really, it should have been base game content. If only to support the new IP. A-

Steve was a character I was opposed to at first. I saw him as a rival to Banjo. And I also saw Minecraft as a dumb zoomer game. A joke. But people made compelling arguments for the importance of minecraft, how successful it is, I actually downloaded Minecraft on my Switch, played it, had a relaxing time, I still play it, and I was actually able to play with my friends who don't own Nintendo consoles. It has cross play. The cross play is really what won me over as it being really cool to have in Smash, as it really brought me together with friends. Steve is tough to use, but great fun, as long as it's against a computer. I can't fight humans for shit, hah. A- ( the minus is for that cursed short enderman alt )

Sephiroth rubbed me the wrong way. Another Final Fantasy character wouldn't have been so bad, but did it have to be another FFVI character??? Couldn't it have been something from before FF made the jump to total steampunk/sci-fi to better represent the series roots? He's fun to use but idk, I just take no joy in him... at least we got more FF music I guess. C-

Pyra/Mythra is a character I have zero opinion on. B ( for booba )

Kazuya is not a character i'm familiar with, and if there had to be another fighting game character, one from Namco, I feel like Soul Calibur should have been it. Bring the Link crossover back around. It seems Tekken has no presence on Nintendo as well... but whatever. I have no strong feelings. He's fun to combo with but I suck as him. B-

Sora makes me sad. I don't dislike Sora. He has a fun design. I like the idea of Kingdom Hearts... I just think the story of those games is very weird and dumb and confusing, so the games themselves are kind of overrated. I really think people only like it for the pretty character models and intricate costumes. I thought people liked it for the Disney stuff but I'm suprised to hear most KH fans seem to want more FF stuff and less Disney stuff??? The only thing that makes the game unique??? Should be dialed back??? That being said... I don't like Disney. It is an evil company. And Disney getting in bed with Nintendo makes me very anxious. D