Mitsukara
01-19-2008, 03:52 AM
Okay, so I'm never at a loss for something to rant about, and I figured this one might actually make an interesting topic of some sort since I haven't seen a lot of thought applied to the matter by anyone in years (though I'm sure there are plenty of people that do somewhere).
Let's travel back in time to 1989. Super Mario Bros. 3. Nintendo decides to do something more imaginative for bosses rather than Bowser/King Koopa at the end of the world, while also lending more weight to Bowser himself as he only appears for one final battle, and with a completely different strategy than the previous two games' relatively uniform attack pattern (and instant-win axe at the end of the bridge; by two games I'm referring to SMB2j).
So they invented kids (http://www.mariowiki.com/Koopalings) for Bowser; seven of 'em. They had funny hair (mohawks, other spiky hair, no hair, Beethoven hair), weird accessories (nerd glasses, a bow, a clown-esque star ball to ride on, a star-shaped "birthmark" over one eye, groovy shades)... stuff that was sorta reaching to even include on the NES for one-time uses, although they did recycle parts of them (mainly the shell/body area; they only drew three of those I think) in each other's sprites. They were all named after famous musicians (plus two talk show hosts?) Ludwig Von Koopa, Roy Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, Iggy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Morton Koopa Jr. (???), and Larry Koopa.
http://www.mariowiki.com/images/6/6c/Koopalings8.jpg
The Koopalings went on to appear in Super Mario World, the super scope game Yoshi's Safari, and a lot of other mediums (most memorably, the SMB3 and SMW cartoons, although somewhat embarassingly so there I'd say XD), even the Phillips CD-i Hotel Mario.
And then they didn't appear in any Mario games at all for upwinds of 10 years.
Now, I can certainly see why several things- even Luigi- didn't appear in Super Mario 64, since it was experimenting in a totally new field. But where did they go in all these other games? They weren't even in Mario RPG for the SNES.
They finally reappeared, once, without any dialogue or explanation, inside Bowser's castle at one point during Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga as bosses. You just fight them and move on.
They were also apparently going to appear in Super Princess Peach, but removed...?
But what has Nintendo instead given us? Starting in Super Mario Sunshine, and many games since- the various Mario sportspartywhatever games, New Super Mario Bros, and even Super Mario Galaxy, we've had this "Bowser Jr." character. He looks almost exactly like Baby Bowser from Yoshi's Island.
Now, excuse me, but WTF? It's like they had a meeting at Nintendo one day:
"Hmm, we need a new villain that's not Bowser in this Super Mario Dolphin game."
"I know, let's have a Shadow Mario! Like Shadow Link!"
"Hmm... interesting, but weird. Can you come up with a story that makes sense for why such a thing would exist, that's appropriate for little kids?"
"..."
"Oh, I've got it! Bowser has... A SON! *DUN DUN DUN*"
Without anybody there to go "Uhhhhh, jackass, we already did that 10 years ago. Seven of them. One was even a girl. It was called 'Super Mario Bros. 3'?"
I mean, seriously. What the heck?? Did they even... sort of think about past games at all? Aren't some of these people supposedly, y'know, the same people that worked on those games? And then all they can be bothered with, when someone obviously figures it out, is hedging on a cameo, with no explanation or jack crap even though it's an RPG full of dialogue??? The best one can surmise from their Mario and Luigi appearance is that at some point, Bowser said "Screw it, you're all grounded for failing! Go to your rooms forever! And remember, it doesn't talk or else it gets the hose again! I'm gonna go make a clone of myself, at least then he won't look funny! I think I'll call him... mini-me..."
I mean seriously, does anyone else find this totally whack? And disappointing? I mean, they made up these original, wacky characters, more ornate than they needed to be in a NES game already brimming with great level design and new features and whatnot, and then just sort of forgot about them or something.
Can it be that inconvenient to work them in now and then in some legitimate fashion? If the party/tennis/kart/whatever games are scrambling so bad to expand on their characters, and they need more villains to counteract all the heroes, I'd think 7 more would be a pretty useful sway there, wouldn't it? You could find (and still can, though they're mostly old ones that are just still around) old internet sites chock-a-block that had fans of these characters, with fanfiction and whatnot. Surely it crossed someone's mind that there's cash to be made with the idea? And surely Nintendo's main developers have actually played through at least one world of Super Mario Bros. 3?
Of course, another good question that's never been dealt with officially at all is, where the heck does Bowser get these kids? Is he like a Shrieker from Tremors 2/3/the series, where when he eats enough he coughs up a baby? Is he a widower? Did he steal them from somewhere else (implausible since they all have features exclusively resembling his, like the spiky shell and claws and fangs)?
And what's up with the spiky shell items in Mario Kart anyway? Maybe that's what happened to the Koopalings?
I dunno, I just found this was something I wanted to rant about, and figured I'd give it a shot here. A little goldmine of Mario history sitting around collecting dust, in my opinion.
http://www.mariowiki.com/images/7/71/Koopaling_3.jpg
(The unused beta sprites from Super Princess Peach, it seems)
Also: While I understand there's probably a liscense squabble preventing the use of Super Mario RPG's many ingenious character designs elsewhere, why has Nintendo never even sort of tried to reuse Wart (http://www.mariowiki.com/Wart) and Tatanga (http://www.mariowiki.com/Tatanga) (although he did have two game appearances, at least)?
Let's travel back in time to 1989. Super Mario Bros. 3. Nintendo decides to do something more imaginative for bosses rather than Bowser/King Koopa at the end of the world, while also lending more weight to Bowser himself as he only appears for one final battle, and with a completely different strategy than the previous two games' relatively uniform attack pattern (and instant-win axe at the end of the bridge; by two games I'm referring to SMB2j).
So they invented kids (http://www.mariowiki.com/Koopalings) for Bowser; seven of 'em. They had funny hair (mohawks, other spiky hair, no hair, Beethoven hair), weird accessories (nerd glasses, a bow, a clown-esque star ball to ride on, a star-shaped "birthmark" over one eye, groovy shades)... stuff that was sorta reaching to even include on the NES for one-time uses, although they did recycle parts of them (mainly the shell/body area; they only drew three of those I think) in each other's sprites. They were all named after famous musicians (plus two talk show hosts?) Ludwig Von Koopa, Roy Koopa, Wendy O. Koopa, Iggy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Morton Koopa Jr. (???), and Larry Koopa.
http://www.mariowiki.com/images/6/6c/Koopalings8.jpg
The Koopalings went on to appear in Super Mario World, the super scope game Yoshi's Safari, and a lot of other mediums (most memorably, the SMB3 and SMW cartoons, although somewhat embarassingly so there I'd say XD), even the Phillips CD-i Hotel Mario.
And then they didn't appear in any Mario games at all for upwinds of 10 years.
Now, I can certainly see why several things- even Luigi- didn't appear in Super Mario 64, since it was experimenting in a totally new field. But where did they go in all these other games? They weren't even in Mario RPG for the SNES.
They finally reappeared, once, without any dialogue or explanation, inside Bowser's castle at one point during Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga as bosses. You just fight them and move on.
They were also apparently going to appear in Super Princess Peach, but removed...?
But what has Nintendo instead given us? Starting in Super Mario Sunshine, and many games since- the various Mario sportspartywhatever games, New Super Mario Bros, and even Super Mario Galaxy, we've had this "Bowser Jr." character. He looks almost exactly like Baby Bowser from Yoshi's Island.
Now, excuse me, but WTF? It's like they had a meeting at Nintendo one day:
"Hmm, we need a new villain that's not Bowser in this Super Mario Dolphin game."
"I know, let's have a Shadow Mario! Like Shadow Link!"
"Hmm... interesting, but weird. Can you come up with a story that makes sense for why such a thing would exist, that's appropriate for little kids?"
"..."
"Oh, I've got it! Bowser has... A SON! *DUN DUN DUN*"
Without anybody there to go "Uhhhhh, jackass, we already did that 10 years ago. Seven of them. One was even a girl. It was called 'Super Mario Bros. 3'?"
I mean, seriously. What the heck?? Did they even... sort of think about past games at all? Aren't some of these people supposedly, y'know, the same people that worked on those games? And then all they can be bothered with, when someone obviously figures it out, is hedging on a cameo, with no explanation or jack crap even though it's an RPG full of dialogue??? The best one can surmise from their Mario and Luigi appearance is that at some point, Bowser said "Screw it, you're all grounded for failing! Go to your rooms forever! And remember, it doesn't talk or else it gets the hose again! I'm gonna go make a clone of myself, at least then he won't look funny! I think I'll call him... mini-me..."
I mean seriously, does anyone else find this totally whack? And disappointing? I mean, they made up these original, wacky characters, more ornate than they needed to be in a NES game already brimming with great level design and new features and whatnot, and then just sort of forgot about them or something.
Can it be that inconvenient to work them in now and then in some legitimate fashion? If the party/tennis/kart/whatever games are scrambling so bad to expand on their characters, and they need more villains to counteract all the heroes, I'd think 7 more would be a pretty useful sway there, wouldn't it? You could find (and still can, though they're mostly old ones that are just still around) old internet sites chock-a-block that had fans of these characters, with fanfiction and whatnot. Surely it crossed someone's mind that there's cash to be made with the idea? And surely Nintendo's main developers have actually played through at least one world of Super Mario Bros. 3?
Of course, another good question that's never been dealt with officially at all is, where the heck does Bowser get these kids? Is he like a Shrieker from Tremors 2/3/the series, where when he eats enough he coughs up a baby? Is he a widower? Did he steal them from somewhere else (implausible since they all have features exclusively resembling his, like the spiky shell and claws and fangs)?
And what's up with the spiky shell items in Mario Kart anyway? Maybe that's what happened to the Koopalings?
I dunno, I just found this was something I wanted to rant about, and figured I'd give it a shot here. A little goldmine of Mario history sitting around collecting dust, in my opinion.
http://www.mariowiki.com/images/7/71/Koopaling_3.jpg
(The unused beta sprites from Super Princess Peach, it seems)
Also: While I understand there's probably a liscense squabble preventing the use of Super Mario RPG's many ingenious character designs elsewhere, why has Nintendo never even sort of tried to reuse Wart (http://www.mariowiki.com/Wart) and Tatanga (http://www.mariowiki.com/Tatanga) (although he did have two game appearances, at least)?