History YMMV / MarioAndLuigi

* MagnificentBastard: [[EvilGenius Fawful]] initially served as TheDragon to Cackletta in the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga first installment]], where he brainwashes the Koopalings and other minions to work for her in ''VideoGame/MinionQuestTheSearchForBowser''. After Cackletta's defeat, Fawful becomes the BigBad of the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory third installment]]. First, he sells a sinister mushroom to the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom, a mushroom causing the Blorbs. When the leaders of the kingdom get together to ponder the dilemma, Fawful gives the defeated Bowser a Vacuum shroom causing him to inhale everything in sight. Upon taking over Bowser's castle, Fawful brainwashes Bowser's loyal minions to take over the castle, create a theater, and fatten Bowser up; upon him reaching the castle. This is to extract Princess Peach from Bowser's body, which he uses to awaken the Dark Star giving him total control of the Mushroom Kingdom. As a last ditch effort, when Bowser finally makes it to Peach's Castle and after Bowser inhales the Dark Star, Fawful, after being defeated merges with the Dark Star and creates Dark Bowser to fight Bowser and Dark Fawful to fight the Mario Bros. In spite of conquering the Mushroom Kingdom, Fawful is a NobleDemon and has a soft spot for the baby versions of the Mario Bros.

* MemeticMutation:
** Most of Fawful's lines have gotten memetic, mainly "[[LargeHam I HAVE FURY!]]" and "[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory I HAVE CHORTLES!]]"
** The [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Massif Bros.]] and their obsession with "BEEF!"
** It's also common to make sprites styled like the ''Mario and Luigi'' series sprites, from power-ups ([[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3 Tanooki Mario]], [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros Shell Mario]]), to characters (Wario and Waluigi).

** Fawful was most definitely this in ''Superstar Saga'', which is likely why he became the main villain in the third game.
** While Popple came nowhere near Fawful levels of popularity, he was still the second most popular character from the first game and made a return for ''Dream Team''.

* BrokenBase:
** While Bowser's depiction as one of the protagonists in ''Bowser's Inside Story'' is universally loved, fans are divided on how he's depicted in the rest of the series. Bowser [[TookALevelInBadass goes from]] an IneffectualSympatheticVillain and ButtMonkey in ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Partners in Time'' to a KnightOfCerebus BigBad in ''Dream Team'' and ''Paper Jam''. Both portrayals have their fans, who frequently argue about which characterization works better for the Koopa King.
** The relative quality of the games. Which one is the best and which one is the worst? The consensus seems to be that both ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' are the two best games in the series, and fans debate which one of the two is the best of all. Opinions on how the other three games measure up are all over the place, but consensus seems to be that ''Dream Team'' and ''Partners in Time'' have mixed reception while ''Paper Jam'' is SoOkayItsAverage. However, most fans agree that all the games are at least good and enjoyable, unlike its [[VideoGame/PaperMario sister series]], which is widely seen to be going through a DorkAge nowadays.

** The games are known for diverting drastically from the Japanese scripts whenever RuleOfFunny comes into play. The Hammer Bros. in the second game in particular definitely did ''not'' speak in 1337 in the original. [[note: In fact, they only spoke in katakana in the original Japanese, which is commonly used like RoboSpeak would be, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools so perhaps that was a fresh take on the concept.]]]]

** The games are known for diverting drastically from the Japanese scripts whenever RuleOfFunny comes into play. The Hammer Bros. in the second game in particular definitely did ''not'' speak in 1337 in the original.

** The relative quality of the games. Which one is the best and which one is the worst? The consensus seems to be that both ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' are the two best games in the series, and fans debate which one of the two is the best of all. Opinions on how the other three games measure up are all over the place, but consensus seems to be that ''Dream Team'' and ''Partners in Time'' have mixed reception while ''Paper Jam'' is SoOkayItsAverage. However, most fans agree that all the games are at least good and enjoyable, unlike its [[VideoGame/PaperMario sister series,]] which is widely seen to be going through a DorkAge nowadays.
* ContestedSequel: Every game after ''Superstar Saga'' with the exception of its own 3DS remake and ''Bowser's Inside Story'', which is seen either as an EvenBetterSequel or in the same league, has been met with this. ''Partners in Time'' got it mainly because of its [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom extreme linearity,]] [[MarathonBoss overly long boss battles,]] replacing Bros. Attacks and Points with Bros. Items, total lack of post-game content, and more. In spite of this, many like the idea of having four characters in battle as opposed of two like in most other games, and the linearity can make the game faster paced compared to others.
** Likewise, ''Dream Team'' was this to ''Bowser's Inside Story'', mainly due to its slow pacing and excessive {{Forced Tutorial}}s, although the latter has always been a problem in the ''Mario & Luigi'' series (that said, ''Dream Team'' is the worst offender in this regard). Other reasons include the fact that Bowser is the true main villain after being [[ADayInTheLimelight the main protagonist in the previous game,]] with the supposed main villain Antasma being a GenericDoomsdayVillain, or the [[{{Waggle}} sometimes broken gyro controls,]] something that the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam next game]] removed entirely. However, some would argue that ''Dream Team'' has the best gameplay in the series, with many of its boss fights being some of the best, that it has some clever use of the dream world mechanics, great level design, the best soundtrack of the series, and the fact that it still had unique characters and locations as opposed to the approach followed by many recent ''Mario'' games.
** ''Paper Jam'' deserves a mention for being a ContestedSequel to ''two'' games that were already {{Contested Sequel}}s. While ''Paper Jam'' had an interesting spin on the formula (having three separate characters in battle as opposed to two) and got rid of the slow pacing, bad gyro controls and {{Forced Tutorial}}s that plagued ''Dream Team'', the game suffered from a total lack of original characters and locations, much like in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' (however, it makes up for that by having excellent characterization, as opposed to ''Sticker Star'''s {{Flat Character}}s), on top of the tutorial syndrome being essentially replaced with overly frequent (and often annoying) Paper Toad Hunts, contributing to the Toad species' divisive (or [[TheScrappy Scrappy]], if you ask a ''Paper Mario'' fan) status due to being overly prominent. Added to the fact that Bowser is the main villain yet again along with his paper self (only that he's clearly the BigBad from the beginning, unlike in ''Dream Team''), there's no [[DifficultyLevels Hard Mode]] like in ''Dream Team'' [[SequelDifficultyDrop (which isn't helped by the lowered difficulty overall)]], and the giant battles from the previous two games being replaced with Papercraft battles, often considered a ReplacementScrappy to the former, some fans would rather play ''Dream Team'' instead, especially since both games play very similar and ''Paper Jam'' [[NeverLiveItDown suffers from several things that the later Paper Mario games also did, of which the former didn't.]]
* EarWorm: ''Superstar Saga'''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQEf2Cy_TlA standard battle theme]]. So catchy that the mere sight of a .gif from the game can prompt it to start playing in your head.
** Hell, most of the music qualifies. This is Creator/YokoShimomura, [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG after]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts all!]]
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Fawful, most definitely.
** Though they caught on and made him the main villain in the third game.
** While Popple came nowhere near Fawful levels of popularity, he was still the second most popular character from the first game and made a return for ''Dream Team.''
** [[spoiler:Now that Fawful has been KilledOffForReal]], ''Dream Team'' players have found the Massif Bros as two more characters with hilarious speech patterns, between their Russian accents and their constant mention of BEEF!

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the ''de facto Mario'' RPG series, and ''Paper Mario'' would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those" (which is pretty ironic given that the ''Mario & Luigi'' series incorporates platforming elements into its gameplay a lot moreso than ''Paper Mario''). Now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do ''Paper Mario'' fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi'' fans, but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The series never really had many interesting Toad [=NPCs=], there may have been Toadbert, Toadiko and Doctor Toadley, but that was it. Most were just the standard multicolored Toads, and by ''Dream Team'' the standard multicolored Toads were the only Toads to speak of, outside a token appearance by Toadsworth. This was mitigated by the fact that there were other interesting and unique [=NPCs=] that were unique to the series. ''Paper Jam'' does away with the unique [=NPCs=] and has most of the [=NPCs=] be generic Toads or Paper Toads.

* MemeticMutation: "[[LargeHam I HAVE FURY!]]"
** "[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory I HAVE CHORTLES!]]"
** Different characters, but [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam BEEF!]]

* PanderingToTheBase: After the ho-hum reception of ''Paper Jam'', the next two games in the series to be announced were remakes of ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Bowser's Inside Story'', its two most beloved games - a pretty clear attempt to [[WinBackTheCrowd win back their old fans]] while introducing them to new ones.
* ToughActToFollow: While nowhere near as bad as in its sister series, some fans believe that every game after ''Superstar Saga'' has failed to reach the same level of quality. Likewise, some feel that ''Bowser's Inside Story'' was the series' high point, and that both ''Dream Team'' and ''Paper Jam'' were disappointing successors to the the third game. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed,]] however, in that the games were still well-received in spite of this, unlike the DorkAge caused by the later ''Paper Mario'' games.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The games are known for diverting drastically from the Japanese scripts whenever RuleOfFunny comes into play. The Hammer Bros. in the second game in particular definitely did ''not'' speak in 1337 in the original.

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the ''de facto Mario'' RPG series, and ''Paper Mario'' would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those" (which is pretty ironic given that the ''Mario & Luigi'' series incorporates platforming elements into its gameplay a lot moreso than ''Paper Mario''). Needless to say, [[InternetBackdraft fans didn't take this lightly one bit,]] and now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do ''Paper Mario'' fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi'' fans, but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: All the games have been scored by Creator/YokoShimomura, so it's not surprising at all. Some examples include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLp-3Rw_u0 ''Bowser's Inside Story'''s The Grand Finale]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpn1x_OILHE ''Dream Team'''s Never Let Up!]]

** Hell, most of the music qualifies. This is Creator/YokoShimomura, [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG after]] [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts all!]]

* AwesomeArt: Akira Noguchi's concept and promotional art uses a strange, very unique, very colorful style that looks wonderful. The sprites are also some of the most popular in the Mario franchise, to the point that it's popular to customize them.
* AwesomeMusic: All the games have been scored by Creator/YokoShimomura, so it's not surprising at all. Some examples include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBLp-3Rw_u0 ''Bowser's Inside Story'''s The Grand Finale]] or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpn1x_OILHE ''Dream Team'''s Never Let Up!]]

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the de-facto Mario RPG series, and ''Paper Mario'' would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those". Needless to say, [[InternetBackdraft fans didn't take this lightly one bit,]] and now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do ''Paper Mario'' fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi'' fans, but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

** ''Paper Jam'' deserves a mention for being a ContestedSequel to a game that was ''already'' a ContestedSequel. While ''Paper Jam'' had an interesting spin on the formula (having three separate characters in battle as opposed to two) and got rid of the slow pacing, bad gyro controls and {{Forced Tutorial}}s that plagued ''Dream Team'', the game suffered from a total lack of original characters and locations, much like in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'' (however, it makes up for that by having excellent characterization, as opposed to ''Sticker Star'''s {{Flat Character}}s), on top of the tutorial syndrome being essentially replaced with overly frequent (and often annoying) Paper Toad Hunts, contributing to the Toad species' divisive (or [[TheScrappy Scrappy]], if you ask a ''Paper Mario'' fan) status due to being overly prominent. Added to the fact that Bowser is the main villain yet again along with his paper self (only that he's clearly the BigBad from the beginning, unlike in ''Dream Team''), there's no [[DifficultyLevels Hard Mode]] like in ''Dream Team'' [[SequelDifficultyDrop (which isn't helped by the lowered difficulty overall)]], and the giant battles from the previous two games being replaced with Papercraft battles, often considered a ReplacementScrappy to the former, some fans would rather play ''Dream Team'' instead, especially since both games play very similar and ''Paper Jam'' [[NeverLiveItDown suffers from several things that the later Paper Mario games also did, of which the former didn't.]]

* ContestedSequel: Every game after ''Superstar Saga'' with the exception of ''Bowser's Inside Story'', which is seen either as an EvenBetterSequel or in the same league, has been met with this. ''Partners in Time'' got it mainly because of its [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom extreme linearity,]] [[MarathonBoss overly long boss battles,]] replacing Bros. Attacks and Points with Bros. Items, total lack of post-game content, and more. In spite of this, many like the idea of having four characters in battle as opposed of two like in most other games, and the linearity can make the game faster paced compared to others.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The series never really had many interesting Toad [=NPCs=], there may have been Toadbert, Toadiko and Dr Toadly, but that was it. Most were just the standard multicolored Toads, and by ''Dream Team'' the standard multicolored Toads were the only Toads to speak of, outside a token appearance by Toadsworth. This was mitigated by the fact that there were other interesting and unique [=NPCs=] that were unique to the series. ''Paper Jam'' does away with the unique [=NPCs=] and has most of the [=NPCs=] be generic Toads or Paper Toads.

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the de-facto Mario RPG series, and ''Paper Mario'' would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those". Needless to say, [[InternetBackdraft fans didn't take this lightly one bit,]] and now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do ''Paper Mario'' fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi'' fans , but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

** The relative quality of the games. Which one is the best and which one is the worst? The consensus seems to be that both ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' are the two best games in the series, and fans debate which one of the two is the best of all. Opinions on how the other three games measure up are all over the place, but consensus seems to be that ''Dream Team'' and ''Partners in Time'' is a case of LoveItOrHateIt while ''Paper Jam'' is SoOkayItsAverage. However, most fans agree that all the games are at least good and enjoyable, unlike its [[VideoGame/PaperMario sister series,]] which is widely seen to be going through a DorkAge nowadays.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The series never really had many interesting Toad [=NPCs=], there may have been Toadbert, Toadiko and Dr Toadly, but that was it. Most were just the standard multicolored Toads, and by ''Dream Team'' the standard multicolored Toads were the only Toads to speak of, outside a token appearance by Toadsworth. This was mitigated by the fact that there were other interesting and unique [=NPCs=]. ''Paper Jam'' features Toads, and Paper Toads, as the ''only'' [=NPCs=] of note.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Fawful is often cited as saying "I am the mustard of your doom!" This exact phrasing never appeared in any of the games and the mustard wasn't referenced in relation to himself, but to the EvilPlan he and Cackletta were carrying out. It was also part of a longer sandwich metaphor, which is often lost, making the phrase seem even more nonsensical than intended.

* BeamMeUpScotty: Fawful is often cited as saying "I am the mustard of your doom!" This exact phrasing never appeared in any of the games and the mustard wasn't referenced in relation to himself, but to the EvilPlan he and Cackletta were carrying out.

* HilariousInHindsight: Many fans claim that the final boss themes of ''Bowser's Inside Story'' and onwards [[InTheStyleOf sound like]] ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' music. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud Strife]], who appears in some ''Kingdom Hearts'' games, was eventually announced for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U'' where he can fight Mario, Luigi, Bowser and the others. Bonus points in that one of the final boss themes (from ''[=BiS=]'') actually appears in ''Smash'', so a "Mushroom Kingdom Hearts" is even closer to reality.

* ToughActToFollow: While nowhere near as bad as in its sister series, some fans believe that every game after ''Superstar Saga'' has failed to reach the same level of quality. Likewise, some feel that ''Bowser's Inside Story'' was the series' high point, and that both ''Dream Team'' and ''Paper Jam'' were disappointing successors to the the third game. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed,]] however, in that the games were still very well-received in spite of this, unlike the DorkAge caused by the later ''Paper Mario'' games.

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the de-facto Mario RPG series, and Paper Mario would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those". Needless to say, [[InternetBackdraft fans didn't take this lightly one bit,]] and now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do Paper Mario fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi'' fans , but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

* FandomRivalry: For a long time, fans of both ''Mario & Luigi'' and ''Paper Mario'' were FriendlyFandoms, in no small part thanks to both series having several similarities while being different at the same time. That was until Nintendo revealed that they were planning to make ''Mario & Luigi'' the de-facto Mario RPG series, and Paper Mario would continue in ''Sticker Star'''s direction, saying that ''Paper Mario'' wouldn't need RPG elements since the former "already covered those". Needless to say, [[InternetBackdraft fans didn't take this lightly one bit,]] and now ''Paper Mario'' fans often argue that ''Mario & Luigi'' can't replace the former, among other things. [[DownplayedTrope This is a somewhat subdued example]], as due to a significant overlap in both fandoms, not only do Paper Mario fans not actually dislike ''Mario & Luigi fans'' , but fans of ''Mario & Luigi'' also disagree with the idea of "already covering" the RPG audience. It doesn't help that each series are noticeably different in formula, making the statement about not having two Mario RPG series even more controversial.

** The relative quality of the games. Which one is the best and which one is the worst? The consensus seems to be that both ''Superstar Saga'' and ''Bowser's Inside Story'' are the two best games in the series, and fans debate which one of the two is the best of all. Opinions on how the other three games measure up are all over the place, but consensus seems to be that ''Paper Jam'' is SoOkayItsAverage while ''Dream Team'' and ''Partners in Time'' is a case of LoveItOrHateIt. However, most fans agree that all the games are at least good and enjoyable, unlike its [[VideoGame/PaperMario sister series,]] which is widely seen to be going through a DorkAge nowadays.