History BaseBreakingCharacter / SuperMarioBros

* Jr. Troopa from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' has just as many fans as he does detractors. Fans like him for his status as a GoldfishPoopGang with increasingly creative boss fights and admire his {{Determinator}} personality, whereas detractors find him to be an obnoxious roadblock who contributes little to the story and robs the players of a rematch against the [[EnsembleDarkHorse Koopa Bros.]]

** Toadette is a smaller, but also specific example: is she a great female alternative to the Princess-type characters who deserves her BreakoutCharacter status (thanks to repeated, well-received appearances in games like ''VideoGame/CaptainToadTreasureTracker'' and ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'')? Or is she a lazy DistaffCounterpart to the —already base-breaking— Toad, and has been victim of WolverinePublicity, no matter if she's playable or an NPC?

** Wendy, being the only female Koopaling, is disliked by some fans for being a one-dimensional ”girly-girl” character with an overtly feminized design. Others find her design quite appealing and unique, and love the greedy, assertive aspects of her personality.
* Beldam from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is loved for being fun to fight in bosses and her turning out to be the BigBad and one pulling the strings. She also despised by a good chuck of people for being a {{Jerkass}} toward Vivian and Doopliss (both of whom are fan favorites, especially the former) and for being forgiven too easily for her actions.

* Beldam from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is loved for being fun to fight in bosses and her turning out to be the BigBad and one pulling the strings. She also despised by a good chuck of people for being a {{Jerkass}} toward Vivian and Doopliss (both of whom are fan favorites, especially the former) and for being a big KarmaHoudini.

* Despite being the main protagonist, Mario himself is incredibly divisive amongst fans. While Mario is [[CaptainObvious incredibly popular]] and many love him for his kind, joyous and heroic personality, he has garnered plenty of detractors who finds him to be incredibly boring compared to the other characters. This is largely thanks to the fact that Mario is by design, a VanillaProtagonist, with no real distinctive personality and traits compared to the rest of the cast. While some don't take issue with this approach, given that he is meant to be a versatile JackOfAllTrades and the games aren't heavily story or character-driven to begin with, others argue that the lack of a real personality only hurts Mario and prevents him from being as interesting as the other characters, including his own brother, Luigi. While there have been attempts by Nintendo to give him something of a a more defined personality in the past, these attempts don't usually stick and tend to be divisive in their own right as to whetver or not they work for Mario's character. Others also simply hate him for being a SpotlightStealingSquad, and want the other more interesting characters to be focused on more than him.

* Despite being the main protagonist, Mario himself is quite divisive amongst fans. While Mario is [[CaptainObvious incredibly popular]] and many love him for his kind, joyous and heroic personality, he has garnered plenty of detractors who finds him to be incredibly boring compared to the other characters. This is largely thanks to the fact that Mario is by design, a VanillaProtagonist, with no real distinctive personality and traits compared to the rest of the cast. While some don't take issue with this approach, given that he is meant to be a versatile JackOfAllTrades and the games aren't heavily story or character-driven to begin with, others argue that the lack of a real personality only hurts Mario and prevents him from being as interesting as the other characters, including his own brother, Luigi. While there have been attempts by Nintendo to give him something of a a more defined personality in the past, these attempts don't usually stick and tend to be divisive in their own right as to whetver or not they work for Mario's character.

* Princess Peach is by far the biggest one in the franchise. She is no stranger to detractors considering her an extremely {{flanderiz|ation}}ed character, with her [[TheDitz ditzyness]], high-pitched voice and [[DamselInDistress constant kidnappings]] growning tiresome for many. Her shallow, DumbBlonde depiction in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is brought up as a particularly sour spot for her in the series. Peach's lack of self-initiative in escaping hasn't garnered her much support either, with some people labeling her as [[DamselScrappy a negative, useless and outdated female stereotype]] compared to smarter and/or more proactive Nintendo heroines such as [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] and even [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]], Toadette and Daisy from her own franchise. She still has plenty of fans and fanboys however, particularly for her more competent spin-off portrayals and [[NiceGirl sweet nature]], along with being beautiful-looking; additionally, later appearances help address the former group's complaints, as Peach is a fully playable character in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRun'' instead of being the damsel in distress. ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' (her first starring role) also helped her win over a lot of fans because she saved the Mario Bros herself in that game. Peach is also liked more in the [=RPGs=], where she is usually depicted as a more fleshed-out and endearing character and is more consistently competent with Super Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and both Mario Plus Rabbids games in particular making her a fully playable Action Girl, but it is up for debate whether this makes up for her more shallow and/or ditzy main series depiction, due to the main platformers being more central to the ''Mario'' franchise. A few fans of her, while agreeing she does get kidnapped too much, also argue in her favor due to the DamselInDistress status gradually becoming less prominent in media. Lastly, some people feel like she is a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter saying that Nintendo should make her playable in more mainline games and that it makes no sense that she should be getting kidnapped all the time when she has proven herself in many games to be a capable heroine.

* Princess Peach is usually the most cited example of this as far as the main characters[[note]]the Mario Bros., herself, Bowser, Yoshi and Toad[[/note]] are concerned. She is no stranger to detractors considering her a {{flanderiz|ation}}ed character, with her [[TheDitz ditzyness]], high-pitched voice and [[DamselInDistress constant kidnappings]] growning tiresome for many. Her shallow, DumbBlonde depiction in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is brought up as a particularly sour spot for her in the series. Peach's lack of self-initiative in escaping hasn't garnered her much support either, with some people labeling her as [[DamselScrappy a negative, outdated female stereotype]] compared to smarter and/or more proactive Nintendo heroines such as [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] and even [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]], Toadette and Daisy from her own franchise. She still has plenty of fans and fanboys however, particularly for her more competent spin-off portrayals and [[NiceGirl sweet nature]], along with being beautiful-looking; additionally, later appearances help address the former group's complaints, as Peach is a fully playable character in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRun'' instead of being the damsel in distress. ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' (her first starring role) also helped her win over a lot of fans because she saved the Mario Bros herself in that game. Peach is also liked more in the [=RPGs=], where she is usually depicted as a more fleshed-out and endearing character and is more consistently competent with Super Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and both Mario Plus Rabbids games in particular making her a fully playable Action Girl, but it is up for debate whether this makes up for her more shallow and/or ditzy main series depiction, due to the main platformers being more central to the ''Mario'' franchise. A few fans of her, while agreeing she does get kidnapped too much, also argue in her favor due to the DamselInDistress status gradually becoming less prominent in media. Lastly, some people feel like she is a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter saying that Nintendo should make her playable in more mainline games and that it makes no sense that she should be getting kidnapped all the time when she has proven herself in many games to be a capable heroine.

* The Koopalings themselves are a pretty serious case of this. For a long period, they were pretty universally well-liked, in part due to seemingly being emblematic of the "good old days" of 2D Mario, showing up far more often in fanwork than in any of the mainline games and being treated fondly for their quirky designs and sense of personality. Their return in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' was widely celebrated. However, after that point, they started appearing [[WolverinePublicity a]] ''[[WolverinePublicity lot]]'' [[WolverinePublicity more often]] (including being the bosses in both ''New'' games to follow), and it caused something of a counter-movement around them to form, viewing them as boring and repetitive to fight, one-dimensional in personality, and emblematic of the franchise's more creatively stagnant entries. Part of the problem is that the Koopalings are so defined as a group that any game to include them will invariably have to include all of them, and that's a tall order for seven characters that are usually fought as individual bosses, practically mandating that the majority of bosses in the game be Koopalings. Their appearance in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' caused some particular grief, as they essentially made up a quarter of the initial roster, which couldn't help but feel a bit bloated.

* Princess Peach is usually the most cited example of this as far as the main characters[[note]]the Mario Bros., herself, Bowser, Yoshi and Toad[[/note]] are concerned. She is no stranger to detractors considering her a {{flanderiz|ation}}ed character, with her [[TheDitz ditzyness]], high-pitched voice and [[DamselInDistress constant kidnappings]] growning tiresome for many. Her shallow, DumbBlonde depiction in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is brought up as a particularly sour spot for her in the series. Peach's lack of self-initiative in escaping hasn't garnered her much support either, with some people labeling her as [[DamselScrappy a negative, outdated female stereotype]] compared to smarter and/or more proactive Nintendo heroines such as [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] and even [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]] from her own franchise. She still has plenty of fans and fanboys however, particularly for her more competent spin-off portrayals and [[NiceGirl sweet nature]], along with being beautiful-looking; additionally, later appearances help address the former group's complaints, as Peach is a fully playable character in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRun'' instead of being the damsel in distress. ''VideoGame/SuperPrincessPeach'' (her first starring role) also helped her win over a lot of fans because she saved the Mario Bros herself in that game. Peach is also liked more in the [=RPGs=], where she is usually depicted as a more fleshed-out and endearing character and is more consistently competent with Super Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and both Mario Plus Rabbids games in particular making her a fully playable Action Girl, but it is up for debate whether this makes up for her more shallow and/or ditzy main series depiction, due to the main platformers being more central to the ''Mario'' franchise. A few fans of her, while agreeing she does get kidnapped too much, also argue in her favor due to the DamselInDistress status gradually becoming less prominent in media. Lastly, some people feel like she is a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter saying that Nintendo should make her playable in more mainline games and that it makes no sense that she should be getting kidnapped all the time when she has proven herself in many games to be a capable heroine.

* Princess Peach is usually the most cited example of this as far as the main characters[[note]]the Mario Bros., herself, Bowser, Yoshi and Toad[[/note]] are concerned. She is no stranger to detractors considering her a {{flanderiz|ation}}ed character, with her [[TheDitz ditzyness]], high-pitched voice and [[DamselInDistress constant kidnappings]] growning tiresome for many. Her shallow, DumbBlonde depiction in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is brought up as a particularly sour spot for her in the series. Peach's lack of self-initiative in escaping hasn't garnered her much support either, with some people labeling her as [[DamselScrappy a negative, outdated female stereotype]] compared to smarter and/or more proactive Nintendo heroines such as [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Princess Zelda]], [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] and even [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Rosalina]] from her own franchise. She still has plenty of fans and fanboys however, particularly for her more competent spin-off portrayals and [[NiceGirl sweet nature]], along with being beautiful-looking; additionally, later appearances help address the former group's complaints, as Peach is a fully playable character in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRun'' instead of being the damsel in distress. SuperPrincessPeach ( her first starring role) also helped her win over a lot of fans because she saved the Mario Bros herself in that game. Peach is also liked more in the [=RPGs=], where she is usually depicted as a more fleshed-out and endearing character and is more consistently competent with Super Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and both Mario Plus Rabbids games in particular making her a fully playable Action Girl, but it is up for debate whether this makes up for her more shallow and/or ditzy main series depiction, due to the main platformers being more central to the ''Mario'' franchise. A few fans of her, while agreeing she does get kidnapped too much, also argue in her favor due to the DamselInDistress status gradually becoming less prominent in media. Lastly, some people feel like she is a case of TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter saying that Nintendo should make her playable in more mainline games and that it makes no sense that she should be getting kidnapped all the time when she has proven herself in many games to be a capable heroine.