SMG4 is a series that has a fair bit of flaws, but some flaws took root far sooner than some realize.
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General
- Memes were a core part of SMG4 from the start, but their usage has become a big criticism of post-2018 episodes. The first video alone used "the cake is a lie" meme from Portal, and many videos commonly featured memes that had been popular at the time of their upload date, with quite a few of them becoming beloved Running Gags. The difference then was that memes weren't used nearly as much, were mostly there to enhance jokes that were already funny and were widely known and loved memes that had lasting popularity otherwise. However, meme usage started gradually ramping up as the years went by. Apart from the increased frequency at which they were used, the series' humor noticeably began centering around memes, as episodes went from using them to add to jokes to using them for entire jokes, scenes or even whole episodes. The memes used also started becoming noticeably more current, going from memes that had been around for years to using weeks-to-months old at most memes that would rapidly fall out of popularity or be forgotten, if they hadn't already. As this shift slowly happened, memes became a serious key part of the lore, first through SMG4 getting flanderized into being "the meme machine" starting with 2017's "Marioception", and peaking with the Cosmology Saga heavily integrating memes into the backstory, worldbuilding and general story of the series. Nowadays, memes are always used in episodes to the point that whether or not one finds the jokes funny heavily depends on how into meme culture they are. While some newer meme-based content has some standout hits for creativity in how they're implemented (The Waluigi arc as a reference to "Justice for Waluigi" memes, "Uncanny Mr. Mario", etc.), these are more exceptions than examples. As a result, people have come to see the usage of memes as episodes trying to capitalize on what's trending at the time of upload and making them come off as bland, unmemorable and dated, especially on rewatch.
- Similar to memes, the use of trending topics also saw criticism starting in 2018. This was in play back in "the cake is a lie" too, as the title references a Portal meme at a time when Portal 2 was only a few weeks old after release. Other examples include "If Mario was in Skyrim" coming 2 months after the Special Edition was released and Minecraft getting a lot of coverage early on following the game's first big explosion in popularity in 2011. These mostly fell under notice because these references were either brief or were for topics that were technically already around for awhile, making them more tolerable. Criticisms only really started ramping up once the topics used became more mainstream, current and fleeting, on top of said topics tending to already have It's Popular, So It Sucks! and Hype Backlash baggage beforehand. This includes Squid Game getting an episode dedicated to it over the less popular but still anticipated Deltarune Chapter 2, Five Nights at Freddy's returning to prominence after Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach released despite Luke notably implying prior that the franchise had become a Creator's Pest and the duo of Among Us and Friday Night Funkin' getting bashed for their popularity in-series while simultaneously still getting aped via aspects of both games becoming recurring jokes. Nowadays, trending topics have joined memes in diminishing the series' rewatch value and dating episodes in the eyes of some.
- Friday Night Funkin' in particular got a lot of flak for having characters and elements of the game become recurring after the first "If Mario was in" video. As many old fans of the channel will tell you, this isn't the first time a breakout game got a lot of attention from SMG4. Minecraft was the central focus of one of SMG4's earliest sub-series, with Steve remaining a supporting character and Luke's admitted favorite character to this day, and Five Nights at Freddy's essentially dominated the channel for a time, with Chica becoming a recurring character too. The difference then was that the characters were some of the earliest examples and became iconic on the channel for their changed personalities (with the Five Nights at Freddy's characters taking cues from the then-recent parody video "How to Make Five Nights at Freddy's Not Scary"). In addition, videos and elements from both series were more spaced out, with elements from those series tending to show up sporadically at most. Luke himself even implied that the latter had become a Creator's Pest after the adaptation of 3, only coming back to do the UCN adaptation because the fans requested it so much (though he also did a Security Breach adaptation as well once it became a trend). FNF had neither of these excuses, as the characters featured didn't have their personalities changed enough, if at all, to make them particularly memorable, and FNF quickly got just as many videos dedicated to it in only a few months time as the other 2 series got in over half a decade, including an unprecedented second "If Mario was in" episode. This made FNF more of a target than Minecraft and FNAF, bringing in accusations of FNF elements continuing to show up solely because of the game's breakout popularity.
- Continuity has always been inconsistent throughout SMG4's history. After all, Negative Continuity was one of the series' main claims to fame that made it stand out from other "bloopers" series to become so popular. Take for example Mario, who has 3 different origin stories in the classic eranote , all of which are joke origins. This was fine though since SMG4 was a fully absurdist comedy. Much of the lore wasn't meant to be taken too seriously and the series nonetheless managed to do a good enough job at remembering jokes, characters and developments, even if most of it wasn't set in stone. Over the years, however, the Sliding Scale of Continuity gradually tipped toward the higher levels until by the Anime arc, keeping up with the series was an absolute necessity to avoid Continuity Lockout. As the lore grew more complex and started to be taken seriously, fans started having higher expectations that the crew would be able to keep track of it all, leading to criticism once continuity became more loose despite the foray into serious storytelling.note Then the Cosmology Saga saw wide sweeping changes to the canon, disregarding at least a dozen older videos in the process, and unintentional errors, major retcons and dropped plot points started cropping up more often from there onward. Changes and inconsistencies were fine prior since the whole series ran on Negative Continuity and was driven by the Rule of Funny, but they're a lot harder to swallow now that SMG4 has real continuity since every action now has an impact on the story.
- Part of this problem is rooted further in the Writing by the Seat of Your Pants philosophy the series has always utilized. While working well back when SMG4 was a total comedy that had no real lore to keep track of, its continued use started becoming increasingly divisive once story arcs became a mainstay and Glitch Productions involvement led to the series becoming increasingly ambitious. Some have pointed out that many of the problems with arcs (inconsistent pacing, mishandling plot points) could easily be fixed if more time and thought was put into them. While the early story arcs were also written as they went, they were different in that they ended up being solid in spite of it. Waluigi's surprise factor as the first and its solid structure despite having absolutely no forward planning going into it until after "Mario and the T-Pose Virus" made it well-received, Rapper Bob's story was not at all hard to follow and Anime's gradual buildup to the climax and the twists it had along the way were received quite well. It wasn't until the Anime arc's final 2 episodes that cracks started forming in this method, as noticeable Ass Pulls, retcons and questionable writing decisions started popping up from that point onward, spouting numerous issues the fanbase has had with the series to this day. The Cosmology Saga was when it started really becoming criticized, as the duology of arcs ended up both rewriting numerous aspects of the series and added a lot of worldbuilding that the crew needed to remember, making it all the more noticeable once continuity issues only got worse. Nowadays, the "writing as its made" philosophy has become seen as a big weakness, as the increased ambition in storytelling and dedication to uploading a weekly Saturday (and biweekly Wednesday once MarioDoesThings ended up becoming popular view-wise) video have caused the writing quality to suffer.
- The shift to Garry's Mod was set up as far back as late 2011, when episodes first began utilizing it starting with "Time Travel Tells", a mere 29 episodes in. This was accepted then because Gmod's use was sporadic and only used for specific jokes and things that were impossible to do in SM64, so SMG4 was still a SM64 series first and foremost. Its use was also entirely unprecedented and revolutionized Mario machinimas. It was only when Gmod started slowly overshadowing the SM64 software originally used for recording, even for things SM64 could easily do, that people started having a problem with it, leading to accusations of the series becoming a "Super Mario 64 Bloopers" series In Name Only. Though this sin was addressed 2 separate times (the fan backlash to "Tubbie TV" and in 2018), the series ultimately relapsed and doubled down on it both times and rebranded itself as simply "SMG4" in 2017 to solidify the shift. Though Gmod's use now doesn't matter as much for those who got into SMG4 after the fact, the shift remains divisive among those who were around from the beginning as the first sign of the series abandoning its original premise.
- Original Generation elements were always present to some extent. A sizable portion of the original main cast was comprised of the various Author Avatars of SMG4's fellow machinimists and various One Shot Characters were usually OCs. These were fine because recolors were staples of the SM64 machinima genre and the rest were usually just altered SM64 characters, still tying them to the game. The early Modern era also went by without much of an issue, as nearly all the new OCs had something tethering them to the crazy, parodical nature of the series, whether it was having something unique to add or using models from various games. Shroomy and Saiko were the first to raise questions as the first truly original OCs, but got a pass as the former was entertaining and there weren't any models for the DDLC characters at the time, making the latter a necessary stand-in that stuck around to develop into something more. However, new additions got increasingly divisive from then on, which really started ramping up around the time of Tari's inclusion, for varying reasons; they were entirely original as opposed to prior additions carrying aspects of preexisting IPs, their personalities were seen as not fitting the setting nor comedic tone of the series as much, and they were immediately integrated into the cast, regardless of their reception, rather than slowly being promoted up to it over time and through fan attachment like Chris, Swag, Boopkins, Bob and Meggy all were. 2019 then saw the series slowly but gradually begin phasing out copyrighted elements in favor of entirely original ones, with Meggy's change into a full OC at the end of the Anime arc being the first big sign of this. The Lawsuit arc and the ITS GOTTA BE PERFECT movie were when people felt a line had been crossed; the former brought with it redesigns for all 4 of the major Nintendo-based OCs, all of whom had been iconic and two of them (one being the channel's Author Avatar, the second being his Evil Twin SMG3, with both being symbols of the SM64 machinima genre) having been unchanged for over a decade, through reasoning that many fans pointed out didn't make sense. The latter then destroyed Peach's Castle, the cornerstone location of the series and an iconic location in its own right, in favor of a new original location. Nowadays, fans feel that SMG4 has gone from a Mario parody with some original elements to a Glitch Productions original series that just happens to feature Mario and Luigi as major characters, something that those who watch for the copyrighted elements have lamented.
- The pacing of the series started being seen as a problem as storytelling became a priority, with common issues being that the series either blitzes through plot points at breakneck speed or goes the opposite extreme instead. The first two arcs, Waluigi and Rapper Bob, had quite a few episodes where little to nothing happened and had many Breather Episodes before the climax. The first 2 arcs were forgiven for this as they're fairly short (3 months and 1 month, respectively), and most episodes moved things forward in some way while still standing out on their own. Arcs still being new also meant fans were more tolerable of comedy-based breathers since it was still the norm. The problems only really began with Anime. Once the grace period of arcs wore off, pacing flaws became less tolerable since fans felt the team had surely gained enough practice through the first arcs and Meta Runner to iron them out. However, as the arcs increased in ambition, so too did they increase in length, and the wait for developments became much longer than it had been. Episodes also started to blend into each other and commonly struggled to stand out and remain entertaining in their own right as standalone episodes while also forwarding the story in a meaningful way. This was only exacerbated when the Cosmology Saga brought with it a shift to drawn-out overreaching storylines rather than the mostly self-contained stories of past arcs, pushing these issues even further; weeks to months between episodes that push developments forward (sometimes only doing so in the episode's final minutes), leading to many episodes being deemed filler or padding, before wrapping up the story in what feels like too few episodes.
Characterization
Characterization has become notorious for being a massive issue in SMG4 and for being the result of many smaller issues in the series' lifetime all getting worse over time and building off of each other, hence it being given its own folder.
- Permanent death was normalized far sooner than the fanbase tends to give credit for. Though "tale of a bob-omb" is a notable early example, older videos almost always saw the standard Villain of the Week dying by the end, which still happens. One particularly overlooked example is SLG4, SMG4's canonical brother (by DNA test even) from 2012's "'sup bro" that ends up being shot out of the castle's canon and exploding at the end of the video, which Word of God later confirmed killed him. These deaths were nonetheless overlooked since the characters killed had minor roles and not enough potential to justify keeping them around. The real problem only came once characters that were well-established, had substance and still carried potential started getting killed off. Nearly every SMG4 character nowadays checks at least one of those boxes and they all have their fans for their various personalities and quirks, so the act of killing one of them off to retire them is a lot less appealing than doing so to a one-off villain or random Red Shirt background character. In addition, many found the idea of truly permanent deaths in a world where characters constantly survive nuclear explosions with only minor complaints (while also having multiple established ways of reviving characters) completely forced for the sake of cheap drama and development. Not helping is that the deaths themselves are not only largely depressing compared to the more comedic deaths because of how seriously they're played, but can come off as unnecessary since a Long Bus Trip can achieve the same effect without any excessive doom and gloom. Nowadays, death in general has become a contentious subject within the fandom as any death, no matter the context, ends up reopening the question of why most deaths are played for laughs while others aren't and can't be undone "just because".
- Character overload has become a commonly cited problem concerning the modern cast. The original cast was composed of The Mario Bros, SMG4 and the YouTube Rangers, Lakitu, Bowser, Toad, Peach and Steve among others. This alone already put the cast well into the double digits. Despite this, there wasn't much of an issue since the core cast was still small and evenly focused on enough that they all got in their fair share of screentime, with even the side characters still getting enough representation. The Discard and Draw of characters over the years also made sure that the cast was never continuously growing, and since some of them weren't very memorable, fans didn't miss them much. However, as the years went by, the series only continued to add characters without retiring the others, and all of them had distinct characterizations, leading to a huge Cast of Snowflakes by the time the modern era was in full swing. By 2020, the core cast numbered well into the 20s, a number that only grew as the cast became bloated with newer members that were increasingly criticized for being redundant. Because the series now has to juggle around such a massive cast, many beloved, fleshed out and formerly prominent characters have since been rendered Out of Focus, Demoted to Extra or reduced to cameos, to say nothing of the supporting cast, and the series now finds itself in a perpetual struggle to give most of the cast screentime, with new character introductions now eliciting a more negative response for only making the problem worse.
- Some of the earliest cases of characterizations drastically changing or getting watered down involved X, FM and Toad. X's zombie hunting abilities and FM's fighting capabilities, traits that had been unique to them and defining aspects of their characters, never resurface in any appearance they make after 2012. Toad similarly went from being a Squidward-esque grouch from 2011-2013 to a hyperactive random character to match the insanity and randomness that began with the 2014 episodes. While some complaints were made in the case of Toad, this was mostly taken in stride or fell under notice. X and FM had begun dropping off in appearances, and the burst of fans that came in during 2014 soon outnumbered the older fans who remembered these characteristics, so their change in character wasn't nearly as noticeable. Toad's change actually not only had many finding him funnier than before, but he was also able to switch back to his old characterization and an explanation was even given for his crazier side in "Meet the Toad". However, common criticisms of the characterization of the modern age are characters either changing depending on the needs of the episode, changing in such a way that they're practically different characters or getting stripped of all their characteristics to the point of being interchangeable from any other character.
- Important characters disappearing or getting pushed aside started in 2014-2015, in which Lakitu was slowly forgotten and SMG4 deliberately moved away from the Mario recolors until FM and X were the only ones left. This didn't hurt the show as the characters that remained in the cast were often so strong that they retained and added to the overall comedy and substance of the series. By 2020, it became unacceptable to the fanbase that many characters who helped make the series popular, including some that were around since the beginning, were diminishing heavily in appearances, if not getting removed from the series, and being replaced with characters that were divisive at best, to add insult to injury.
- Early signs of the modern era's notorious imbalance in Character Focus could already be seen in 2017 with Meggy as she quickly gained more and more screentime after returning in "MARIO'S CHALLENGE". Back then, this was tolerated as it was the first instance of a character getting such a treatment, she was admittedly at her most popular at the time and her focus was an effect of her character being fleshed out and developed over time. Fast forward a few years later and this tunnel-visioned character focus has become one of the series' biggest criticisms for its effect on everyone else, compounded by the aforementioned character overload. Nowadays, development and focus are almost always on the same few characters, no matter how thoroughly developed or utilized they already are, which many fans feel hurts the rest of the cast since they aren't nearly as fleshed out and are usually reduced in character and appearances so more focus can be put on these same characters. It also became increasingly clear after the Anime Arc that who got screentime was becoming influenced by who the crew and the wider fanbase favored the most compared to before when no special treatment was given to anyone, even admitted Creator's Favorite Steve. By 2021, it had gotten to the point that the same 3-4 characters were getting months of consecutive appearances while any other cast member managing to get a cameo was considered generous. Nowadays, heavily focused characters tend to be looked down on for hogging screentime at the expense of the rest of the cast, with Meggy herself getting the worst of it for being the biggest offender of this imbalance by a wide margin.
- While on the subject of Meggy, a common criticism for her character somewhere around The New '20s was her over-competitiveness, and to go along with it, a bossy attitude towards her friends, particularly Mario. This was also present in earlier appearances, but she generally knew her limits, and when she took it too far, she would feel remorse and apologize in videos like "If Mario Was In... Splatoon 2" and "Meggy's Bootcamp", even crying Tears of Remorse in the latter instance. Compare that to how easy it is for her to get Enraged by Idiocy when it comes to Mario's antics, and not even when it has anything to do with Splatfests, or competitions in general. This especially bothers fans who originally liked Meggy for both her gentility around Mario and her willingness to tolerate his stupidity, traits that were rare in the SMG4 series around the time she was introduced.
- Female characters getting preferential treatment over the guys has become an increasingly vocal criticism in the years following Meggy's debut. While hard to believe considering how they're treated now, Peach and Daisy (when she appeared) were often portrayed early on as the voices of reason depending on the video, and weren't subjected to nearly the same amount of slapstick the male cast members suffered. Despite this, they just as often had moments where they were Not So Stoic or Not So Above It All, while also having their own quirks that made them just as flawed as the guys. Peach was also meant to be seen as an insufferable nag for ordering around Mario or being a bitch, and commonly got her just desserts for it. Even into the modern age, the girls were still exempt from this complaint due to them generally being nice and their more subtle favoritism falling under the radar in favor of their quirks and flaws... until "Boys vs Girls", the episode widely agreed to be when the girls' preferential treatment became unquestionably clear, forever tainted the reputations of Meggy, Saiko and Tari in the eyes of some and set up a nasty precedent of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male that gradually became more pronounced from then on. After that, fans started taking more notice of the cast's treatment as it became more skewered in favor of the girls; What flaws and slapstick the female characters started out with that made the treatment tolerable prior were gradually scrubbed and diminished to near-nothing (with new girl OCs being introduced with no flaws from the start), and they altogether started being depicted as smarter, saner and all-around better than the guys while the guys themselves, including modern male OCs introduced after, were put through the wringer more than they already were. This was something not helped by the girls in general becoming more aggressive, smug and condescending toward the guys, making them come off as insufferable at times. A common criticism that was already initially present in Meggy was that she was almost always presented as a perfect, ass-kicking Action Girl who was never in the wrong and had no real flaws whilst lacking traits that made other characters funny, something that became more noticeable once it started applying to the rest of the girls. Contrast how the guys are commonly the ones that are in the wrong or cause problems and often have to be helped by the female characters if they show up. Nowadays, the mere hint of preferential treatment for the girls in an episode, especially if it's at the expense of the guys, will draw ire simply for piling on more perceived Character Shilling and tends to make fans of the guys feel bad for them.
- The cast being jerks to each other has become a vocal criticism since 2020, but they've pretty much always been jerks to each other, with Mario at times being the Villain Protagonist depending on the episode. This was fine then since the fully comedic tone meant the audience could laugh about it without having to worry about potential consequences and there were plenty of times where the characters were shown to care about each other in spite of it all. It helps that back then the cast was sold on the fact that they were unrepentant jerks for the sake of comedy. Since the Modern main cast was solidified around 2017, however, the series has since shifted to treating them as a close friend group. While this still wasn't a problem for awhile, this change ultimately ended up unearthing a disadvantage in the series taking itself more seriously; The influx of nicer, more sane characters made the jerkier cast members or moments where usually nice characters grip the Jerkass Ball stick out like a sore thumb. The cast being jerks to each other made it hard to take The Power of Friendship moments they had seriously since they came off as artificial for the sake of the plot and just as easily go back to being at each others' throats afterward, leading some to wonder why they're good friends. 2021-2022 saw the worst of it, with many episodes showcasing the gang constantly coming to blows in spite of them being friends for years and undergoing Character Development, with Mario and Meggy's interactions becoming the most vocally pointed out change compared to how their relationship was depicted in 2017-19. 2023 saw this getting addressed, with the cast getting more time to show why they're friends outside of the serious scenes, with the aforementioned Mario and Meggy problem getting the most attention.
- Some people on Twitter expressed displeasure after the release of "Mario's Fine," where SMG4 has no faith that Mario can regain his motivation. SMG4 being fed up with Mario was originally their whole dynamic back when the show started. It's possible that SMG4 loosening up on him as of late (such as in "Mario Steals Your Liver" and "Mario Goes On A Diet"), plus the revelation that he is Mario's meme guardian, made fans more used to this nicer SMG4, especially with the previously mentioned interactions with Meggy. An in-universe explanation could be that SMG4 is stressed from the events of the "IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT" movie, hence why he seems to have taken a level in jerkass afterwards, but it has never been addressed.
- In particular, Mario's treatment by the cast and the narrative has become a big talking point since the Genesis arc. Prior to this, there were many examples of episodes where Mario was the Butt-Monkey, constantly suffering throughout episodes or outright losing in the end after going through so much. Most of those moments were either brought on himself or were so funny, tame or over-the-top that no one considered it Karmic Overkill, with the sole exception of "Tubbie TV" (and even that episode would become Vindicated by History later on). Episodes since the Genesis arc have been accused of making Mario the butt of jokes more often with less justification than before, on top of inflicting Badass Decay on him, as they tend to have Mario placed in poor situations without him causing it, provoking anyone, being able to fight back or have his punishments come of as Disproportionate Retribution. Calls were also made of the plots and characters becoming engineered to make him the butt of jokes simply to try and be funny, with "DO NOT ENTER" and "If Mario was the Last Man on Earth" becoming infamous for featuring this at its worst. This treatment coming after the Genesis arc brought with it the baggage of Mario's stupidity and sociopathic behavior being explained as having been caused by SMG4's Guardian Pod effectively giving him brain damage and establishing that he's the most important being in the SMG4 Universe only made some fans angrier at the way the Avatar and central character of the series was being treated despite these revelations, leaving them feeling bad for the plumber when the narrative expects them to feel the opposite or laugh about it.
