Hotel Mario / YMMV

Mario: "Gee, uh, this page is kinda dark."
Luigi: "Did you bring a light?"
Mario: "NO."

Accidental Innuendo: "Be careful! When you pinch Wendy's pennies, they pinch back!" The line was meant to be taken literally, given how some of the coins in her hotel are hostile, but without the gameplay in context, it just sounds vaguely dirty.
Audience-Alienating Premise: The fact that the gameplay revolves solely around shutting doors. The Angry Video Game Nerd suggests it could've worked as an early 80s arcade game, but it didn't stand a chance as an early-to-mid-90s console game.
Awesome Music: The strange but awesome electronic music.
Common Knowledge: Despite their many similiarities leading people to lump them in with the The Legend of Zelda CD-i Games, Hotel Mario was not developed by the same studio.
Difficulty Spike: From the fifth hotel onwards, all the elevators no longer have any arrows indicating which direction they go, and they continuously change which floor they head towards. From the sixth hotel onwards, the levels also require having to do two sections before completion.
Fan Nickname:
- This game's versions of Mario and Luigi are respectively known by fans as Fat Mario and Gay Luigi. The former comes from Mario's Off-Model design in the game's FMV cutscenes, while the latter comes from the opening line in the game's intro, where the phrase "a picnic, eh, Luigi?" is commonly misheard as "a picnic, Gay Luigi."
- French YouTube Poop fans sometime refer to CD-i Bowser as "Boswor" because of how weirdly his name is pronounced in the game's French dub.
Fanon: An odd example that crosses over with another CD-i game and only exists in YouTube Poops, but it is pretty much YTP fanon to use Ludwig's Castle Hotel as King Harkinian's castle, usually not even changing the sign that claims it is Ludwig's building.
Fanwork-Only Fans: Most people only know about the game because of all of the fan-made edits of the cutscenes. Even many of those who are familiar with the gameplay have only seen it through someone else's Let's Play.
Fountain of Memes: It's weird how easily the entire dialogue of the game gets memorized by everyone to quote.
Fridge Logic: As this Cinemasins-esque video points out, why would Mario buy and carry Bowser's Sourpuss Bread, since it's, you know, the branded product of his Archenemy? (Apparently, it never occurred to the video maker that the room making toast might have just had a spare loaf of bread).
Game-Breaker: The Fire Flower. Naturally, it kills almost every enemy in one hit. To put this in perspective, the enemy hit boxes are very precise, added to the fact that Wigglers take three jumps to kill. The Fire Flower on the other hand makes it easy to mow down enemies.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Super Mario 64 has a similar Memetic Mutation to "Gay Luigi", with "Gay Bowser". Both lines are even said by Mario.
- In one cutscene, Mario asks where the princess is, and Luigi shouts "Over there!" while pointing to Wendy's hotel. Fast forward to Super Paper Mario's Chapter 7, where Mario is separated from Princess Peach. Where is the princess taken? The "Overthere!"
- Luigi's Mansion 3 takes place in a hotel. Naturally, the internet has noticed. Adding onto the hilarity, the lead technical character artist for Luigi's Mansion 3 is Jeff Zoern, who actually worked on Hotel Mario. Additionally, Ludwig's Thump Castle Hotel is haunted, complete with giant Boos.
- "When you pinch Wendy's pennies, they pinch back." In a certain Paper Mario game, failing to meet a certain criteria when fighting Wendy leads to her pummeling Mario with a shower of coins (each doing 1 damage each) until he collapses. And to add insult to injury, these are, in fact, real coins she showers you with, which immediately get added to your coin counter as they hit you. In other words, you're pinching them just as they're pinching you back.
- A tutorial monologue that was cut from the game says this about Mario's jump:
  Look at that, I should've gone in the Olympics.
Just Here for Godzilla: The cutscenes receive far more attention than the actual gameplay.
Lady Mondegreen: Thanks to the corresponding Memetic Mutation, Luigi in this game is nicknamed Gay Luigi.
Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
Narm Charm: No one would care about these games if it weren't for the bad voice acting and goofy lines. "Ya know what they say: all toastas toast toast!"
Never Live It Down: Luigi mentions that he wants to eat spaghetti only once in the whole game, but that's enough for YouTube Poopers to make that his Trademark Favorite Food.
Nightmare Fuel:
- Bowser's Evil Laugh at the beginning is surprisingly effective, especially with the echo effect that was unintentionally added to the low quality Quebec Gamers uploads.
- Morton, Roy, Larry, or Bowser eating you if they find you hiding in a door.
Pop-Cultural Osmosis: Those who grew up in the 2000s are much more likely to recognize "Hey, you! Get off of my cloud!" as a quote from Hotel Mario rather than know the song it originated from.
The Problem with Licensed Games: Considering that it's not made by Nintendo, and they pretty much don't want to associate themselves with this game, then yeah.
Signature Scene:
- The very first cutscene in the game already demonstrates the sheer memeticness of the game, being littered with lots of memes. It's no wonder that it's so memorable.
- Mario's Projectile Toast scene. While there are scenes like this one for coming across a helpful gimmick, this one stands out the most for emphasizing the game's nonsensical nature.
So Bad, It's Good: While the gameplay is somewhat decent (though a little boring), the cutscenes are riddled with Narm and the animation looks like it was made in MS Paint.
So Okay, It's Average: Aside from minor issues such as getting hit by enemies on a different floor from you, the gameplay overall is inoffensive, and fairly playable, though lacking the depth and progression of most other Mario games.
Suspiciously Similar Song: Many Poopers had a field day when the main theme of the game turned out to have originated in the main theme of the 1933 film adaptation of Little Women.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Iggy Koopa. Not only does he not have his own hotel like his siblings and then-father, but he is instead fought at Bowser's hotel, wearing a gigantic Bowser mask for some unknown reason. There was unused data for a cheese-themed hotel, which presumably would have belonged to Iggy, but Phillips didn't like how it looked and scrapped it. There's not even any indication that it belonged to Iggy at all. ^note
Took the Bad Film Seriously: Marc Graue took his work on the game seriously and loved its impact.
Values Dissonance: A rare in-universe example: This game was made before Paper Mario subverted the Always Chaotic Evil trope, and changed how players saw the races associated with the Koopa clan. Therefore, modern players will be surprised by the plumbers' racist tone towards Koopas, especially in the case of Luigi:
Looks are deceiving when Koopas are involved!
Watch It for the Meme: The gameplay itself is perfectly playable and average. The real draw of the game's infamy is its bizarre animated cutscenes. If it weren't for those, the game probably wouldn't be as notorious as it is.

YMMV / Hotel Mario

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