General Mario Thread

I liked Partners in Time but the final boss battleactually bosses was so awful that it took me over a year to build up the resolve to beat it.

But I liked how each button controlled a different brother. I think I'd like another game like that.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:28:55 PM by Keybreak

It was a fun alien invasion plot with good level design, difficulty, music, and boss battles, and managed to be slightly dark without being overbearingly so, but the linearity, lack of sidequests, and some questionable design choices (Bros. Attacks being item-based, for example) makes it weaker than Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story for me. Not sure whether I'd consider Dream Team better or not.

All four are splendid games to me, though.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:39:14 PM by Anomalocaris20

For me, it was a combination of too dark and too hard; I never enjoyed myself like in Super Star and didn't beat the game (but I did get to the Princess Shroob). Loved Inside Story though (it's on nearly par with Super Star, but only loses because of my Nostalgia Filter and my love for the original Bros. Attacks) and I haven't played Dream Team yet.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:36:39 PM by Karxrida

i still like superstar saga the best. all the games are very well-polished but despite the additional mechanics each game introduced they still all felt too derivative for me, for whatever reason.

outside of SS Bowser's inside story is probably my favorite because it's hilarious.

Compared to most...yes.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:37:44 PM by randomness4

Bowser's Inside Story > Superstar Saga > Partners in Time > Dream Team is the correct and only order. I actually like Partners in Time a lot and have zero problems with its linearity, but some of those bosses really do have too much health, so SS takes the lead. BIS is the best for all the amazing stuff Bowser does. Like beating up his own castle. Dream Team felt bloated with regular enemies that took way too many hits to kill. That and Dreamy Luigi battles weren't as good as Giant Bowser.

The actual button = character bit is what made each of those games hard for me. I can't really multitask like that. I can control one character max overall easily, but beyond that, it's right out of my league. I like the concept and all, but it really doesn't work well for me.

Partners in Time was okay, but I hated the upped difficulty. I haven't played the last one yet, but I found the other two the most fun so far. I haven't beaten any, either due to the difficulty or because the mini-games are too hard for me. But that's what it is. They're good games none the less, but some things just don't work for me.

You forgot the totally epic final boss fight with the totally epic music that ends with Bowser's totally epic Super Slide Punch. Yeah.

edited 27th Mar '15 10:43:32 PM by Karxrida

Weird, I never had trouble coordinating all 4 characters in PIT. Though I was younger then, so maybe I would have more trouble today. I do want to go back to all of them (maybe not Dream Team), but I've got half a dozen Mario games alone that I need to do/go back to first, so that's not happening.

I honestly cannot understand the complaint about PIT's bosses. They're the only ones in the series that feel suitably long to me, and even then you can floor them in about three turns with liberal use of Bros. Items, or even in one shot with a Copy Flower or Trampoline.

Much better than in Superstar Saga, where pretty much every boss dies to one well-executed Bros. Attack even without level grinding.

It's mostly the final boss gauntlet that's ridiculous. First you've got a minigame, then Princess Shroob, then two long battles with Elder Princess Shroob. All without a break or savepoint. I was never at risk at dying (regenerating health badge works well for that), but I can see why it was too long for some people. I still maintain that Dream Team was the worse about padding and enemy health though. The mooks just would not die, and plenty of them were pretty hard too.

The princesses are a pretty long gauntlet, I'll give you that. Though I found it incredibly epic- second best final boss after Dark Bowser + Fawful, in my opinion.

Though when it comes to regular enemies having too much health, I'd have to give that dubious honor to Bowser's Inside Story, not Dream Team. Piranha Plorps, Calorites, Chain Chawfuls, Choombas, most of the crap in Fawful's Castle...

edited 27th Mar '15 10:52:40 PM by Anomalocaris20

The bosses in Pi T are only too long without the proper equipment setup...

I can't focus on 4 characters at once like that. It's too much for me to handle. I have a hard enough time with the other games at times too. I can't beat Superstar Saga because the Koopaling that forces you to do a jumping mini-game gets me every time.

I can barely focus on one thing at a time. I can easily spot multiple things. But I can't easily do all these odd button combinations.

And yeah, PIT just got too tedious for me. The fights were long and not fun at all. The other games had a reasonable amount of HP. I shouldn't have to have a very specific Badge setup to even decently enjoy the game as is. Considering I can't focus on using all four plumbers like others can, I basically can't win either because I keep screwing up. I'm not good at this kind of timing. This isn't an issue when I use a single character, mind you, just multiple. But I was never good at strategy games either(I can think of a strategy, but it never works out too well for me regardless). It's just not my forte.

[Redacted because my aforementioned Nostalgia Filter is blinding me ]

edited 27th Mar '15 11:51:31 PM by Karxrida

Nothing wrong with very much enjoying it, man.

Doesn't hurt to acknowledge the flaws, which isn't the same thing as finding 'em bothersome.

I realize Quest 64 is pretty bareboned at times(for a quick example), but due to me being unable to get more than one item to drop from an enemy, I find it challenging if done right. Since no build has to be the exact same as another due to replayability, it's pretty fun. Sadly a lot of games have too much linearity everywhere, and at least some RPG's allow you to make all kinds of unique builds. Even if at the end, the max stats will always be the same in this game, it's still fun trying a different way to play.

My order of favorite Mario and Luigi games probably goes:
Bi S > DT > SS > Pi T
None of them are BAD by any means, I just like some of them more than others.

edited 28th Mar '15 3:42:09 PM by BloatedCreeper

They didn't ASK Club Nintendo, and that's a website, not an actual club. They checked the survey results on the website, which actually asked, what did you enjoy most about the game? Most people chose Mario's flipping ability. Intelligent Systems somehow interpreted that as no one likes stories.

edited 28th Mar '15 4:10:35 PM by Marioguy128

Did anyone actually answer those survey questions?

Well the thing is that at that time, Club Nintendo wasn't that well used. It is now because it's dying in a few days and a lot of people want free games. But yeah, apparently they took the results seriously, despite the incredibly small sample size, and the fact that some people probably didn't answer questions seriously.

The Mario & Luigi series is possibly my favorite sub-series of the Mario franchise. I've played all of them except PiT. I don't know why some people here are saying Dream Team is the worst, I think it's quite enjoyable. Although the first one will always be my favorite.

From what I've read, perhaps I should be glad I never picked up PiT. That one seems to be the weakest overall.

edited 31st Mar '15 9:39:10 AM by WackyPancake

Well, looks like I'll be playing the original Mario 64 sometime down the line. Now that they finally got it up on the Wii U VC. More importantly, I can finally upgrade Paper Mario. Basically the only N64 games I care about. Aside from maybe Donkey Kong.

In terms of Mario & Luigi games, I'd put Bowser's Inside Story first, then Dream Team, then Superstar Saga. I haven't played Partners in Time, but I'd probably peg it as the worst of the four.

Also, I recently visited my sister and her boyfriend, and we tried out Mario Party 10. Goddamn did we have fun with Bowser Party!

i might have to try to actually finish BIS sometime. i never got very far admittedly (ragequit due to some missables i really wanted, don't remember the details). i was enjoying it a lot, plus playing as bowser and having fawful again are pluses for me.

I don't recall there being anything in the game that's permanently missable. You can sell gear that you can only get once, but you can always get them, at least.