Something that should exist: a Bowser game

For a while now, I've thought that Nintendo should make a game starring Bowser. And I don't mean Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story; I mean a nice, meaty platformer, preferably in 3D, where Bowser is the main playable protagonist. He's a pretty popular character, and he has been portrayed as heroic in games like Super Mario RPG and Super Paper Mario. I think a game where you get to play as him, and fight against an even bigger bad guy, would be really popular and a lot of fun.

Here's my idea: Bowser is chilling in his castle, minding his own business, when some Bigger Bad shows up, takes over the place, and boots him out (kind of like in Mario RPG). So now Bowser has to travel through the standard eight kingdoms to take his castle back. After you beat the boss of each kingdom, you rescue one of the Koopalings, who uses their magic scepter to give Bowser a new ability (think Mega Man). These can be things like the ground pound, fire breath, ice breath, poison breath, that thing from Super Mario Galaxy where he curls up into a spiky ball and rolls around like Goron Link, and so on. At the end of the game, you take back the castle and rescue Bowser Jr.

It's a pretty basic idea, and I'm surprised something Nintendo hasn't done. Bowser is the only main character from the original Super Mario Bros who hasn't gotten their own game yet. Do you guys think we'll see something like it at some point in the future? What kinds of things do you want in a Bowser game?

I believe that the main reason why Nintendo didn't greenlit this is because letting an playable villain be an complete villain doesn't qualify as "family friendly," no matter how funny his fits of rage are.

It's not an bad idea, though. Just throw in an bonus battle with the Mario Bros. and make it an RPG by Alphadream.

Maybe it would be a great excuse to bring Wart back...

The concept you outlined seems more like a concept for a Wario game to me.

I was going to say. This is almost exactly like Wario Land... but since they've pretty much given up on that series...

You gotta believe. Wario Land can come back, especially since Wario Ware will likely be consigned to smartphones in the future.

I quite like Wario Land: Shake It! and have literally no idea why it's considered a bad game.

I'm guessing that the only character who's allowed in an Nintendo platformer is Mario.

But seriously, the story felt kinda weak by the standards imposed by the competition. And yet, I found the ending and second boss to be rather entertaining. But I wouldn't call it the magnum opus of the Wii.