Summary
One of the most enduring gaming franchises of all time, and possibly the single most recognizable video game character to ever exist,Mariois a pop culture phenomenon. From the early days of fighting in two dimensions to traveling across galaxies and being reinvented countless times, Mario has always been relevant to the gaming industry.
With spin-offs that have become their own franchises and plenty of mainline entries in his own games, Mario has proven to be truly timeless. However, all those years of history do come with their own failed experiments or bizarre entries, and theMariofranchise is no different from any other that has lasted this long.
The crossovers that Mario has had are huge in variety, after all as a flagship Nintendo character, he has appeared in a lot of their large-scale projects. However, one of the most completely bizarre crossovers he has had to date was with the Rabbids, an entity not that popular in their own right.
However, simply crossing over with them was one thing, butKingdom Battlewas quite something else. Putting Mario and the Rabbids together in a turn-based strategy game where Mario must move across the land with his allies and eliminate all the enemy Rabbids felt like one of the more baffling options Nintendo could have taken, even if it is a fun entry-level strategy game with avariety of great teams that can be created.
Though it has become a huge success of a spin-off franchise,Paper Mariois another truly strange idea that Nintendo had for a spin-off from the mainMariofranchise. Instead of his normal adventures,Paper Mariois set in a paper universe and involves Mario, still trying to save Princess Peach as usual, but without many of the gameplay elements that make upMariogames.
Instead,Paper Mariofeatures many role-playing elements, which have barely been seen in the history ofMariogames outside this spin-off series. The quirky narrative focus and the turn-based battles that Mario and his party must engage in makePaper Marioone of the best starting points for RPG and JRPG players,with a great variety of games on its own.
There has been a huge variety of sporting games that feature Mario and other characters from his franchise, butMario Tenniswas one of the very first spin-off sporting games from the franchise, and at the time it was a truly head-scratching idea.
More bizarre still is the fact that not only did one of the versions of this game actually feature a narrative story mode, but it also introduced Waluigi to the franchise for the first time.Mario Tennisis now another successful franchise with a number of entries makingsome of the best tennis games ever, but the concept initially in 2000 was a weird one for sure.
Considered by many to be the black sheep of the 3DMarioera,Super Mario Sunshinefollowed up on the success ofSuper Mario 64by designing this game which still feels like a truly original entry in the franchise. Focusing hugely on the FLUDD, a water-spraying backpack that Mario uses throughout the game,Sunshinewas criticized at the time for focusing too much on gimmicks,although it still comes with a great narrative.
However, the success ofSunshinewas undeniable, and it remains one of the most beloved entries in the franchise for many, due to the beautifully designed color palette and the high level of difficulty, which has been both praised and criticized over the years.
Mario is such an iconic character that if Nintendo is trying something new, it is a good bet that they’ll use Mario to try and ensure some level of sales on it.Mario Paintwas one of these, as Nintendo had decided to develop an artistic system and animation program for the SNES, so they made it Mario-themed.
This title was one of the highest-selling SNES games, but follow-ups were limited in nature. The idea feels outdated modern-day, thoughSuper Mario Makerwas initially conceived as a similar idea toMario Paintfor the Wii U.
The history ofMariohandheld games that very much do their own thing is long and fascinating. TheMario & Luigihandheld series created some very fun games, but none was so strange or has been as well-remembered asBowser’s Inside Story.
Instead of working against Bowser in this entry, Mario & Luigi are shrunken down and fall inside the giant monster, prompting them to work together alongside Bowser to defeat Fawful. Using the two screens of the Nintendo DS, Mario & Luigi would work across levels inside Bowser was on the bottom screen in a side-scrolling worldwhile Bowser was on the top screenin the over-world. This mixture of styles created one of the stranger but more wonderfully unique games in the history of Mario.
4Mario Strikers Charged
Soccer With A Twist
AnotherMariosports game that feels truly weird,Mario Strikers Chargedisa classic soccer-themed gamein which players create a team of five to take on their opponents in a very stylized version of football. With power-up shots and various skills that can be used, the game feels similar to the style thatMario Kartutilizes as a racing game.
Strikers Chargedwas also strange as it was the first Nintendo Wii game to feature online multiplayer capabilities outside of Japan. This allowed players to compete in online tournaments against each other, creating a totally different atmosphere to almost any Mario-themed game up to that point.
Another educational game that featured Mario and his family of characters,Mario Is Missingwas a truly bizarre entry. It took place in the real world, where Bowser had taken over the Antarctic and kidnapped Mario, so he couldn’t prevent Bowser from melting the ice caps. Instead, players took on Luigi, who had never been the main character in a game up to this point.
Luigi’s first protagonist role, the real-world setting, and the bizarre narrative all helped makeMario Is Missingtruly strange. But beyond that, the gameplay itself was a point-and-click adventure, which was totally new and remains very strange for theMariofranchise.
The educational games were truly a strange time for theMariofranchise, but at least young players could really gain something fromMario Teaches Typing. Like traditional typing assistance tools, this game allowed players to choose a difficulty and a target for their words per minute. They then had to enter letters, words, or sentences based on the difficulty to help their character jump over obstacles.
While it is a truly bizarre idea for aMariogame,Mario Teaches Typingwas a very useful tool for teaching, and it made a lot of sense for Nintendo to use a famous licensed character for such an idea. It even resulted in a sequel which came out two years later.
ManyLegend of Zeldafans are familiar with the CD-I system and the strange games it produced for Nintendo characters. Three of the four were for theLegend of Zeldafranchise, but the fourth wasHotel Mario,a nearly forgotten gamethat involved Mario and Luigi traveling through a variety of hotels and closing all the doors.
That made up a huge portion of the game, as well as fighting the underlings of King Koopa at the end of each stage. Alongside full-motion cut-scenes with voice acting and strange, difficult controls, these aspects made up some bad reviews that retrospectively have namedHotel Marioas one of the weirdest and worst video games in existence.
