Khuutra on 13 November 2009
Firstly, it's not a matter of laziness, and saying that over and over is not going to make it so. The game was designed around local multiplayer and local multiplayer was its aim. Online multiplayer would have been nice to have, but that would have been an extra feature, by no means expected in Mario platformers, and the fact that they did not include it does not detract from the game as-is.
Other Mario characters? Like who? Who would you have wanted to play as, exactly? The kidnapped princess, or maybe the guy you're riding around in half the levels?
The game was not designed for multiplayer, it was designed to provide a compelling single-player experience and then the multiplayer aspect was built around that.
