Mario spinoffs. If there's one franchise that's had more successful spinoffs than any other, it's Mario. And who's surprised? With the brand recognition of Mario, and the number of characters the series has, not to mention the sheer number of genres the plumber has successfully ventured into, the possibilities are endless. You've had Mario RPGs, various Mario sports, Mario Kart, Mario Party, even Mario Paint for crying out loud, and then you've had several Mario universe characters get their own games. Yoshi got some platformers with their own unique flavor and a couple puzzle games, Luigi got a...survival horror...ish...thing...except more comical...whatever you wanna call it, Wario got his own flavor of platformer and a unique minigame series (ahem, sorry microgames), Donkey Kong is several whole other series altogether, even Peach got a game. And what's more, all the spinoff series have managed to get at least one million seller! Yes, even Peach, her game recently passed 1 million!
Yet there's still so much more Nintendo could do with these characters. So many characters have never had a leading role, and some haven't appeared out of sports and minigame collections (coughWaluigicough). And of course there are plenty of genres Mario hasn't touched yet. Nintendo is bound to do more spin-offs in the future. So tell me, people of VGChartz, what would you like Nintendo's next Mario spin-off to be? It could be Mario in a new genre, a new Mario character in their own adventure for the first time, a new game that brings the whole Mario franchise under one roof ala Mario Kart or Mario Party, or any mix of the characters in some weird game that defies genre labels, I don't care, just tell the world your idea!
Give us a tentative title, who the main character or characters are, what sort of genre it is, and the general concept of the game.
I'll start:
I think Nintendo should give Bowser a chance to really take the spotlight as a main character. He's been on the sides of both good and evil before, is a pretty well developed character, and one of Nintendo's most interesting and beloved villains, I think he deserves his own game! And no, not a game about him conquering the mushroom kingdom like I see some people suggest, but one in which he's the main hero. Thus far we've seen him side with Mario, but Mario's always been the star, and for whatever reason it's always been in an RPG, as far as I can remember. Bowser just wants to rule the Mushroom Kingdom and marry Peach, he's really not that bad of a guy! If the Mushroom Kingdom ever was up against a greater threat and Mario couldn't save the day, Bowser would totally step up to do the job. No way he's letting anyone capture Peach or take over the Mushroom Kingdom but him! In this hypothetical game, a new, smarter, more savvy villain decides to take over. He's been watching for a while and knows that the real threats are Mario and Luigi. So he ambushes and kidnaps them both before invading the castle and kidnapping Peach as well. He then proceeds to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom with ease. He takes out most of Bowser's army and conquers Bowser's castle, capturing Bowser Jr. as well. Bowser escapes and plots his revenge.
As Bowser isn't much of a platforming kind of guy per se, and Nintendo has enough platforming games, the game would be a 3D action game, ala Devil May Cry. The game would give the player a sense of Bowser's raw power. We've seen what he can do in Smash Bros. He can fuck shit up if he wants to. I remember playing Paper Mario: TTYD and doing the Bowser stages and just loving being able to go around and kick ass with Bowser. Imagine that, but in 3D, with all the moves of Melee and more, tons of baddies big and small to take down, highly destructable environments, action packed levels where Bowser just goes in fucks up everyone. Tears through countless small enemies, but takes down things even bigger than him too, in the style of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. Imagine him jumping on some giant beast and sinking his teeth in or slashing away with his claws. Throughout the course of the game he'd get stronger, get powerups to make him even more badass.
Imagine this isn't from a Mario soccer game for a second, and instead it's Bowser in armor, with clawed gauntlets, and some sort of powerful gadget he got from E. Gadd or something that lets him launch it at enemies as a projectile. Or better yet, imagine he saves Kamek or Kammy, who proceed to power him up into the first canon appearance of Giga Bowser.
Bowser singlehandedly takes back his own castle, the Mushroom Kingdom, and saves Peach AND the Mario Bros. He saves E. Gadd and gets help from him with sci-fi powerups, and saves Kammy or Kamek and gets magical powerups, saves Bowser Jr. who proceeds to fight with him, and at the end saves the Mario Bros. who play a minor role in helping him take on the big bad, and then saves Peach. Come on Nintendo, unleash Bowser's strength! Super Bowser Land, make it happen!
Got a better idea for a Mario spinoff? Post it below!
