LogFAQs > #978928560

- Hammer Suit Tier
Paratroopas
Dire Dire Docks (Theme): Unlike the other themes people have nominated, this one actually does feel water-y. I actually do get the impression of this being some kind of swimming level just based on the sounds, and for that alone, it scores some points. But it's also just a nice little tune. Not very energetic, it feels very "take your time-y," but some stages are like that. Overall, great.
Dr. Goomba Tower
Chris Pratt
SupperMarioBroth
Super Mario Bros.: THE video game, by which all others are judged. If you say the word "video game" to people who don't play video games, they think of this, Pac-Man, or Tetris. Maybe Mario Kart or Pokemon, if they're a little younger. Even my mom has played SMB1. Even my DAD, who doesn't know any video game except Galaga, has played SMB1. You can go onto youtube and type in "tribal person plays SMB1 for the first time" and see tribal guys being only moderately surprised, because even THEY knew about this game before seeing it for the first time in their lives. This game has ascended past being just THE video game and entered like our collective unconsciousness. And it's easy to see why it changed everything, of course. It's just better than every game before it. The only possible contender is Tetris, don't talk to me about Duck Hunt or Excitebike or whatever other crap. Dig Dug? Q-Bert? Elevator Action? Pac-Man? Get out of here. The absolute only pre-1984 game that operates on SMB's level is Tetris. The nearest equivalent I can think of is Pokemon, in that it's a game that just completely outmodes everything that comes before it. There isn't a single pre-1998 GB game worth mentioning in the same sentence as Pokemon, again with the exception of Tetris, and I'm sorry, Link's Awakening lovers, but it's true. I'm not going to pretend that SMB is the best game ever, it's not even the best Mario game on the NES, but it absolutely trounces anything that came before it to an embarrassing degree. Oh, I need to talk about the game itself? ... It's pretty good, by modern standards. Still fun. Can you imagine if Mario had taken the same route as Sonic, and doubled-down on deep lore and complex characterization? If Wario was some black-suited edgelord, and every game was about going to an alternate dimension where Mario doesn't talk, because they realized they made a mistake in the late 90s with Sonic Adventure, but don't want to retcon most of the series' history?
Beep Block Skyway
Hell Valley Sky Trees
Valentina: As a kid, I remember stumbling onto a "level 3 challenge" guide on GameFAQs for Mario RPG. I decided to try it, and I got to the fight with Valentina and Dodo before giving up. It is completely insane that this is technically a real Mario character. Unquestionably, she's the most sexualized any Mario character has ever been. It's not just her huge boobs and tiny waist, or the way she waves both around in her standing animation, it's the fact that her dress exposes her entire legs, it's the Betty Boop animations... The only that makes her look Mario-y is that instead of hair, she has a bird on her head. This is how you do an evil femme fatale in a Mario context, this is how you design her to emphasize her femaleness in a way that's still cartoony and silly. The design logic behind her is clearly so much stronger than Birdo or the Koopalings, even if she doesn't fit into the mainline games.
Smash 64 Commercial
Pirahna Plant (Smash Bros): The ultimate Smash shitpost. No one wanted this. Sakurai gave us the hero we deserved, and the hero we needed. It's so stupid in every way, like a parody of characters people actually asked for and wanted. And what really makes it work is how it's not really even a character. It's the only Smash character who's just a random enemy minion. It's different from having a Waddle Dee or a Moblin character only in that Piranha Plants are more famous, and a plant running around is more hilarious. It's even better than choosing a random pokemon, like Furret, because at least someone out there loves Furret, and Furret is a creature. The Pirahna Plant is just a plant.
Fawful: I have no idea how his dialogue reads in Japan, but translating him to speak in Engrish was a great idea. It's not hard to see why this character struck a chord with fans in a way that no one else in SSS did. He looks weird, his dialogue is fun to read, and he actually serves a useful purpose in the story of the game. He completely mogs all of the other 'non-main villain' bosses in the series. Like, imagine if instead of Fawful, the villains were just the Koopalings again. I don't know why the Mario RPGs are the one place where the series is allowed to try weird stuff, but I'll take it. And unlike Paper Mario, no one ever stepped in to completely ruin them, which is also nice.