{"id":1836,"date":"2021-02-09T09:51:17","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T09:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/?p=1836"},"modified":"2021-02-09T09:56:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T09:56:47","slug":"marios-endearing-versatility-and-the-best-mini-games-its-spawned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/2021\/02\/09\/marios-endearing-versatility-and-the-best-mini-games-its-spawned\/","title":{"rendered":"Mario\u2019s Endearing Versatility and the Best Mini-Games it\u2019s Spawned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mario might just be the most instantly-recognizable and\ninfluential video game character ever created. While his platformer titles and\niconic aesthetics have been plenty to keep Mario at the forefront of the\nentertainment medium, the continued innovation and inspirational pivots\nprovided by Nintendo have shot the little plumber to legendary status. Thanks\nto his creator\u2019s willingness to try new game genres, settings, and\ntechnologies, Mario can pop-up in just anything and seem like he\u2019s built for\nthe task at hand. This versatility created over the decades since he first\nappeared in 1981\u2019s Donkey Kong has further spawned some fantastic mini-games,\nwhich became a staple in the mainline series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A history of adaptability and versatility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XBinxNwAN5s\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with several appearances in the early \u201880s Donkey\nKong games as well as cameos in the likes of Pinball in 1984, Golf in 1985, and\n1987\u2019s Punch-Out!! as the referee, 35 years of Mario has also seen him headline\n19 mainline titles and a tonne of spin-offs. All-in-all, Mario\u2019s said to have\nmade appearances in more than 200 titles. One of his biggest and best spin-off\nseries is the ever-popular Mario Kart. Taking the character into a go-kart\nracing game revolutionized Nintendo, with the latest version, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2021\/02\/mario_kart_8_overtakes_mario_kart_wii_as_best-selling_series_entry\">Mario Kart 8, exceeding 41.86 million in\nsales<\/a>.\nKeeping in the sports theme, while Mario Tennis continues to get a lot of\nattention from the publisher, it\u2019s Mario Strikers that garners the most praise\nand craving for a sequel. It\u2019s been 14 years since Mario Strikers Charged\nreleased, with the popular football game only being the second in the exciting\nseries. Of course, there have been the more novel pivots for the Italian, too,\nsuch as Dr. Mario, who lives on in mobile gaming with Dr. Mario World, as well\nas taking Mario to the Olympic Games, alongside former rival of Sega, Sonic.\nMario hasn\u2019t been restrained by the plastic casing of Nintendo hardware,\neither. The global fandom for the character has convinced his creators to bring\nhim into new mediums, which has, in turn, further helped to welcome new\nentertainment formats into the Mario universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of his first out-of-game appearances was in Saturday\nSupercade, a short-run animated series that played two seasons from 1983 to\n1984. In 1993, Mario landed on the big screen, but very much to the opposite\nreception of his game legacy. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/reference\/super_mario_movie.php\">Super Mario Movie used many characters<\/a> from the Mushroom Kingdom, but\nit has gone down as one of the worst video game adaptation movies ever created.\nSoon, he\u2019ll be the centrepiece of the real-world theme park Super Nintendo\nWorld, with the Mario Kart Ride coming to all SNW grounds around the world.\nGoing so seamlessly into other genres has enabled the games to adopt just about\nany feature, with the prime example being with Super Mario 64 DS and its\nmini-games. They have even managed to insert roulette, one of the most easily\nrecognized and intuitive <a href=\"https:\/\/betway.com\/en\/casino\/roulette\">table games widely featured on most online casino sites<\/a>. It now takes many forms, with\ndifferent variants and live versions, and Mario has even taken to the game,\nwith Mushroom Roulette being one of Luigi\u2019s many mini-games in SM64DS. As the\ngame\u2019s mechanics are so well-known, it was easy to adapt into the Mario series\nback in 2004, not looking out of place as the character is known to jump\nbetween themes and formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iconic and exciting mini-games born from Mario\u2019s versatility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CPJcaGWoO2c\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Mini-games have become a staple of mainline and spin-off\nMario titles, from secret doorways and tubes leading to puzzling arenas to\nbonus rounds to get more lives at the end of a run. In the mainline series, up\nto the most recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/consoles\/switch\/\">Nintendo Switch Super Mario game releases<\/a>, this tradition has been\nupheld. The all-conquering 2017 release Super Mario Odyssey featured several\ncompelling mini-games. Among the best, as ranked by NME, are Beach Volleyball,\nwhere you need to clock 100 hits against a skilled and sporting giant snail,\nand the rolling snow slalom known as the Round Bowl Grand Prix. The 3D games\nhave historically produced the best of the Mario mini-games, with the\nnotoriously difficult-to-complete Super Mario Sunshine having several with\nhidden rewards. The gigantic Pachinko Machine, for example, is not only a\nhidden mini-game but also holds a Red Coin, while the secret Red Coin available\non the Lily Pad Ride is also absurdly tricky to land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recognizing the love of Mario mini-games, Nintendo created\na series that exclusively put players into little competitive games. Super\nMario Party on Switch was well-received, with one of its best games being a\nreoccurring feature from the N64 release, Bumper Balls. A surprisingly skilful\nyet frantic game, Bumper Balls remains a top mini-game, as does the\nequally-manic Slaparazzi. Even in Mario games where having mini-games is\nnecessary, developers love to chuck them in for good measure. In 2020, Nintendo\nreleased <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2020\/4\/22\/21231631\/super-mario-maker-2-world-maker-minigames-toad-houses-baseball-famicom-skinny-mario\">an update for Super Mario Maker 2<\/a>, with the final major update\nof the mid-2019 release adding three Toad House mini-games to the World Maker\nmode. The three derive from previous Nintendo creations, with Super Mario Bros.\n3\u2019s Match &amp; Win! sideways slot game, the NES game Baseball\u2019s Catch &amp;\nWin!, and a Famicom Disk Writer reference in the form of Pop &amp; Win!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mario isn\u2019t secluded to just type of game, or even modern\nrenditions of one type of game: the legendary character has been used across\nall game genres and even some extra entertainment mediums. As Nintendo has been\nso willing to let their mascot venture just about anywhere, it opens Mario\ngames up to utilizing several other forms of entertainment in their mini-games,\ncreating some exhilarating additions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mario might just be the most instantly-recognizable and influential video game character ever created. While his platformer titles and iconic aesthetics have been plenty to keep Mario at the forefront of the entertainment medium, the continued innovation and inspirational pivots provided by Nintendo have shot the little plumber to legendary status. Thanks to his creator\u2019s willingness to try new game genres, settings, and technologies, Mario can pop-up in just anything and seem like he\u2019s built for the task at hand. This versatility created over the decades since he first appeared in 1981\u2019s Donkey Kong has further spawned some fantastic mini-games, which became a staple in the mainline series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news_info"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1836\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mariomayhem.com\/bowsers_blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}