Soapbox features allow our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random things they’ve been chewing on. TodayJim, after some more Mario weirdness, which he fixed on the DS…
Super Mario Bros. Wonder was excellent. It had elephants, cute little blobs of slime and it had funky music. And yet, while playing it, I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. “It’s weird,” I thought to myself, riffing on it Wonder Woman 1984 Pedro Pascal memes“but it could be stranger”.
How could it possibly be weirder? you may (rightly) ask. Well, let me tell you: weird minigames.
New Super Mario Bros. on the DS wasn’t the most memorable entry in the series. Sure, it was neat enough and nice to see a fresh visual style being used (good thing Nintendo didn’t release it for the next 17 years, hahahah… uhh), but I’m not here to talk about the main game. I’m here to talk poker.
Yes, yes, ‘Picture Poker’ was a minigame in Super Mario 64 DS two years ago, but it was reused (along with a bunch of others) for the 2D DS platformer and this is where I first encountered it. Hey, if I can’t get personal at Soapbox, where can I?
Basically, yes, poker! Mario Wonder didn’t give it to me. In fact, he didn’t offer me one any weird mini games. There was no ‘Hide and Seek’, ‘Trampoline Time’, ‘Wanted!’ He offered a semblance of this kind of fun in his wacky Wonder effects, but it’s just not the same. I want my minigames back.
Would I say that ‘Picture Poker’ was the first domino that led to my current Balatra addiction? Mmaybe.
Let’s get on the same page here. Both Super Mario 64 DS and New Super Mario Bros. are absolutely packed with smaller activities that you wahoo-ing away from hours. The former is home to 36 unlockable minigames, and the latter has 29 — many of which are carried over from 64, though they have fun over versions for those looking for a multiplayer slot. New Super Mario Bros. it even has the option to play a series of them one after the other. It’s like having a mini Mario Party inserted into the main game!
Like Mario Party, some of these games are better left alone — I distinctly remember almost passing out trying to beat the record time on ‘Balloon Racing’, where you had to blow on the DS to make the on-screen Yoshi fly up — but geez whether some gems could be found.
‘Picture Poker’ started my love for the game (and gave kid Jim an early lesson that the house always wins). ‘Wanted to!’ he was the a game for me and my mom, both determined to spot Mario’s tiny face in the wave of lures before the other. ‘Run, Bob-Omb, run!’ was my introduction to the bullet hell genre and however short-lived that passion was, it’s nice that it was there.
Nothing is weird enough.
I can safely say that I loved these game modes. Would I say that ‘Picture Poker’ was the first domino that led to my current Balatra addiction? Mmaybe. But it is certain that I spent more time on these mini-games than on the main adventure.
I was so in love with them that I assumed (perhaps foolishly) that every Mario game in the future would offer a similar experience. You can imagine my disappointment when Wonder showed up and, as fun as it was, there wasn’t a moment where you gambled with Luigi.
To be fair, the series does tried recapture the magic of. The Mario Galaxy games had a few side modes in certain worlds (think ‘Fluzzard Gliding’ in Galaxy 2 or the furious ‘Bob-Omb Blasting’ in 1) and you might come across something vaguely reminiscent of a minigame in Mario Odyssey’s Jump – Rope, RC Challenge and similar.
The thing is, nothing has been able to bring back the magic. Nothing is weird enough.
And New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 64 DS had something special in their additional game modes. They made no difference in the main game and that’s what made them so brilliant. If you were tired of advanced platforming, then you could jump into a few rounds of Mario Party-esque silliness without touching the play cart.
Things got dry in the ‘New’ 2D series and the games disappeared, but now that things are getting weird again, how about we push the boat out in the game mode department as well? Come on, Nintendo. Wonder managed to bring back some of that old school magic, and now it’s time to bring back the new(ish) school weirdness.
Do you have fond memories of Mario minigames? Would you like to see them come back? Take the following survey, then let us know your favorites in the comments.
