User:AgentMuffin

Hi! I'm Agent. I stumbled across this wiki around 2010, and have since consulted it frequently. I have Super Mario Wiki to thank for the depth of my love of the Mario franchise, and for introducing me to fan wikis. Having used such wikis extensively, I now feel equipped to give back to this one and its contributors, but don't hesitate to message me if I make a mistake.

My favorite subseries are Super Mario Galaxy, modern Mario Kart, and both RPG series. Though I'm generally gameplay-minded, I often appreciate when games put effort into other areas that the franchise typically doesn't focus on.

Mario games owned

This section shows what games I'm most familiar with, for credibility (and judgment of taste). Comments include completion progress, observations, and opinions.

Game	Comments
Super Mario 64 DS	Completed any% Development limitations make Super Mario 64 a poor translation of Mario gameplay into 3D space. New content rarely adds to the game. D-pad and Touch Screen controls both feel inaccurate. Minigames are a smart addition.
Mario Kart DS	Grand Prix completed
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time	Not completed Time travel theme has wasted potential. All locations but the hub world are in one time period. Aside from a time paradox with E. Gadd, story feels like a present-day war against the Shroobs, with the Baby Bros. tagging along (which Mario Kart has numbed me to). Though I usually enjoy Mario RPG stories, this one is so bleak that I felt deterred from playing.
New Super Mario Bros.	First game for a gaming console Mario Game completed 100% Solid Mario sidescroller, making good use of hardware capabilities introduced since the SNES. Featuring original music and bosses, it beats the later New Super Mario Bros. games in many areas. However, most idiosyncrasies stem from Super Mario 64 DS. New power-ups scream "This isn't your father's Super Mario Bros.!" but are rarely useful. Music is good, but use of "bah" samples is inexplicable.
Super Paper Mario	Completed any%
Super Mario Galaxy	Completed 100% Story, characters, innovation, creativity, and orchestra elevate Super Mario Galaxy beyond other Mario platformers. Among the best atmosphere, cinematics, and grandeur in the franchise. Gravity mechanics are brilliant, still brimming with potential after games' worth of exploration. Level design feels more primitive than that of successors, but rapid-fire variety between planetoids makes up for it.
Mario Kart Wii	Grand Prix completed
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story	Not completed
New Super Mario Bros. Wii	Completed 100% Returning core mechanics are stunted from their prior depth. Whereas 1990's Super Mario World is designed around the Spin Jump and Yoshi, 2009's New Super Mario Bros. Wii includes them in shallow, ineffectual forms, relegating them to level gimmicks. Motion control mostly feels natural. Air Twirl is a good crutch. Multiplayer becomes chaotic easily. Players frequently get in each other's way, and it's easier to enter a Bubble than to gain practice by attempting a difficult platforming challenge. Bubbles also home in poorly on other players, leading to inefficient waggle.
Super Mario Galaxy 2	Completed any% A trade-off of the Super Mario Galaxy identity for much more solid level design, theming more galaxies after gameplay mechanics. Space backgrounds and symphonic music are less common, and the game is bursting with tutorial features. Which game one will prefer comes down to what aspects they value most in a Mario game.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem	Completed any%
Super Mario 3D Land	Completed 100% Fun, faithful translation of Mario gameplay into 3D space, with some Super Mario Galaxy flair and creativity. Excellent New Super Mario Bros. alternative. Feels designed around the Nintendo 3DS's capabilities and limitations. The optical illusion bonus rooms are among the best uses of stereoscopic 3D on the system.
Mario Kart 7	Grand Prix completed with 3 stars Streamlined and plentiful Tricks, and the addition of underwater driving and gliding, make Mario Kart 7 feel more like a Mario racing game. Vehicle customization is also a great addition.
New Super Mario Bros. 2	Solo Play completed any% Coin theme has wasted potential. Rather than allowing for Wario or a shop system, it just lowers the difficulty excessively. Music suffers from recycled tracks and overuse of "bah" samples.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star	Not completed
New Super Mario Bros. U	Story Mode completed 100%
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon	Not played
Super Mario 3D World	Completed any%
Mario Kart 8	Grand Prix completed with 3 stars
Super Mario Maker	Received 200+ stars
Super Mario Odyssey	Least favorite platformer Completed any% Power Moons are overabundant, bombastic, repetitive, and tedious to collect, and Super Mario Odyssey offers little other content. This alone ruins the game for me; I felt fatigued trying to reach 100% completion. I did enjoy completing the boss kingdoms, as their amounts of collectibles were much more reasonable. Movement is trivial to optimize with a singular Throw-Dive-Bounce combo. This encourages skipping through structured platforming challenges, which are the entire point of the series, and yet are largely boxed into instanced side areas. Changes to kingdoms arise on event flags tangentially related to player actions, weakening the sense of impact on the world; as do gated sets of Power Moons that require re-exploring trodden ground. Defeating Topper in the Cap Kingdom causes transcontinental power lines to appear, despite Bonneton being a shipping center replete with airships. Hariet's defeat is what cues the Inverted Pyramid to rise. Moon Rocks become usable for no story reason. Time investment is often demanded over skill. Multiple Sand Kingdom objectives require waddling across the empty desert with no challenges along the way. One Wooded Kingdom objective requires shooting 500 Coins at a plant one-by-one. Power Moons are deposited one-by-one. Each such objective wastes several minutes. The cutscenes for collecting and depositing every Power Moon waste over a cumulative hour. Gameplay loop isn't designed for long TV Mode play sessions, but motion control necessitates using this or Tabletop Mode to avoid shaking the whole Nintendo Switch. It's mostly waggle to make various moves waste less time. Fastest way across ground is to waggle constantly while Rolling, making optimal movement feel strenuous. Many Capture targets have no fast movement options, but must still be moved great distances for various objectives.
Super Mario Maker 2	Story Mode completed any% N/A Maker points Schism between returning Game Styles and Super Mario 3D World is disappointing. Course parts like Ant Troopers, Fire Bros., Porcupuffers, Track Blocks, and Mushroom Trampolines shouldn't be exclusive to the new Game Style, whether due to appearing in earlier represented games, not being notable aspects of Super Mario 3D World, or seeming trivial to implement into other Game Styles. Story Mode's use of Coins puts New Super Mario Bros. 2 to shame, but seems derivative of Super Mario Run. Overworld gameplay feels railroaded, with most areas locked behind arbitrary event flags. Some Story Mode jobs have questionable level design quality.