Character Sheet: Mr. Blizzard

MR. BLIZZARD

Today, let's go over the last batch of characters that video games are going to give us, at any rate. Obviously there will be many more offered up by the movies, television series, manga, comics, and other media, but that's it for the games. This time, we have five, appearing across the Mario, Yoshi, and Mario RPG rosters. They are:

1. Cat Mario

2. Mr. Blizzard

3. Team Captains

4. Best Fitness Friends

5. Poochy

You know, as much as I like to be dramatic about it, I actually rather enjoy these left-field picks. That said, at this point, I think the only members of Mario's regular rogues gallery left is Swoops, Bullet Bills, and Biddybugs. Here's hoping we don't get some random baseball game to throw that out the window.

Mr. Blizzards are snowmen that first appeared in Super Mario 64 and have been regular attendees in Mario games ever since. They are primarily known for popping out of the ground and throwing snowballs. They have documented means of moving around, being able to jump and being able to ski, at least if we're throwing their Yoshi counterparts Dr. Freezegood into the mix. There are a few loosely connected abilities we could tie to them, snow-related things like freezing breezes, Freezies, and other snow enemies, but the biggest thing now tying them all together is the Snow King, the main villain of Mario Golf: Super Rush, a giant snowman that froze Bowser's Kingdom solid, used similar moves like snowballs and freezies, along with a few others like jumping up and down to create a shockwave. It's all there. Now, let's put it together.

Here's what we've got so far:

Standard B: Giant Snowball

The first move will be their most basic and iconic move. I decided to go with Snow King's larger snowball for this one, so its not just a random snowball doing minimal damage, but the effect will be the same. I imagine the opponent hit will be unable to move for a short time.

Side B: Freezie

Their side B will make use of another common ice-based "enemy," the Freezie, a large chunk of ice that will skate across surfaces and freeze anyone they contact. The Mr. Blizzard will send a Freezie sliding forward across the stage, freezing any opponent it hits for a second or two.

Up B: Blizzard OR Spindrift

This one has two possibilities. The first is more specific to Mr. Blizzard himself, while the other gives a little love to another enemy frequently seen in the same areas as Mr. Blizzard. For the first, a wintery cyclone will appear under the snowman and launch him into the air, while the second will have Mr. Blizzard jump on top of a Spindrift enemy, likewise from Mario 64, and the Spindrift will send him spinning into the air just like with Mario in the games.

Down B: Icy Shocker

This one uses one of the Snow King's moves, but also embellishes it slightly. The Mr. Blizzard will jump into the air and slam onto the ground, sending out a shockwave that will send up shards of ice in its wake, adding a bit more damage and fitting the ice theme well.

Final Smash: Solid Freeze OR Chill Bully OR Snowman's Drift

I had three ideas for a final smash here, all pulling from a pre-existing part of Mario games connected to Mr. Blizzard. The first uses the Snow King's tactic of freezing the entire stage solid, trapping the characters in place and doing damage for as long as the move lasts. The second would have Chill Bully from Super Mario 64 appear on stage and charge angrily across until he ran off the edge. The third would have the giant snowman head from the Snowman's Land level in Mario 64 appear behind the stage and blow a chilly wind across it, blowing all the characters off and causing them to smack against the screen.

Entrance: The Mr. Blizzard will pop out of a pile of snow.

Taunts: Up, the Mr. Blizzard will hop excitedly and turn to face the nearest player. Side, the Mr. Blizzard will spin for a couple of seconds before tilting to the side slightly. Down, the Mr. Blizzard will melt into a pile of mush for a second before popping back up.

Thanks for reading! Next up, the Team Captains from the Bowser's Minions and Bowser Jr.'s Journey expansions.

Character Sheet: Cat Mario

CAT MARIO

Today, let's go over the last batch of characters that video games are going to give us, at any rate. Obviously there will be many more offered up by the movies, television series, manga, comics, and other media, but that's it for the games. This time, we have five, appearing across the Mario, Yoshi, and Mario RPG rosters. They are:

1. Cat Mario

2. Mr. Blizzard

3. Team Captains

4. Best Fitness Friends

5. Poochy

First up, we have Cat Mario. Now, prior to this, Cat Mario was just one of the Fursuit Mario costumes. However, thanks to the . . . added lore offered up by the Bowser's Fury expansion of Super Mario 3D World, Cat Mario has gained enough to its own abilities to break off into its own slot. As for Fursuit, I imagine that now becomes primarily the Tanooki suit, although the Raccoon, Fox, and Flying Squirrel forms will still probably be part of it, while I imagine Cat Luigi, Cat Peach, and Cat Toad will all be color swaps of this new one.

Now from the beginning, Cat Mario has had a few distinct abilities. He could glide with the suit, swipe with his claws, and climb specific walls. In the new game, we also gain a distinctive butt bash, the ability to throw the blocks piercing the ground whenever Bowser rampages, and a number of other cats roaming Lake Lapcat that will turn evil whenever Bowser awakens. He also gains a gigantic mode in order to fight Bowser in his corrupted form.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Scratch

This one is a base attack, with Mario just lashing out and scratching his opponents.

Side B: Lapcat Kittens

Mario will toss out a kitten from the Bowser's Fury expansion. The cat will just bounce off harmlessly the first two times it is thrown, but upon the third throw, the cat will change into its corrupted form and relentlessly harass its target, doing severe damage.

Up B: Gate Lift

A gate lift from Super Mario 3D World will appear above Cat Mario's head. He will jump onto it and climb it as it raised upward a short distance before disappearing.

Down B: Butt Bash

Cat Mario will flip upward and bash downward the same way he does when striking Bowser in Bowser's Fury.

Final Smash: Giga Cat Mode

Mario will grab the giant bell that will appear and transform into his Super Saiyan Kaiju Kitty form. You know the one. As he roams the stage, dark paint and fire will fall across the stage.

Entrance: Mario will jump and grab a bell, transforming him into the cat

Taunts: Up, he will hold up a cat shine. Side, he will lick his paw. Down, he will roll around on his back like a cat does.

Thanks for reading! Next up, a certain type of snowman joins the roster!

Mario Golf: Super Rush

MARIO GOLF: SUPER RUSH

You just couldn't do, could you, Nintendo? You just couldn't let me go without throwing me one last left-field curve ball? No, you just had to give your brand new golf game a story mode with basically a giant Mr. Blizzard as the final boss. Do you think this is funny, Nintendo? (Insert Nintendo saying "Yes" here).

Either way, Mario Golf: Super Rush is a brand new game in the Mario Golf series after seven years since World Tour. The game features a number of ease-of-life changes to the game, like lines showing you where the ball ended up, and other changes that make it a bit more exciting. For instance, speed golf has been added, a mode that lets you run to your ball, racing against your opponents, rather than just taking you directly to the ball. We also have battle golf, taking place in a big arena and everyone playing a big free-for-all.

At the moment, our roster includes Mario and Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, and Pauline, Wario and Waluigi, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Bowser and Bowser Jr., Boo, King Bob-Omb, and Chargin' Chuck in his playable debut (just want to take the meaningless brownie points of saying "I did it first, na na na na na na!"). Each have special shots and special dashes to help them in speed golf. Mario mostly uses his super star, Luigi uses the ice flower, Peach a gymnastics ribbon and Daisy a twirling baton, Wario uses lightning mostly, Waluigi is flamboyant as usual, Yoshi uses eggs, Toad uses the giant mushroom, Donkey Kong uses punches and rolls, Rosalina mostly uses her Lumas, Pauline sings "Jump Up, Superstar!", Bowser mostly uses fire, Junior uses his Klown Kar and Bullet Bills, Boo mostly uses strings of other Boos, King Bob-Omb uses a cannon and other Bob-Ombs, and Chargin' Chuck just straight up yeets the golf ball like a football (I think he's a little confused).

We also have Miis, who star in the story mode taking after the old RPG story modes where you are a young rookie golfer working their way up through the ranks. About halfway through though, the plot veers off into a story about an evil Snow King taking over Bowser's kingdom and freezing the entire area, and your character being guided to defeat him by a disembodied voice, who grants the character fire and lightning powers (which I think can be used to garnish Plum and Kid's movesets, so there's that). Across the game, you fight three bosses, an Electric Statue that fights you with lightning attacks, the Sacred Flamebeast that fights you with fireballs, and the Snow King, who, while being guarded by Mr. Blizzards all over his course, also throws giant versions of their snowballs at you, uses Freezies, freezes whole areas, and sends off shockwaves. That, along with Mr. Blizzard's own moves like throwing snowballs, bouncing around, whipping up small flurries sometimes, and even Dr. Freezegoods skiing in the Yoshi games . . . yeah, the moveset's there. Nintendo just had to do it. I . . . I . . . I think I'm a little broken right now. I'm going to need a minute.

Anyhoo, as for our stages, we have a Rookie Course to learn the ropes; Bonny Greens, a standard grassland stage; Balmy Dunes, a desert level; Wildweather Woods, a forested area with lots of weather effects; Ridgerock Lake, a rough rocky area with some tornadoes; Bowser Highlands, a combo snow-and-lava world; and the Super Golf Stadium for the battle golf. Apparently a New Donk City-based stage will appear in later DLC.

And that's it for the currently existing games! Only took two years. Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Chargin' Chuck

King Bob-Omb

Pauline

Mr. Blizzard: snowballs, icy breeze, whirlwind, Freezie, freeze everything, shockwave, giant snowball, bounce

Golfer: fire blast, lightning, dash

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Electric Statue

Sacred Flamebeast

Snow King

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Rookie Course

Bonny Greens

Balmy Dunes

Wildweather Woods

Ridgerock Lake

Bowser Highlands

Super Golf Stadium

New Donk City

Thanks for reading! Now, the brand new four (excuse me) five characters to be added, starting with Cat Mario!

Guest Appearances

GUEST APPEARANCES

Today, let's do a quick go over of most of Mario's major extra-Mario-series appearances. Within Nintendo itself, we obviously have the entire Super Smash Bros. series, with Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi appearing in the first game, Peach, Bowser, and Dr. Mario joining in the second, Wario and Diddy Kong in the third, Rosalina and Bowser Jr. in the fourth game, and lastly Daisy, King K. Rool, and Piranha Plant in the fifth. Nintendo Land also has several games based on the Mario, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi series, Captain Rainbow featured cameos here and there, and one of the Punch-Out!! games featured Donkey Kong as the final boss. Outside of Nintendo, Mario guest starred weirdly in two games you . . . probably wouldn't expect him in. One is NBA Street V3, a basketball game starring lots of real-world players, and the other is SSX on Tour, a snowboarding game seemingly more or less in the same vein, both produced by EA Sports. Why those two specifically, I may never know, but there it is.

Let's see what we've got:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Thanks for reading! Next week, I expect I'll be finished with the Mario Golf: Super Rush walkthrough I've just started, so probably that. If not, we'll get started on our handful of character sheets.

Bits and Bobs

BITS AND BOBS

Today is functionally one of our last game posts. Today we are covering a bunch of very small, very obscure games that are, more often than not, just small special versions of pre-existing games released for some singular special event, that type of thing. First up, we have Mario Bros. Special, Punch Ball Mario, Super Mario Bros. Special, a trio of games released by Hudson Soft as basically just loose remakes of Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. just with some odd tweaks for their own system. For instance, Punch Ball Mario Bros. featured a ball that could be used to hit the enemies with.

All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. was a retool of The Lost Levels to go along with the radio program All-Night Nippon and replaced the Toads in the castles with various Japanese celebrities. Kaettekita Mario Bros. is a retool of Mario Bros. released only in Japan and was technically the last game released on the Famicom system. BS Super Mario USA was a retool of Super Mario Bros. 2 released in four weekly installments for the Satellaview, and BS Super Mario Collection is the same for All-Stars.

Donkey Kong Jr. + Jr. Sansu Lesson is a pack-in game for the Sharp C1 Famicom TV (a TV and Famicom combined unit). Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushu was a similar game to the previous Hudson Soft collection, but for Donkey Kong 3. Donkey Kong Country Competition Cartridge was a cut-down version of Donkey Kong Country to be used at the Nintendo PowerFest '94 game competition. Yoshi no Cookie: Kuruppon Oven de Cookie is a version of Yoshi's Cookie released to help a company promote their new oven. Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle is another Satellaview 4-parter game, basically Excitebike but with Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and Wario as the bikers.

New Play Control! were new releases of Game Cube games retooled for the Wii's remote system. Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat and Mario Power Tennis were the two prominently a part of the Mario series, likely because of Jungle Beat's reliance on the bongos and tennis being a good game to demonstrate Wiimote capabilities. Donkey Kong Original Edition was a second Virtual Console release of the arcade game, enhanced and pre-installed in the red limited-edition Wii released for Mario's 25th anniversary. And finally, Luigi Bros. is a special version of Mario Bros. released for the Year of Luigi.

Aah, that's nice. Although not technically done with all games yet, in many ways, it feels like I am. Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow, a short blog on all of Mario's guest game appearances.

Virtual Console

VIRTUAL CONSOLE

Today, I'm just going to do a quick rundown of all Mario games released on the virtual console for the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS. Not too much to say here, as, as far as I am aware, they are all mostly exact emulations of the original games with little to no variance.

These games include: the original arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong Jr. Math, Donkey Kong 3, and Mario Bros.; the mainline games Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Land, Super Mario World, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, and Super Mario 64; the Donkey Kong games Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, all three Donkey Kong Lands, Donkey Kong 64, DK: King of Swing, and DK: Jungle Climber; the Yoshi games Tetris Attack, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi Touch & Go, and Yoshi's Island DS; the Wario games Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Land II, Wario Land 3, Wario Land 4, Wario Ware Inc. Mega Microgame$, Wario Ware Touched!, and Wario: Master of Disguise; the sports games Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart DS, Mario Tennis, Mario Tennis: Power Tour, NES Open Tournament Golf, Mario Golf, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, and Mario Hoops 3-on-3; the RPGs Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time; the party games Mario Party 2, Mario Party Advance, and Mario Party DS; the random games Wrecking Crew and Wrecking Crew '98, Dr. Mario, Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie, Wario's Woods, Mario's Picross, Picross 2, and Super Picross, Game & Watch Gallery 1, 2, 3, and 4, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 1 and 2, Mario Pinball Land; the Super Mario Advance series and Super Mario 64 DS; and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe.

That's pretty much it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Thanks for reading! Now, we near the end with an assortment of random bits and bobs that barely even really count as full games!

All Mario Collections

ALL MARIO COLLECTIONS

Across the Mario series, there have been a number of collections released, grouping various games together and re-releasing them as a set. As far as my own count, there are ten in total. First up, and probably the most famous, is Super Mario All-Stars, a remastered collection of Super Mario Bros., The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3. This was shortly followed by Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, the same game just with Super Mario World added in. A special limited edition version was released many years later.

In the same naming scheme, at least, we also saw Super Mario 3D All-Stars less than a year ago, featuring Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is also a somewhat spiritual sibling of these, being a combination of the original game and Lost Levels. Donkey Kong Classics is also similar, being a combo of Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.

A frequent type we often see is a collection of puzzle games. For instance, Tetris & Dr. Mario was a combo of both titular games, Nintendo Puzzle Collection combined Dr. Mario and Yoshi's Cookie with Panel de Pon, and Dr. Mario & Puzzle League was likewise a combo of the two titular games. Last but not least, on our list of collections was the Famicom Mini or NES Classic series, a series of special edition games from the Famicom and NES era released in collectors' sets including, from the Mario series at least, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, and Dr. Mario.

And that's all we've got! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Thanks for reading! Now, we have the virtual console games to go over!

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury

SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD + BOWSER'S FURY

Today, let's cover the last of our deluxe posts and one of the most recent games to release, Super Mario 3D World's port for the switch For the most part the game is the same, up until you reach the post game, which features a whole new story mode, taking place in the mysterious Lake Lapcat, a sprawling open world made up of multiple miniature areas that you slowly unlock by clearing out the evil black paint that has corrupted Bowser again (an unexpected return from Paper Mario: Color Splash). Mario has to team up with Bowser Jr. to clear the paint and save Bowser.

Mario plays much the same, but we expand on the cat suit featured in the game, giving it much more lore that it apparently had. The catsuit plays much the same, except that during certain periods, you can unlock a Giga Cat mode, which is a heck of a contender for a Final Smash if I ever saw one. In this mode you also gain a butt bash, and throw the large chunks that tend to land when Bowser's awake. Several cats also appear roaming around the lake, and turn evil and attack you whenever Bowser wakes up.

Bowser Jr. is your primary companion throughout the game, flying around in his Klown Kar and attacking with his paint brush. Plessie will also act as your ride between areas of the lake. Bowser (or Fury Bowser, I suppose) fights mostly the same, his fire breath being his core attack. Boom Boom shows up to fight you here and there as well.

The different areas kinda sorta have their own themes and biomes, despite all being part of the lake aesthetic. These are generally sorted into a Lakeside area, a Ruins area, a Wasteland area, and a Volcanic area called Mount Magmeow.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Cat Mario: glide, swipe, climb, evil cats, throw blocks, butt bash, Giga Cat Mode

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Lake Lapcat

Mount Magmeow

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover all of the collections!

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch)

CAPTAIN TOAD: TREASURE TRACKER (SWITCH)

Today, let's cover the Switch port of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. The game is largely the same as the original version this time around, except with a few updates to accommodate the new system, a playable Purple Toad added in alongside Toad and Toadette, and a few new levels mostly based around Captain Toad's adventures in Super Mario Odyssey. Outside of that, well, that's about it!

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Thanks for reading! Now, let's finish off the ports with Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury!

Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World

POOCHY & YOSHI'S WOOLLY WORLD

Today, let's cover Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World, a re-release of Yoshi's Woolly World, with a bonus set of levels based entirely around Poochy. The levels are fairly simple, gameplay-wise, with Poochy running at top speed through a course. He is strong enough to bash through objects on the course and spin in the air. He also has a number of Poochy pups he can rescue. Even more importantly though, a number of stop-motion animations were released alongside the game, starring Poochy and the Yoshis. Outside of just being the cutest thing ever put to video, the videos also show Poochy sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, and rolling. Yes, I am in fact using all of this to give Poochy a moveset.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Poochy: run, bash through objects, spin, Poochy pups, sliding, crouching, biting a hand, eating cake, catching a ball, carrying things, catching a frisbee, pulling on a rubber band, licking things, pushing a button with his tail, rolling.

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World!

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

MARIO KART 8 DELUXE

In what may be the most successful port on this list, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was released on the switch, bringing with it every character and stage that appeared in the original game, including the DLC. On top of that, we also saw the addition of Bowser Jr. (who honestly should have been in the original, if anyone), King Boo, Dry Bones, and the Inkling Boy and Girl as guest stars. Another massive change was that they apparently learned from the mistake of just using tracks as battle courses, and included real battle courses. These included Battle Stadium, a high-tech battle course; Sweet Sweet Kingdom, a candy level; Dragon Palace, a Chinese-dragon themed battle level; Lunar Colony, based on Mario Galaxy; Wuhu Town; Luigi's Mansion; Battle Course 1 from the first Super Mario Kart; and Urchin Underpass, based on Splatoon.

That's it for today! Here's what we've got:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

King Boo

Dry Bones

Inklings

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Battle Stadium

Sweet Sweet Kingdom

Dragon Palace

Lunar Colony

Wuhu Town

Luigi's Mansion

Battle Course 1

Urchin Underpass

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World!

Super Mario Maker 3DS

SUPER MARIO MAKER 3DS

Today, let's cover the port of the original Mario Maker game for the 3DS. The game is mostly the same, just with a few odd tweaks and such here and there. For instance, the costume and big Mario forms have been removed, searching courses by code is gone, one hundred new courses came in pre-installed, editing mode includes a tutorial, Weird Mushroom has replaced the Mystery Mushroom, amiibo support has been removed, the Gnat Attack minigame has been removed, Underwater, Airship, Ghost House, and Castle themes have been added, several items and features have been added in, several transformable items can no longer be transformed (Buzzies can't be turned into Buzzy Shells for instance), you now have seven item interfaces, and the letters on the title screen can no longer be tapped. Most of these most likely exist to adapt to the difference between the Wii U and 3DS systems.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!

Modern Donkey Kong Country Ports

MODERN DONKEY KONG COUNTRY PORTS

Today, let's cover the two ports made for the recent Donkey Kong games made by Retro Studios, Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Returns had a port made for the 3DS, which was mostly the same, except for a new ninth world in the post-game set in the clouds. Tropical Freeze had a switch port, likewise mostly the same game, except with a brand-new Funky Mode, an easy mode that lets you play as Funky who uses is surfboard to be immune to several hazards and has unlimited spins and rolls. Both are fun, but that's about it to them.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Funky Kong: surfboard

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

World-9 Cloud

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover Super Mario Maker's 3DS Port!

New Super Mario Bros. U Ports

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. U PORTS

So, today, I'm combining the posts for New Super Luigi U and New Super Mario Bros. Deluxe as they at least are special editions of the same game. NSLU isn't exactly a port, per se, as it was on the same console, but it basically fits every other definition.

New Super Luigi U was a fun revamped edition of the game released to celebrate the Year of Luigi, that removed Mario, making Luigi the main character, with Nabbit stepping up as the four-player slot. The game featured smaller, quicker versions of the original game's levels, but mostly followed the rest of the plot as is.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, otherwise known as launcher of a thousand horny fanarts, was a deluxe edition of the game released for the switch, which included Mario, Luigi, the two Toads, and Nabbit as before, but also with Toadette as a brand-new character. The game also included the Peach Crown, an item solely for Toadette's use and introducing her Peachette form (thus unleashing said horny monster upon the internet). Nabbit and Peachette both owe a lot of their existence to these games, but I've already established their movesets, so I suppose there's not much to say.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Nabbit

Peachette

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover the ports of the newer Donkey Kong Country games!

Wario Ware: D.I.Y. Showcase

WARIO WARE: D.I.Y. SHOWCASE

So, today, we'll be starting the deluxe ports, pre-existing games re-released for new consoles with significantly noteworthy additions that make the second purchase worthwhile. This differs from the remakes we've previously covered as those games were mostly reconstructed from the ground up for a new generation, while these are mostly the same game, just adjusted a bit to suit the new system.

I'm not entirely sure this game really counts in that criteria, but I didn't initially realize it was an entirely separate game at first when I was covering the Wario Ware games, and it more or less fits this group. D.I.Y. Showcase was released as a supplement to D.I.Y. featuring some of the best microgames made during the initial games' run. The game also adds in a handful of minigames featuring the characters who stayed with Wario after the others went off to join a rival company. This includes a rally race starring Dribble and Spitz, a hang-gliding game starring Kat and Ana, and a shooter game starring 18-Volt.

That's about it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal, Wario Man

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Kat & Ana

Dribble & Spitz

I8-Volt

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Dribble & Spitz Rally

Kat & Ana's Sky Patrol

Jet 18Volt

Thanks for reading! Now, let's cover the ports of New Super Mario Bros. U!

Luigi's Mansion (3DS)

LUIGI'S MANSION (3DS)

Today, let's cover the last of our remakes before moving on to the deluxe ports. This one is for the Luigi's Mansion remake for the Nintendo 3DS. For the most part, a pretty faithful adaptation, with only a few minor additions here and there. As far as I can tell, most of the additions are additions made to "test the waters" as it were for features that would be prominently featured in Luigi's Mansion 3. For instance, a strobulb mode has been added as an option for your gameplay, and there are a few points in the game where E. Gadd will appear from the future and give you Gooigi to use for a short time. The game also have a multiplayer feature, and the portrait gallery is distinctly different from the original game's.

That's pretty much it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover the first of the deluxe ports!

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey

MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER'S INSIDE STORY + BOWSER JR.'S JOURNEY

Today, we cover the second Mario & Luigi remake and ultimate swan song of AlphaDream studios. Many criticized their decision to skip Partners in Time in favor of this, but if AlphaDream saw the writing on the wall, and decided this was the note they wanted to go out on, I can't fault them for it. The expertly crafted, heartfelt, character-driven side story they gave us was one of the single best surprises I've stumbled upon in the course of this blog series, and I certainly won't be forgetting AlphaDream any time soon because of it. To them, I say, rest in peace, and may your developers find work in greener projects.

The Bowser Jr.'s Journey add-on plays much the same as Bowser's Minions gameplay, with a team captain commanding a squad of minions against other batches of opponents. This time, however, Bowser Jr. acts as the protagonist, heading out to try and assist his dad against Fawful and his minions, learning valuable lessons about being a true leader after his behavior and attitude alienates everyone around him and even shatters his relationships with the Koopalings at one point. The depth and nuance this story added to Bowser Jr., all seven Koopalings, and Kamek and the relationships between them all is something I could gush about all day long . . . but it's not technically what I'm here for, so I guess I must move on. However, if you have not, I strongly recommend picking up the game or at least watching a Let's Play of it.

Bowser Jr. is the only captain, but he has ranged, melee, and aerial forms using hammers, his paintbrush, and his Klown Kar respectively. All seven Koopalings and Kamek can act as his first officer, using pretty standard attacks you'd expect from them. The four captains from the original game and the Backstabber Trio can join you as well, as can Bowser in the post game. After that, your army can consist of several types of Goomba, several types of Koopa, Buzzy Beetles, Para-Beetles, Spinies, and Spike Tops, Mechakoopas, Broozers, Pokeys, Chain Chomps, Chargin' Chucks, Ant Troopers, Bob-Ombs, Bullies, Dry Bones, Lakitus, several types of Boos, Biddybuds, Swoops, Shy Guys, Fly Guys, and Spear Guys, Ninjis, Hammer, Boomerang, Ice, and Fire Bros, Piranha Plants, Spikes, Bandits, Magikoopas, and Nabbit.

While many of the major players of the story (Mario, Luigi, Starlow, Fawful, and Midbus) appear in the odd cutscenes here and there, the core of Bowser Jr.'s Journey's conflict involves Bowser's Castle being taken over by three brand new original characters working for Fawful: The Best Fitness Friends. Dieter is the ranged character and leader, mostly flicking rubber bands as a projectile, but he can also throw malatone formula to boost his allies, and he can create doppelgangers of himself. Beef is the melee fighter, who mainly uses a fire punch, and can throw barrels as well. Kaley is the aerial fighter who can spin, divebomb, screech loudly, and call down lightning and flames. In the final battle, they use Malatone formula to combine into one giant monster, who can create evil clones, punch, fire off a laser beam, charge while boosted, create a cyclone with their breath, and summon a mystery box.

That's most of the important stuff! Let's see what we've got:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

Bowser Jr.: paintbrush, Klown Kar, hammer

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Best Fitness Friends: rubber bands, malatone formula, doppelganger, fire punch, barrel, spin, divebomb, screech, fire, lightning, combine, laser beam, charge, cyclone, mystery box

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover the Luigi's Mansion remake!

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions

MARIO & LUIGI: SUPERSTAR SAGA + BOWSER'S MINIONS

Today, let's cover the first of the two remakes of the Mario & Luigi series. This one is of Superstar Saga, mostly with heavily updated graphics, a few ease-of-living updates, and some minor changes to cutscenes and so on, but that's not really why we're here is it?

No, we're mainly here for the Bowser's Minions portion of that name. Bowser's Minions is a side story and minigame added in to the story, following a plucky Goomba as he gathers an army of minions to his side shortly after the Koopa Cruiser's crash toward the game's start in order to find Bowser and back him up. This game has a completely unique gameplay gimmick to it, where you pick a team of minions to go into battle, each with certain skills, and then they mostly act autonomously, fighting an opposing army and taking them out if you've planned right.

Over the course of the game, you pick up four captains: our Goomba protagonist, a Shy Guy, a Boo, and a Koopa. These captains have their own commands that they can input to help their squad: they can surprise an opponent and cut off their special attack, boost their team's spirit, hit a block to score a bonus, play dead to distract an opponent, call down lightning, block an enemy's attack, play a game of catch with a bob-omb, and drop a thwomp. The Goomba captain can also face off one-on-one with the enemy captain, the Shy Guy can call in a backup ally, the Boo can pull off a sneak attack, and the Koopa Troopa will strike in his shell.

As for their forces, they typically come in three varieties: a melee fighter, a long-range fighter, and an aerial fighter, in a rock-paper-scissors kind of deal (aerials beat melee, long-range beat aerial, so on). The minions include Goombas (with Para, Tail, and Stack varieties, Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas, Dry Bones, Boos (with Bomb, Tail, and Big varieties), Broozers, Shy, Spear, and Fly Guys, Bandits, Buzzy and Para-Beetles, Hammer, Fire, Ice, and Boomerang Bros, Lakitus and Spinies, Pokeys, Chain Chomps, Chargin' Chucks, Piranha Plants, Spikes, Bob-Ombs, Mechakoopas, and four types of Magikoopa. Bowser Jr. and the Seven Koopalings can likewise eventually be recruited, as can the Backstabber Trio from Bowser's Inside Story, and Starlow and Prince Peasley for some reason.

Most of the enemies are common enemies appearing throughout the original game, with Fawful as the main villain. Not much to say for stages, seeing as they're pretty basic long stretches for battles to take place on, with familiar locales from the original game in the background.

That's pretty much it! Let's see what we've got:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Team Captains: deny, rally, bonus block, play dead, lightning, parry, bob-omb, thwomp, face off, backup, sneak attack, shell strike, aerial, melee, long range

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Minions Battlefield

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover the other Mario & Luigi remake!

Diddy Kong Racing DS

DIDDY KONG RACING DS

Today, let's cover Diddy Kong Racing DS, the handheld remake of the N64 games. This one's pretty simple as it's basically the same game more or less, just with a few notable differences. That said, its on its own because there wasn't anything I could really pair it up with. Those specific differences include Dixie and Tiny taking the places of Banjo and Conker, because, you know, licensing became a thing in between the original games and such. This is also canonically the first appearance of post-puberty Tiny, which makes me think the transformation was mostly to justify her being in the same weight class as Banjo. Another major difference is that Taj the Elephant and Wizpig have both been added to the playable roster. And that's pretty much it.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Diddy Kong

Dixie Kong

Tiny Kong

Wizpig

Taj

Timber and the other racers

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

All locations in Diddy Kong Racing

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions!

Classic NES Series

CLASSIC NES SERIES

Today, let's cover the Classic NES Series, a series of special edition emulations of old NES games released for the Game Boy Advance. While these games covered the full gamut of the NES's library, for our purposes today, we're only covering six of those. Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, and Super Mario Bros. were released internationally, and Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and Wrecking Crew were only released in Japan. Generally speaking, they largely seem unchanged from their original versions, so today's blog was pretty easy.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover Diddy Kong Racing's DS remake!

Super Mario 64 DS

SUPER MARIO 64 DS

Today, let's go over the Super Mario 64 remake for the Nintendo DS. Now, Super Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time, so my coverage this time may be much more in depth than previous remakes, because I know the game by heart and the differences stand out more. That said, this one seems to have much more prominent major changes as is, so maybe that's it.

Anyway, one of the biggest changes is that you now have four playable characters to choose from: Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi. Each of the four have distinct abilities that give you specific reasons to switch between them. For instance, the power-ups now come in the form of a flower instead of hats, which gives the different characters the old cap abilities. Luigi is the only one now capable of using the pixel cap (because ghosts or something), Wario is now sole user of the metal cap (because heavy, I guess), Mario now inflates like he does in Super Mario World, and Yoshi breathes fire. Mario can also access the wing cap through a feather now, and he can become a giant through a mushroom.

Other changes have been added to the castle and the stages. A playroom has been added inside the castle, allowing you to unlock the game's minigames and switch between the playable characters. Whomp's Fortress has a new grassy area around one side of it, Jolly Roger Bay makes it much simpler to raise the pirate ship, switch stars and silver stars have been added to most levels, a special King Boo area has been added to Big Boo's Haunt, the submarine remains in Dire Dire Docks after the first star, you can use the pixel cap to pass through the mirror in the Snowman's Land room, the inside of Snowman's Land's igloo is completely different and the ice maze has changed, a walkway has been added to the waterfall area in Tall Tall Mountain, and there's a floor to Tick Tock Clock instead of a bottomless pit (kinda removes the thrill a bit, honestly).

Also a few mini-worlds have been added in here and there. These include Palm Beach, Poison Swamp, Secret Factory, and Ice Area, most of which are exactly what they sound like. We also get a few new bosses, including Goomboss from Paper Mario, King Boo, and a brand-new boss Chief Chilly. King Bob-Omb has also been updated to throw bombs instead of just picking you up and throwing you.

That's about it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover the Classic NES series!

Donkey Kong Country Handhelds

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY HANDHELDS

Today, let's cover the handheld remakes of the first three Donkey Kong Country games. These mostly fall in line with the Super Mario Advance games, being more or less faithful recreations with just a few changeups here and there. For instance, Donkey Kong Country now has new intro and ending cutscenes, a few of the bosses have some upgrades, and a few modes like Time Attack and Hero Mode have been added. 

Donkey Kong Country 2 likewise has upgraded cutscenes, a few added minigames and modes, and a whole new boss: a giant fire-breathing Kremling named Kerozene. Donkey Kong Country 3 has a brand new area called Pacifica, complete with a new boss called Kroctopus, and a few new Brothers Bear and Banana Birds.

That's about it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover Super Mario 64 DS!

Super Mario Advance Series

SUPER MARIO ADVANCE SERIES

Probably some of the most notable remakes in the Mario series library, I have grouped them all together mainly because, for the most part, they don't vary that much from the original games, just with updated graphics, a few bugs and errors fixed, and a couple of bits of new content.

Super Mario Advance is the first, and is a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2. Changes include a new intro sequence, several characters recolored, Princess Toadstool named Peach now, and a giant robotic version of Birdo added as a boss (definite final Smash fodder).

Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World is a remake of Super Mario World with the same graphics and sprites as Super Mario Advance. Changes here include Luigi now being a selectable character from the start and being able to jump higher than Mario, a new opening cutscene, and Yoshi eggs containing different items based on the colors (Green: Mushroom, Yellow: Star, Red: Fire Flower, Blue: Cape Feather).

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island is a remake of Super Mario World 2. Six extra levels are the biggest additions, and giant eggs are removed.

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 is a remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, with new cutscenes at the beginning and toward the end if you beat Bowser before the Koopalings, as well as new world maps added for each world.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

Thanks for reading! Next up are the Donkey Kong Country handheld remakes!

Donkey Kong '94

DONKEY KONG '94

So, today we're going to be covering all of the remakes, deluxe ports, and collections of the Mario series, and we start with maybe a bit of an oops. I went into this thinking the 1994 Game Boy Donkey Kong game was a simple remake of the old game, not more or less a full standalone game in its own right. The first levels are still just the arcade game remade, so I'm going to squint and pretend, okay?

This game more or less springs off of the end of the arcade game, but with Donkey Kong getting up after his defeat, grabbing Pauline, and taking off, away from the construction site and leading Mario on a wild goose chase across several worlds. This game is also very obviously the missing link between the arcades and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games. I can now see a very clear path between those two series. For instance, most of Mario's moves are very similar to those he will later use in the first Mario vs. Donkey Kong, including the handstand to protect from falling objects, spinning on a pole, using springs, hammers, and keys, and other such moves.

Donkey Kong appears as the main villain, with Donkey Kong Jr. acting as his enforcer of sorts. DK will throw barrels, stomp, throw jacks, toss out shrinking mushrooms, punch, grow gigantic, and throw enemies at you. Junior supports his papa by hopping around and throwing switches to activate certain traps. Pauline is also here, but she's mainly just the damsel-in-distress role this time.

Most of the enemies are unique, but pretty basic for the most part. Bowbows are the most basic; Rappies, Dotties, Arumajirons, and Purupurus are also basic but they can walk around full platforms; Walking Trash Cans are . . . walking trash cans; Faiachus are made of fire; Snipers, Sukopis, Chikuchikus, and Gyatorus also walk around the full platform and the full stage; Doryis are seed-shooting flowers; Snapjaws climb vines as always; Bukubukus are fish; Kaibados, Hawks, and Kuros are birds; Sairesus are sleeping enemies that charge if you wake them up; Walking Blocks are . . . walking blocks; Sir Shovalots will push you; Kanyis are crabs; Aqua Men, Miiras, Penpens, Golems, and Robo No. 1s are enemies that can be stood on top of; Gessoris are basically Bloopers; Dorakyus are bats; Skeletons will throw bones; Furafurawas are basically Volcano Plants; Tsutan-omen and Rokkuns are enemies that can be thrown by DK; Ottos will grab you and cling to you; Tododesus will patrol keys; and Monkikkis and Jumpers help get you to new locations.

The game takes place across nine different worlds, following DK's rampaging path. The first is the Construction Site, a remake of the original arcade game. After that, we cover Big City, Forest, Ship, Jungle, Desert, Airplane, Iceberg, and Rocky Valley, all pretty much exactly what you expect them to be.

That's about it! Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

Thanks for reading! Next up are the Super Mario Advance games!