Franchises I love

Mario

I’m going to talk about one of the most iconic franchises. I don't know a person who hasn't played one of these games at least once. While I say that, maybe there is my father. On the other hand he was playing Balloons on NES, which is super cool too.

Mario is everywhere in my life. I have a Nintendo Switch Mario Odyssey Edition. I have pretty much every game in the franchise. I have a painting on a metal plate, cushions, controllers, chargers etc. So really Mario is very important to me. Smaller, my favourite character in the franchise was Yoshi. This awesome little dinosaur made me love it. I even remember the game on Game Boy Advance. The cartridge was bigger because it had a gyroscopic device for a rather innovative game play.

Subsequently, there was Super Smash Bros Melee on Game Cube. So yes it’s not a game in the franchise, but with this game I started to be crazy about Luigi. It was also a time when I took more time to play and we were several friends with my brother to play like crazy at this game. So for the Mario franchise I chose this character more and more.

And yes, I'm the little brother, so Luigi was a forced choice when we played together. But the PLAYER 2 that I am fully assumes it. This character is awesome and set apart in Super Mario Bros 2. Excuse me, but these jumps still give me nightmares. Plus if you think about it, Yoshi has that jump right now. A pedal movement with the feet and a glider effect. Remember that the Super Mario Bros 2 game was released in Japan in 1988. So if you are thinking but this style of jumping is super cool! Remember we are talking about game play that is over 30 years old! So no this jump was not the big thing.

Growing up with these consoles was handy, obviously I was able to play all of the Mario games. Almost at least. However, it was mostly with the Nintendo 64 that I got the most out of the franchise. The Mario Party were fabulous, what great memories! These games are magic! Mario Tennis also remains a great series of games. However, I must admit that the version released on the Switch did not please me at all. It’s really not what I expected. There are some cool points but overall I just didn't like this game.

Of course there is also the oh so exhilarating but the oh so frustrating Mario Kart. These games were so great. So much fun experienced with these games. I think I've rarely even laughed so much on a game as this one. His rival being Mario Party, that’s obvious. Still a pretty good player, no rage for this kind of game.

I'm not sure if many people will agree, but the best memories possible with a Mario Kart game are undoubtedly Mario Kart Double Dash. What an innovation to be able to play two on a car, on a screen without it being shared !!! It was totally awesome !!!! To be able to collect two weapons by switching drivers between player 1 and 2. That was awesome. I remember summers playing together. The whole family. In addition to being able to play at 4 with a split screen only in two !!!! Yes I might be getting a little too excited and I realize that I am starting to get old ...

In short, this franchise has always been able to innovate and do new, unexpected things. I take the example of Mario Maker, although it was released on Wii U dung, which I knew I liked. This game was a nugget. Mario Maker allows us to be able to create levels ourselves, to share them on the internet. And when we see the levels created by the players and especially the levels completed by the players we can say that the players are sadistic, gifted and full of resources.

The ever more innovative Nintendo consoles also allow all the games of the Mario franchise to know how to renew themselves. The Nintendo Switch made it possible to give even more great possibilities to the games of this franchise. Mario Odyssey has been able to bring great novelties with the cap to give further impetus to the main game range. Super Smash Bros Ultimate and the huge (even too many) number of playable characters, battle surfaces have given the game a great buzz. Then there are the different game modes which are still quite new, fresh and really add something to this game. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is quite simply a totally crazy planetary success. For example, it is the best-selling racing game in history in the United States, and has been in the top 5 for video game sales in France for almost two years in a row. The latest Mario Party has yet to be tested (by me) but it shows great promise.

I see nothing that can stop this franchise from bringing fun to people of all ages. I can't wait to be able to keep playing some of these games, to be able to tell you about them, to be able to test new things.

In the meantime, play well, play together, be happy. And long live Mario!