Stardust Fields Forums

Every time we see a big new development when it comes to Mario, my mind always wanders back to Lemmy's Land and I seriously wish I could see how the community would have reacted to the stuff going on today. I remember the return of the Koopalings in New Super Mario Bros. Wii alone was a huge deal, and helped mend the rift between Koopaling and Bowser Jr. fans (as well as get webmaster Lemmy to abandon the really silly theory of Junior being Baby Ludwig). But I'd love to see what they'd think about:

* Paper Mario's seemingly permanent sterilization and controversial new direction. (Or just Sticker Star alone, I could see that being the website's favorite punching bag)
* The Koopalings joining Bowser Jr. in Smash Bros.
* All the crazy stuff that went down in Mario Odyssey (The realistic T. Rex, the realistic Dark Souls dragon, Pauline's return, controlling Bowser during the finale... I can definitely see the Broodals getting hate for being Koopaling replacements, ha ha)
* Illumination's truer-to-the-text Mario movie
* An entire Nintendo theme park with a TON of focus on Mario

You also just KNOW that there would have been a ton of theories and fanfics during the pre-release hype cycle of Bowser's Fury with people making all kinds of crazy theories about why Bowser's turned into Godzilla... before the reveal that it was just Junior doodling on his face and him throwing the mother of all tantrums over it.

Paper Mario's sterilization is an interesting one given the arbitrary restrictions outlined in this article that you've probably already seen but I'll share it anyway: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/paper-marios-producer-elaborates-on-the-challenge-of-npc-restrictions/

TTYD is one of my favorite games of all time and it's unfortunate that such a rich series has taken that type of turn (full disclosure: I have not played Sticker Star or Origami King), but it's kind of par for the course for the Mario series. Gameplay and accessibility have generally always taken priority over story, and this makes sense because they will almost certainly sell more that way.

Would be interesting to see how "the forums" are reacting to this stuff. Are there any active Mario forums out there anyway? I feel like a lot of traffic has moved to Discord.

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It's more Mario adjacent, but DK Vine is still pretty active! Same with Last Life, which used to be the Lemmy's Land forums I believe. It does seem that Discord has overtaken forums as the new big internet hangout spot (that and Reddit), but I honestly can't stand it. It's hard to explain why but I've just got a lot of personal hangups with Discord as a platform (though I do appreciate it as a way to keep up with friends via one-on-one conversations). Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and stubborn.

I've actually read that article, and learned a lot about the Paper Mario franchise's shift in direction during the Origami King pre-release days. I've also played Sticker Star and can confirm that you're not missing out on much. It was a MISERABLE experience and genuinely one of the worst games I've ever played. And it's not even due to the change in tone and presentation: the gameplay is generally obtuse, frustrating, and just plain unfun. I did however replay TTYD and 64 recently and let me tell you, that was a great pallet cleanser! Between replaying the old games, or playing Bug Fables and the other promising spiritual successors lined up for future releases, we can at least keep the spirit of old-school Paper Mario alive!