In the pantheon of video games, is there any series more iconic than Super Mario? And is there any character more beloved or well known than the super-powered plumber himself? Probably not. For over three decades now, the Mario games, in all their variations across different platforms, have earned the love and respect of countless gamers, casual and otherwise, and critics thanks to their simple but timeless platforming template, colorful graphics and sound design, and ability to evolve with every passing generation. The Super Mario games are a shining example of a series that is able to stay true to its roots while simultaneously revolutionizing the industry, and has gone on to define its exclusive platform Nintendo and, many may argue, the 🌳industry itself.
With a game this iconic, it's going to have its fair share of tropes, memes and, in this case, comics. From jumping on goombas, to eating magic mushrooms, to finding out that the princess is in yet another castle, it's an easy game to parody and many of ⛎these comics basically write themselves.
However, unlike other games series, there is never much malice in these parodies. Super Mario, as a platformer, is very accessible and uncontroversial, and the series has always set itself a sky-high standard, releasing classic games across all gaming generat💦ions and Nintendo platforms, giving it a certain amount of immunity compared to other games.
So with that, sit back, relax, and enjoy 25 of the best Super Mario comics that you can relate to as a player.
26 Time For Intervention 𓂃
Poor Princess Toadstool. Mario’s main squeeze has been through a lot oꦍver the last three decades: reduced to a damsel in distress and stolen on a yearly basis by the same monster, you can’t really blame her for being irritated by her constant predicament.
Aside from the opening to any given Mario game where the Princess, inevitably, gets abducted by Big Bowser, it really doesn’t take long for the player to forget all about the hostage Toad𝔉stool and just start enjoying exploring the mushroom kingdom.
Whi🅠le the idea of this comic is to generate sympathy for the Princess, as a player it probably has the opposite effect. It is more likely to elicit nostalgia for taking giant mushro🍌oms, stomping on goombas, and flying through the air gracefully with a tanooki suit, all of which are illustrated in this comic.
When the Princess confronts Mario, calling him “the worst boyfriend ever,” and it's not hard to see why.
Taken literally, Mario i🗹s an absentee partner, unable to prevent his girlfriend from being taken again and again, with a penchant for cruelty and ta൲king altering substances.
That being said, sorry Toadstooꦚl, but exploring the Mushroom Kingdom is just too much fun; you’ll just have to wait to be rescued!
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25 Reznors!
Platforming games are designed to be as simple and fun as possible. Essentially 2D, and later 3D, obstacle courses, each level is designed to be simple ꦚenough to understand, getting more challenging as the game progresses in terms of reaction and timing, as opposed to concept or control.
That being said, in most platforming games, there are a handful of sections or enemies which are seemingly designed to 🥃infuriate the player, causing them to fail a particular part of a game again and again until they launch the controller through the TV screen in a fit of uncontrollable rage.
Reznors, which appear in Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros 2, are one of these infuriating obstacles. Four dinosaur heads on four individually revolving platforms, these prehistoric creatures breathe fire in your direction, meaning that ❀you have to dodge four flamethrowers and coming at you from a massive impediment in the m𝔉iddle of the level. This means that there is a high probability of being hit, which means that there is a high probability of losing a life and having to start the level again, which means on very, very angry gamer. Anyone who's ever been burned by these dinosaurs will be able to relate to the panic expressed in this comic for sure!
24 Wario Riওvalry ✤
A villain designed by Nintendo themselves to be the antithesis of Mario, Wario first appeared in 1992’s Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the archnemesis of the heroic plumber. Now, while Wario, again being a creation of the company themselves and being inspired directly by their biggest story, was never meant to be a breakout character in his own right, he did garner enough regard amongst fans to warrant two spinoff titles of his own: Wario Land and WarioWare.
That being said, unlike many villains which go on to be as big if not bigger than the virtuous protagonists themselves (can you say Heath Ledger’s Joker?), Wario was, and still is, relat🎶ively underwhelming when compared to Mario, both in terms of character and mass appeal.
෴In this comic, we see Wario doing what any respectable villain would: trying to crush his goodie-two-shoes counterpart. However, Mario manages to defeat his evil counterpart, letting the air out of him and leaving him small and deflated. Gawking at his shocked, and rather frightened, looking nemesis, Mario adds insult to injury by quipping: “Now there’s the Wario I remember!” Chances are, that’s probably the Wario you remember too, if you remember him at all…
23 Weird Ghosts 🦂
Making their debut in the classic SNES title Super Mario World, these spooky ghosts appeared to give you a fright in the haunted house levels of t☂he game. Daunting the first time you see them, these scowling poltergeists have the ability to change levels and dire꧃ction, and will end or shrink you upon first contact, making them formidable and, at times, frustrating foes.
And while they’re easily identifiable as ghosts (even in their 16-bit form) there is no doubt that their shape is, well, a bit strange.
Essentially just floating heads with tiny tails at the back of their cranium (maybe to help them fly, who knows!), e༒ven their cartoon contemporary Casper, the friendly ghost, had a semblance of 🌼a lower body at least.
Maybe when you tried, often in vain, to dodge these hovering nuisances, you looked at them and thought something was off. Maybe you tried to picture them in their living form. Perhaps, when you did, you conjured up an image which shook yo𓂃u to your very core: a deformed creature with lifeless eyes, a finger for a tail, and a 𒀰rather unattractive haircut. Maybe, then, this comic has made your biggest nightmare a gruesome reality.
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22 Odyssey Vs. 64 ✤
This comic could either be seen as a pining for a simpler time in gaming, or a tour gone bad. Well, ok, maybe not the latter, but the first time you whip your cap at an enemy in Super Mario Odyssey, it is most certainly a new experience. As we mentioned in the introduction, Super Mario titles, while staying true fundamentally to its platforming roots, always manage to evolve the genre within its parameters. The ability to possess an enemy would, for old-school Mario players, be a bit of a trip and something totally alien to the 2D titles, or even older 3D titles like Super Mario 64.
Speaking of which, for many players, there is a lot to be said for the simpler Mario titles. In spite of the critical acclaim and fan love bestowed upon titles like Super Mario Galaxy and the aforementioned Super Mario Odyssey, there is a subset of veteran (see: old) Mario fans that believe that the old school titles, such as Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World, are better than their three dimensional younger brothers. If you fall into this category, then this comic is right up your alley. Just look at 64 Mario’s face: excited, happy, and content with his mere ability to fly. Now contrast that with Od꧙yssey Mario, who looks absolutely horrified by the hybrid mutant he’s become!
21 🍎 Arran𓆏ged Marriage
Another one depicting Princess Toadstool and her unfortunate predicament. There is no doubt about it that Mario takes his sweet time to wrench her from the paws of Big Bowser. However, in our quest to retrieve her, we often do not aಞsk ourselves what Bowser’s intentions are. Does♏ he steal her because he’s a kleptomaniac? Maybe he got ripped off by a plumber who, in spite of taking money from him, failed to properly fix his toilet, leaving Mario guilty by association?
All of these are ridiculous but viable explanations. That being said, a much more realistic explanation is that Bowser has a thing for the Princess, and just gives her a forceful assist at eloping with him. If the latter is true, then it’s doubtful that he’d wait until Mario sauntered his way through a dozen castles to set a date. In this ꦐcomic, we see the Princess warding off the unwanted advancements of the shelled predator soon after the two were wed. The Princess’ face says it all, and I’d imagine that the exchanging of vows was not amicable. I’d also imagine Mario would want to hurry it up and get there before they finish the marriage!
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20 Poor Goomba🌜 ✨
You have to feel bad for any foe who can only move laterally with their eyes facing forward. Literally the first enemy you face in every Mario game: they are short, slow, and aside from their flying cousins which appeared in Super Mario Bros 3, have the same predictable movement pattern, moving from right to le🍒ft then back to left again.
These physical limitations, along with the fact that they just look benign, might make some players feel guilty about stomping on them.
In tꦉhis comic, there are two goombas (they often come in pairs in the games), simply having a chat while minding their own business. Then, out of nowhere, Mario comes along and smashes one of them, stealing the coin that pops out of the recently departed. The other goomba looks on horrified, and tells the lethal plumber that he could have just asked for the money!
Truthfully, you could side with either party here: on the one hand, you could be like Mario, the happy-go-lucky lunatic squashing innocent goombas for money on the way to another castle. Or, you could empathize with the goombas, innocent cannon fodder put in front of Mario as pett𝔍y obstacles, there to be brushed aside, or worse, stepped on!
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19 G✤reedy Lumas ✃
When Mario went galactic in the exceptional Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii, he neededﷺ some interstellar co-stars to accompany him on his quest. Enter the Lumas: cute, happy-go-lucky stars which help guide Mario through tutorials and gener🌟al advice, as well as having the ability to transform into objects and power-ups which can aid you throughout the game.
However, ꦿtheir assistance comes at a price, for these little blobs of light are addicted to star bits, little star shards that are scattered throughout the levels which Mario can collect. These star ꦏbits serve a multitude of functions, though: they can be fired at enemies to stun them, helping Mario to defeat them or just bypass them altogether, or, more vital still, when enough of them are collected, they afford Mario another life, which could potentially mean the difference between our courageous plumber friend completing the level or seeing a game over screen.
With that in mind, you’d think the Lumas would be more sensitive to Mario’s plight. Saving the Princess is a team efཧfort (if we ignore the fact that Mario gets all the glory, but these are semantics), so they shouldn’t be robbing Mario of a potentially life-saving resource. Chances are, if you’ve been a star bit or two from adding a vital additional life, only to have to give up your stash to these greedy stars to advance th🎶rough a level, you’ll feel irritated just looking at this comic.
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18 💞 Super Plumbers
People who play the Super Mario games (both long-time Mario-philes and young, casual first timers alike) must, at some stage, ask themselves on very simple question: how is it that a pꦫlumber... well, two if you count Luigi... is able to possess the powers of inhuman growth, flight, the ability to shoot fireballs from… somewhere, and the exceptional athleticism to leap more than three times his own height.
Moreover, how is it that Mario, again a humble tradesman, is in a position to court a Princess? A woman of royaltyꦐ who, judging by the attire she wears, is not of this century, meaning that any chance Mario would’ve had making that social climb in this day and age is ess🧔entially nil.
If you’ve ever wondered why, and if you’ve given it any thought at all you probably should have at some stage while playing a Mario game, then this comic gives as plausible an explanation as any you’re likely to hear. When an employer is looking for the right duo to rescue a princess from the clutches of evil, ha♊ving to navigate certain death to do so, the Mario Bros. Plumbers just will not suffice. But the “SUPER MARIO BROS.” on the other hand? Well, they sound “perfect for the job!”
17 𒁃 🥃 They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To…
One of the advantages of the hardware introduced with Nintendo’s seventh generation console the Wii was it allowed gaming developers to evolve their titles in unique ways; the Nunchuck and Wiimo🗹te controllers were totally unlike its rival’s Xbox and PlayStation’s standard console controllers, integrating motion control as a vital part of the experience; a fluid and fun way that set it apart from the compet🌳ition, helping the Wii to become the sales juggernaut it did.
Super Mario Galaxy, which we have mentioned a few times thus far, also took full advantage of the new console, making the most of the motio♈n control and screen pointing, ensuring that Nintendo’s signature series remained ahead of the cꦦurve on its own hardware, and in gaming in general.
That being said (again, as🐽 we’ve mentioned earlier) there are always going to be those who harken for the older days of gaming: a two-dimensional world with simple graphics, simple stories and, most of all, simple controls.
This was what prompted the release of Super Mario Bros. Wii, an updated, shinier version of the old 2D Mario games.
Great idea, and many people enjoyed the game. However, most people felt that the Wiimote, which was simply turned on its side to mimic a generic controller, was a not sufficient replacement for🐻 the traditio🍌nal, chunkier SNES controller, thus the immense irritation on these people's faces, and possibly yours too.
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