Heros and Antiheros

[Hirocon]

This is a long post, sort of a rant, and it may contain spoilers.  I wrote it for my own sake, so unless you're really bored, feel free to stop reading.

Pop quiz: what do all of these games have in common?

Super Mario Land 2: The Six Gold Coins
Super Mario Sunshine
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hands

And to a lesser extent:

Advance Wars
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Zelda 2: The Adventures of Link
TLOZ: Ocarina of Time
Viewtiful Joe
many others

The answer, as implied by the subject of this topic, is that all of these games feature, as enemies, evil versions of the main heros.  Mario v. Wario, Mario v. Shadow Mario, Samus v. SA-X, Samus v. Dark Samus, etc. Is it just me, or is this theme getting a little old?  It bugs me when designers throw antiheros into the game and try to pass it off as something dramatic and exciting.  Seriously, it's been done before, guys.  For example, in Super Mario Sunshine, the designers tried to shock players by presenting an Antimario in the form of Shadow Mario.  When I saw this, I was a little confused.  The Mario series already HAS an Antimario...his name is Wario!  He's been in tens of games, often with starring roles!  So what is so supposed to be so shocking about Shadow Mario?  Shadow Mario has much less personality, and is frankly much less interesting, than Wario.  His existence as a character does nothing to advance the Mario series and did little to improve Super Mario Sunshine.  This is often the case; usually, the fights against antiheros, which are supposed to be exciting and climactic, are pretty boring compared to the fights against unique enemies.  When I see an antihero, I just get the sense that the designers were too lazy to design an original villian, and instead opted to rehash a worn-out theme.

This is not to say that I dislike any of the games I have listed.  In fact, I think that Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes are all fantastic games.  I just think the games would have been better with more original villians.

Edited by - Hirocon on 1/1/2005 1:28:27 AM

[Raccoon Sam]

I agree dude!
Or at least they could make the antihero transfom into another form, what could make it a bit more different.


-*My signature is for rent*-

(5 € a week)

[MEGAߥTE]

Yes, Nintendo has been using the light/dark theme a bit much.  Kirby: The Amazing Mirror includes 4 Kirbys as well as Shadow Kirbys... just like The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures...

[Markio]

In Super Mario Sunshine, Shadow Mario was sort of necessary so Mario would be arrested and blamed for all the problems on the island.  At the end, he was really Bowser Jr. so his character almost doesn't exist since it was just a disguise. Of course, one might argue that creating a Mario disguise is the same as EggMan guy thing creating Shadow the Hedgehog and it is still repetitive.  But whatever.

[Lizard Dude]

Man's got a point (all of them, actually).
Personally, I didn't notice it enough to be annoyed.
Shadow Link was from Zelda II though.

“I’m a stupid fatty and I love to play with my Easy Bake oven.”

[Sqrt2]

How can wario be mario's anti-hero?

True that all the anti-hero's have been in one game only but wario has appeared in games that star mario without being mario's anti-hero (ie MKDD, MP 1-6, MK64).

Therefore wario isn't really a true anti-hero.

Nothing is impossible. My boss told me so.

Edited by - Sqrt2 on 1/3/2005 12:09:14 PM

[boomstix]

Well you can't compare MKDD or MP because those are spin-offs, and apparently, Wario and Luigi were "party crashers", so technically they weren't even supposed to be there in the first place. I believe that Peach's letter said only "Mario", but I may be wrong...

"I could have more fun watching paint dry...
C''mon Blue! Dry Blue! C''mon!"
-The Decline of Video Gaming