The picture of Birdo in this thread made me think that it'd be cool to have a Yoshi's Island game where you can ride either a Yoshi or a Birdo. Maybe that makes me in the minority...

WHAT HAPPENED? Why is it sexism? Let's make a game full of ugly, buff, deep voiced tomboys. Their husbands were kidnapped by aliens while they were showering. You, Helga, has to save her husband in one of three different story lines. Adrian and Randall become unlockable after you beat Helga's story. They don't wear bathing suits because they are unattractive. They only ever wear full-out army wear with the boots, hat, and gloves. And at the end of the game, the guys are glad the women saved them and go to kiss them thanks only for the women to chop off their willies and say "You pathetic weakling, why did I have to help you?!"

There. Because being beautiful is sexist. Having the hero as a male is sexist. Having cute, feminine voices is sexist. Wearing female clothing is sexist. And being a prize is sexist.

Are you happy now? Huh?

Luigis gets captured in Mario galaxy and 3D Land, is that sexist

You guys know about Rosalina right? You know, that woman in a Mario game who takes care of all those Lumas, which becomes galaxies, which pretty much makes her the mother of all galaxies? It's kinda weird to cal Mario games sexist because of Peach when the most powerful being in the entire Mario universe is a female...

Besides, calling Mario sexist is just weird in generall. You're making it sound like Mario is the only game that has you saving a girl. If Mario was a muscular, powerful macho-man and Peach was a skinny, scamp clad woman who coulnd't do anything, well then i would be a serious discussion. But that's not the case. Whant to complain about sexism? Play DoA instead. Yeah, this is stupid. -.-

Well, the subject on this thread did not change at ALL since I was here last I see.

I think with Peach it's more of a Princess thing.

ffs this is silly.

Let's look at the story just a bit more closely/rationally.

Peach, a monarch (therefore quite a hell of a target), is kidnapped by a giant monster with a seemingly endless army of other monsters at his beck and call. Bowser basically has everything on his side, especially the element of surprise, which is a huge factor in situations like this. It's no great surprise that she's basically helpless. She's promptly thrust into a cage. What exactly would you do in that situation? Gender-be-damned, you're screwed.

Think about something else for a sec. If the Queen of England or the President of the United States were kidnapped, who'd be blamed? Their guards for, y'know, failing to guard them. Who are Peach's guards? A bunch of squishy male toads.

So apparently there's only one really admirable male in the game: a comical, stumpy, fat little plumber.

So yeah. Mario's a guy. He's not a girl. So what? Lots of heroes irl are guys and not girls. And vice versa. A story about a guy coming to the aid of a girl is not sexist. It's admirable.

Also, in M&L: Superstar Saga, there was a prince that got completely effed up by a witch. Peach was also extremely clever and foiled the baddies with her wits. So yes, there have been reversals in the Mario universe. No, not in the main SMB games, but if you look at the other parts of those games it's safe to say that Nintendo's laziness is to be blamed rather than some kind of ridiculous hidden agenda.

5 bucks says it's gonna Peach again.

so the only alternative to beautiful, helpless women in games is ''ugly, buff, deep voiced tomboys' who wish to castrate males? that argument is a ploy known as Reduction Ad Absurdum.

more than the discussion itself, i find myself more interested in where all the anger and outrage is coming from. i don't think anyone has suggested some sort of evil agenda on nintendo's part.

for those who see no sort of problem with the concepts discussed, try substituting a word representing any minority group in the place of 'princess' and see if it doesn't come across as even mildly offensive.

look, i love mario games and have played most of them for decades. what harm comes from a little dissection occasionally? a little deeper thinking into what may lie beneath the basically taken-for-granted fun and games.

if it is all tl/dr for anyone, fine. i have found all the responses interesting.

I know the Mario series' stories are out-of-date, sure. Not sure if it's sexist, but I do agree that the whole "someone gets kidnapped, someone else has to go save them" routine needs to go. Stale doesn't even begin to describe it.

Those are the real problems here. How many times has she been kidnapped now? And yet they don't increase defense or do anything to prevent another kidnapping. You think at least mario would do something since he's been through the same stupid levels a hundred times now :/

By the way, Other:M is really fun

Mario isn't sexist. The games show how devoted he is to Peach by going to save her every time. It's not like a girl would really be able to beat up Bowser either. Not sexist, it's just mostly true. They don't need to change the game up just to be "not sexist" and not have Peach captured. There are more male gamers who play anyways so having a damsel in distress appeals more to them.

Just a general statement: if anyone is looking for even a half-way decent story in a mainline Mario game, you're looking in the wrong place. Galaxy 1's and Sunshine's are the only ones that have even comes close to that; you're better off checking out the Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario series for great stories.

Because stereotypically women are portrayed as being ruled by their emotions. And what does Peach spend the entire game doing?

Using her super powers to save captive guys?

She starred in her own game, fighting with her emotions, how is that sexist

Seriously whats with this sexism thing in mario games hm? Its a game. It's meant to entertain and be fun, if its too influental for children to play while they define their roles in life (which will be FAR more influenced by how daddy and mommy treat eachother) then they shouldn't play video games at all, right? If everyone would go for "politically correct" videogames, it would be a boring world. It's video (not real) and games (fun things) - if you're not graced with the intellect to stand atop of the portrail of virtual roles/characters then you shouldnt play videogames, vote or drive a car, if you're too young to judge things like that - it's your parents to blame.

You know whats really the worst in this world, even worse than sexism? Extremism! Overdoing - WHATEVER - to a point where it's becoming a threat to free will, freedom and joy in life. Think about it.

And what some of you fail to see in mario games, its a SATIRE. YES its the clumsy little cute princess that lets herself get kidnapped all the time, YES its the fat mexican looking italo-american-japanese guy that comes through the POOP-tubes to rescue her. IT's satire and every attempt of seeing something serious in it should be stopped immediately. Satire, look it up.

Daisy, please, and maybe even Tatanga as a main villain. I doubt it, though- Nintendo is having a hard time coming up with original ideas for Mario.