Template talk:Mario

Tidying

Before I do it: I think Super Mario RPG should be removed from the main list (it will still be accessible via Mario RPG category), as it doesn't really fit with the rest of the action games. Also, do we really need a separate category for the Mario & Luigi games, which are already part of the Mario RPG category? --Pelago 17:06, 21 January 2008 (CST)

Yeah SMRPG:LOTSS should be removed, however Mario & Luigi are clearly a separate "series", albeit very small at the moment. If you really care that we have a category for it, go ahead and bring it up in the community issues. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:49, 21 January 2008 (CST)

OK, I've removed Super Mario RPG from the main "action game" series listing. Regarding the sub-series lists, I don't mind the principle of creating that category, even if it only contains a couple of games, so this isn't really a Community Issues thing. I was just wondering about this template specifically, and which sub-series are deemed important enough to appear. Why, for example, are the Mario & Luigi and Mario is Missing sub-series seemed important enough to mention, but not Paper Mario or Mario Party?

Maybe we shouldn't try to list any of the sub-series (of which Category:Mario says there are eight so far), and just let people find the additional games via the link in the box heading. --Pelago 15:58, 24 January 2008 (CST)

It really is a community issue because we don't have a policy on this yet. I'll bring it up. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:08, 24 January 2008 (CST)

Four years later

Someone brought this up in an edit summary. Should this split up the 2D and 3D games? Other series templates don't organize games by decade of release. Perhaps this should put all 2D games on one line, all 3D games on another, and maybe all the portable games on a third line? Wanderer (talk) 01:30, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

Yeah I think the decades should be scrapped. 3D/2D would work ok, but the way we should do it is just put them chronologically, you know, the way a series actually works. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:06, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

The difference between 2D/3D is rather arbitrary and has no relation to the progression of the series', so I don't think splitting it that way would be beneficial. Wikipedia mentions the following spin-off series: Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Artist, Role-playing games (Mario RPG), Sports games (Mario Sports), Educational games, LCD games, Donkey Kong, Wario, Yoshi, Game & Watch Gallery. Ones we don't include bolded. Most of these see fairly straight forward. Don't know if DK is a spin-off of Mario or vice versa, and G&W about as related as SSB. Beyond the original DK game, we should check if any of the games on the template are doubly listed. -- Prod (talk) 02:58, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't know, the gameplay styles between the 2D and 3D games are defined and distinct enough that they're practically separate series, especially with the recent revival of the 2D series and the fact that we now have 2D games being released alongside 3D games on the same systems. So, maybe? And Donkey Kong came first and has his own series, which would technically make the Mario series the spin-off. The "Mario vs. Donkey Kong" games are probably a separate series now, and I'm really not sure if Wrecking Crew should be there. Wanderer (talk) 04:21, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

The problem with Mario is that practically none of the games are actually canonical. They are in the same fantasy world, but unrelated and rarely, if ever, reference one another. They are less of a series and more of a franchise, which we are helping our readers navigate. We wantp people to find their games as easily as possible. So what makes sense? Well, our main page infoboxes have preceding/followed by links, which are basically like the series template in scrolling form... Our template should be like a table of contents for those links. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:52, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

I've made an alternate template, arranged by genre. It's divided into 2D, 2.5D, and 3D platformers, remakes, and Others. Feel free to play around with it.[1]--Salnax (talk) 06:42, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

As for your second template, the remakes don't need their own section. They barely even have original content in them. They could also probably be combined inside of the original game's page. It would make more sense to either do Super Mario Bros. 3 (Super Mario Advance 4); like we have done on some series (see {{Warcraft}}), or just put it chronologically. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 16:23, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

How about something like this? Divided into 2D, 3D, and portables? Also, Mario Kart could be removed as a sub-series since it already goes under "Mario Sports". Wanderer (talk) 23:39, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

I like it. Since the order can't be implied from looking at the list alone, the bold descriptions/categories should be put in front like Salnax had in his. Whatever we decide upon needs to be simple and applicable to other series in the future, though. The true "series" would probably be split up like so, into canonical series, ordered chronologically: User:Notmyhandle/TemplateMario. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:26, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't like dividing by 2D/3D since I see SM64 as the logical continuation from SMW. A few of them are complete offshoots of the primary series, and can probably be put in a separate "section" (as Salnax did). I agree with NMH that we need the headings if we have multiple sections. Perhaps we can separate handheld vs. console? That way we can keep chronology more or less intact. -- Prod (talk) 01:02, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm okay with the console/handheld split. One question: why does Mario vs. Donkey Kong get to appear on the Donkey Kong template, but not this one? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:46, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

I went for single parent hierarchy. -- Prod (talk) 02:26, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Obviously Mario is the better parent. His name comes first. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:59, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

DK's name came first :D. -- Prod (talk) 03:47, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

As an aside, are the Advance ports really different enough to be covered separately or should they be merged with their respective games? Garrett (talk) 12:04, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

Based on Version differences, I'd say the differences are fairly minor. But we'd need an "expert" in each game to conclude for us. -- Prod (talk) 03:47, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Any interest in something collapsible like this?

— Najzere · Talk 16:33, 11 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm not really a fan of hiding information. This template is a major component of the category pages, and just adds another click to get to the content. Its usage on main pages is also always at the very end, just before the categories, so hiding anything doesn't really save any space. I do like the better separation between the sections though, but we should try to look a bit less wikipedia-ish. -- Prod (talk) 03:47, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Regardless of how it is laid out, people will figure it out. I agree, hiding it doesn't help. As far as being unique, we could just return to the floating/centered look and maybe add some colored cells to that, instead. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 04:14, 12 June 2012 (UTC)