Your Favourite Game Antagonist

I don't know which Mario game I played first, for the simple reason that the first Nintendo console I ever owned was a SNES which came with Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World included. What I do remember is that Bowser stood out from the beginning as my favourite character across all games, it wouldn't be until Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64 for that I would get the chance to play as Bowser for the first time.

One major criticism people have of the story of every Mario game is that it is repetitive, with Bowser kidnapping Peach, and Mario and Luigi or Mario alone setting out to rescue her. Something I read many years ago that stayed with me was a comment by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario franchise, where he basically said he sees Mario games as plays, theatre productions that the characters participate in.

Super Mario Bros 3 in particular made the idea of a play more explicit with the game opening to a curtain rise and a chequered floor that would reappear several times throughout the game at key moments. I do like that idea as it would explain a lot, but some Mario games don't fit that narrative so well, Super Mario Sunshine for one, although to be fair that game has many critics, I happen to love it but many fans of the series hate it with a passion.

As the franchise has grown there have been many games that aren't part of the main series, in addition to Smash Bros as previously mentioned, there is also Mario Kart as a particular favourite, and many sports themed games where you get to play as Bowser many times over.

I would quite like a game entirely from Bowser's perspective where you play the entire game as Bowser, to my knowledge that doesn't exist. There have been instances in some of the other games, notably in the Paper Mario series where you do get to control Bowser briefly as part of the story but he's never been given his own adventure which I think is a missed opportunity.