Being an extremely Long Runner in the video game industry, it shouldn't come off as a surprise that one-too many Super Mario Bros. characters have come to be seen as polarizing to the fanbase.
- Despite being the main protagonist, Mario himself is incredibly divisive amongst fans. While Mario is incredibly popular and many love him for his kind, joyous and heroic personality, he has garnered plenty of detractors who find him to be incredibly boring compared to the other characters. This is largely thanks to the fact that Mario is by design, a Vanilla Protagonist, with no real distinctive personality and traits compared to the rest of the cast. While some don't take issue with this approach, given that he is meant to be a versatile Jack of All Trades and the games aren't heavily story or character-driven to begin with, others argue that the lack of a real personality only hurts Mario and prevents him from being as interesting as the other characters, including his own brother, Luigi. While there have been attempts by Nintendo to give him something of a a more defined personality in the past, these attempts don't usually stick and tend to be divisive in their own right as to whetver or not they work for Mario's character. Others also simply hate him for being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad, and want the other more interesting characters to be focused on more than him.
- Princess Peach is by far the biggest one in the franchise. She is no stranger to detractors considering her an extremely flanderized character, with her ditzyness, high-pitched voice and constant kidnappings growning tiresome for many. Her shallow, Dumb Blonde depiction in Super Mario Sunshine is brought up as a particularly sour spot for her in the series. Peach's lack of self-initiative in escaping hasn't garnered her much support either, with some people labeling her as a negative, useless and outdated female stereotype compared to smarter and/or more proactive Nintendo heroines nad other video game heroines in general such as Princess Zelda, Samus Aran and even Rosalina, Toadette and Daisy from her own franchise. She still has plenty of fans and fanboys however, particularly for her more competent spin-off portrayals and sweet nature, along with being beautiful-looking; additionally, later appearances help address the former group's complaints, as Peach is a fully playable character in Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Run instead of being the damsel in distress. Super Princess Peach (her first starring role) also helped her win over a lot of fans because she saved the Mario Bros herself in that game. Peach is also liked more in the RPGs, where she is usually depicted as a more fleshed-out and endearing character and is more consistently competent with Super Paper Mario, Super Mario RPG and both Mario Plus Rabbids games in particular making her a fully playable Action Girl, but it is up for debate whether this makes up for her more shallow and/or ditzy main series depiction, due to the main platformers being more central to the Mario franchise. A few fans of her, while agreeing she does get kidnapped too much, also argue in her favor due to the Damsel in Distress status gradually becoming less prominent in media. Lastly, some people feel like she is a case of They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character saying that Nintendo should make her playable in more mainline games and that it makes no sense that she should be getting kidnapped all the time when she has proven herself in many games to be a capable heroine.
- Peach's role in Super Mario Odyssey also cast a new light on her: in the game's ending, she rejects Bowser's and Mario's advancesnote , and in the post-game she travels around the world just like Mario did, causing most of the debates on this specific depiction to instead be on whether her aforementioned actions in the ending were fair to Mario or not.
- The Toad species as a whole. While they have plenty of people that still consider them cute and funny, some people also consider them utterly worthless at protecting the Mushroom Kingdom and having an annoying voice. A number of fans have grown sick of always seeing the Toads as extras in the games, and insist that they have become overused when there are a wide range of other Mario characters that could appear in the games. The fact that Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam largely featured them as cast members instead of other ally Mario characters doesn't help, and it only worsened after Paper Mario: Color Splash continued this trend along with Mario Party: Star Rush, with only the generic design being used. There are still many who still like them (or at least tolerate their presence), though.
- A specific example involving the Toads would be the Rescue V
Toads introduced in Color Splash. While a number of folks love them for being a Sentai-like group of Toads, others can't get past the fact that they are yet another group of GENERIC Toads in a game that's already littered with them. - Toadette is a smaller, but also specific example: is she a great female alternative to the Princess-type characters who deserves her Breakout Character status (thanks to repeated, well-received appearances in games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam)? Or is she a lazy Distaff Counterpart to the already base-breaking Toad, and has been victim of Wolverine Publicity, no matter if she's playable or an NPC?
- The "All Toads are the same" belief of the detractors is lampshaded by King Olly, himself a Toad hater.
- A specific example involving the Toads would be the Rescue V
- Princess Daisy. Fans view her as a cool Tomboy Princess and a great alternative to—the also base-breaking—Peach due to her lack of status as a Damsel in Distress outside of Super Mario Land and Super Mario Run, and love to ship her with Luigi. She also has lot of fans for that one time in Mario Party 3 where she sent Bowser flying into the sky with a single slap. Others can't stand her voice and think that she is a pointless Peach clone. Despite only using the line in a single game (that game being Mario Kart: Double Dash!!), her "Hi, I'm Daisy!" quote has also become attributed to her character, often in an exaggerated manner. About the one thing both sides agree on, however, is that they feel that Nintendo is wasting the character by not letting her appear in any games that aren't spin-offs (other than her first appearance in Super Mario Land, Super Mario Run and in Super Mario Maker as a costume). Her long-awaited playable appearance in Super Smash Bros., with her debut being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, is also divisive, as she is a echo of Peach and an exact copy of her moveset wise. Some don't have an issue with it and are just happy to see her in at all, while others wish she had more unique qualities instead of being a Moveset Clone of Peach. Additionally, some people just want Sarasaland to make a come back, due to many people believing it to be one of the most unique places in the franchise. Another thing that is heavily contested about her is her redesign during the GameCube era which made her lose her tan and red crown (making it gold like Peach's) and redesigned her dress to basically be a Palette Swap of Peach's. Some people think that this made her lose the exotic traits that she brought from the multi- national Sarasaland and is what truly made her a Peach clone.
- Rosalina. Either she's a unique character whose melancholic, demure and graceful demeanor prove an amazing contrast to the cheerful, ditzy Peach and the perky, go-getter Daisy, and her story in Super Mario Galaxy cements her as a well fleshed-out character, making her a great addition to the franchise. Or she has slowly devolved into a knock-off of Peach whose previous characterization has disappeared, not helping matters is her voice change (from Mercedes Rose and Kerri Kane, to Laura Faye Smith) which sounds more cheerful, much less melancholic, and most importantly, lacking Power Echoes. Her Breakout Character status in future games, such as her becoming playable in 3D World and Super Smash Bros., is also contested: some people love her utilization and are happy she averts being a one-shot character unlike many others that have appeared in the franchise, whereas other people state she has received too much attention when other characters could be getting it instead.
- Bowser Jr., especially when it comes to comparisons between him and the Koopalings. He was originally a Replacement Scrappy for a whole villain team, and he already got a great deal of hatedom by replacing the seven most popular non-Bowser villains in the older games. Even disregarding that, however, to a lesser degree he was also controversial for his design being little more than a redesign of the original Baby Bowser, as well as the fact that he's fought as a bland recurring boss in his early appearances note . Some fans did start warming up to him when he was finally shown with his siblings in the sequel, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Nowadays, Bowser Jr. is more well-liked for using unique and creative Humongous Mechas to battle Mario rather than the same bland attack patterns, taking a page from Dr. Eggman's book in that game as well as in New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, granting him a style that was somewhat missing from Mario games beforehand. His best character traits are seen when he's working with his dad, which is both cute and frightening. However, this predicament amplified when Shigeru Miyamoto stated that the Koopalings are no longer considered to be Bowser's children and only Jr. was his actual son. It didn't take long for this to be completely reversed in the eyes of some fans — since Bowser Jr.'s introduction, he's been in almost five times the amount of games as the Koopalings and has developed some deep character traits and a sizeable fan base of his own, causing many of Jr.'s fans to call the Koopalings overrated.
- The Koopalings themselves are a pretty serious case of this. For a long period, they were pretty universally well-liked, in part due to seemingly being emblematic of the "good old days" of 2D Mario, showing up far more often in fanwork than in any of the mainline games and being treated fondly for their quirky designs and sense of personality. Their return in New Super Mario Bros. Wii was widely celebrated. However, after that point, they started appearing a lot more often (including being the bosses in both New games to follow), and it caused something of a counter-movement around them to form, viewing them as boring and repetitive to fight, one-dimensional in personality, and emblematic of the franchise's more creatively stagnant entries. Part of the problem is that the Koopalings are so defined as a group that any game to include them will invariably have to include all of them, and that's a tall order for seven characters that are usually fought as individual bosses, practically mandating that the majority of bosses in the game be Koopalings. Their appearance in Mario Kart 8 caused some particular grief, as they essentially made up a quarter of the initial roster, which couldn't help but feel a bit bloated. And when fans learned that they were the bosses of Paper Mario: Color Splash, they let out a collective groan of disbelief.
- Larry is especially base-breaking due to his lack of characterisation compared to the other Koopalings. Some fans dislike him for being very bland and uninteresting, while others love him exactly because of his underdog qualities and think that his design makes up for his lack of personality.
- Wendy, being the only female Koopaling, is disliked by some fans for being a one-dimensional "girly-girl" character with an overtly feminized design. Others find her design quite appealing and unique, and love the greedy, assertive aspects of her personality.
- Birdo. Some fans dislike her due to several potential reasons. 1) Being weirded out by gender confusion surrounding her (or considering it transphobic), 2) are grossed out by the fact that she spews eggs out of the mouth, 3) are annoyed by the honking noises she frequently makes in recent titles, and 4) believe she's not a very interesting character. Yet others like her and consider her vastly underutilized in the Mario series, with some even clamoring for her to receive her own game. She's also a favorite in the spin-off titles.
- Jr. Troopa from Paper Mario 64 has just as many fans as he does detractors. Fans like him for his status as a Goldfish Poop Gang with increasingly creative boss fights and admire his Determinator personality, whereas detractors find him to be an obnoxious roadblock who contributes little to the story and robs the players of a rematch against the Koopa Bros. There's also a third camp that doesn't dislike him, but feels like he overstays his welcome.
- Beldam from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is loved for being fun to fight in bosses and her turning out to be the Big Bad and one pulling the strings. She also despised by a good chuck of people for being a Jerkass toward Vivian and Doopliss (both of whom are fan-favorites, especially the former) and for being forgiven too easily for her actions.
