Whatever happened to Toadsworth and Professor E. Gadd? They seem like they would be perfect for Mario Kart.
Like I know E. Gadd is still in the Luigi's Mansion games but he used get way more cameos, he was in the Mario and Luigi RPGS (as was Toadsworth), and he was mentioned in Sunshine and Thousand Year Door. Piantas and peaches plane are a couple of other things that used to be everywhere and now aren't.
At least Petey Piranha gets to be in Mario Kart.
I know this is the nerdiest post to make ever, but I was just having shower thoughts and was like, huh what ever happened to Toadsworth? 
I guess The Thousand Year Door remake reminded me he exists.
Also while you're at it Nintendo, bring back Fawful and let the Beanbean people be in more games damn it.
Odyssey at least wasn't too safe what with Mario running around possessing frogs, but yeah I agree. Seems to happen to every brand after a while.
They rereleased the good Paper Mario and tried to be less safe with Wonder, so here's hoping they're starting to let their developers get wacky with it (I'm very sceptical though because corporations rarely do anything good.)
Weird Mario is best Mario imo
Yeah, Odyssey was the exception last decade, and so far Nintendo has definitely let their developers and design teams play more fast and loose with their most recent entries. I think if the games see good sales numbers, then they will keep the trend up into the upcoming "Switch 2" era. But, if the sales numbers are deemed to be disappointing by whatever arbitrary metric is used by the company, then we might just see a reverse in course, and doubling down on the restraint-of-wackiness, "reinforcing the brand" once again so they can profit of Mario and Co's recognizable design for merchandise
and keep the games only to remind people that Mario is in fact a video game character with all his wacky pals (NOT: Toadsworth, King boo, E. Gadd, Any and all Paper Mario characters, Petey, the Piantas, the Lumas, the Bees, those woodcut fellas from Galaxy 2, anything from Odyssey, and many many more characters that will *never* return! 
).
Nintendo: "If its not making us all the money, it might as well be in a 6ft deep grave!" :quark:
100% I hate how capitalism strangles developer creativity
Indeed.