Can we talk about how brave it was for Mario to use his stardom to publicly affirm his longtime coworker Bowser's gay identity in a major release all the way back in the 90s?

I think it's supposed to be "So long-eh Bowser", like the "long" is supposed to sound Italian.

Mario acknowledges that gays aren't token good people all with similar qualities, but complex humans with their backstories, their personalities, their drives and their motives. As the king of Koopa Kingdom, Bowser was indoctrinated into a radically homophobic brand of religion and is closeted, which leads him desperately to harass Peach to the point of kidnapping her despite her refusals, in order to satisfy his desire of "fitting in" with what Bowser considers is "morally right" and "pure".

Mario sees his suffering and understands that the only way to put an end to his misery and to save Peach and the oppressed Koopas is to murder him once and for all, despite his moral objections to murder and to harm of queer people, but justifies it in the same way that the IRA justified the attempts on Thatcher despite her being a woman.

In his last moments alive, Bowser hears Mario crying and screaming in pain, saying a last goodbye to Bowser's tragic life: "so long, gay Bowser". Bowser comes to accept his true self in the last seconds of life and accepts death, finally aware of himself and all the damage he's done. It's too late for himself, and dies at peace, knowing that the world will be a better place after he's gone.

It's a deep and sad story

It's all kayfabe and stuntmen, as seen in Mario Kart and Mario Party, so dw

Mario may have laid the ground work but the genre didn't really solidify until the release of Castlevania 64 added 3 crucial elements:

• Not knowing where to go because every environment in the game looks the same
• Bullshit fights where you just spam the same attack and dodge
• Spooky

Because of this I prefer to call the genre mariovanias