Mario is Weird
I've been playing old Mario games for a few months, but it was only the other day I realized how weird they are.
Like, the best selling gaming franchise in history is about a pair of Italian American plumbers who fight demonic turtles with magic mushrooms and fursuits. And then, there are all these random games where they do go to medical school or fight in the Vietnam War. There is no consistent story between the games and there is no attempt to make one (except among fans, I should say).
The premises of mainline games are bizarre too. In one, everyone is trapped in the walls and he has to get them out by jumping into paintings. In another, he throws his hat at animals to possess them. There's another where he's in a stageplay, there's one where he's flying through the void of space.
I'm not even sure what genre Mario games are supposed to be, they've almost created their own crew of stock characters from whole cloth.