Mariopedia:Scope

This page discusses the scope of Mariopedia. This wiki primarily covers the Mario franchise, which also includes three spinoff franchises: Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong. Because the Mario franchise is so large, and Mario himself has even appeared in over 200 games, it is important to note how far our scope should go. There are a couple of franchises and series that, while they are not part of the main Mario franchise, are closely associated to it, and are covered here as a bonus.

Subjects in crossover titles, such as Sonic the Hedgehog content within the Mario & Sonic series, can have their own article. It should generally only cover their appearances in Mario-related crossover titles, but some background information of the subject in their home franchise can be provided as necessary; in most cases this should only be in instances where the crossover title references or reuses from that game. For example, in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, it can be mentioned that the Tokyo '64 sprites for Sonic the Hedgehog characters were reused from the Sega Genesis titles, and if there are any differences, that can also be mentioned.

Additional coverage

The Legend of Zelda franchise

For The Legend of Zelda franchise, several main series installments feature content from the Mario franchise, especially the Super Mario series, and a The Legend of Zelda title is often developed alongside a Mario title by the same development team. Sometimes Mario enemy families would extend over into the The Legend of Zelda franchise, such as Head Thwomp, a boss who appears The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons but has not (or is yet to) appear in a Mario title. Basically, The Legend of Zelda's relation to Mario is a "parallel franchise," which is basically the middle ground between spinoff and crossover.

Parallel franchises often share real-world history together and frequently make guest appearances and/or cameos in each other's franchise. They either currently or have formerly had the same rights holder. The Crash Bandicoot and Spyro franchises, although they were created by different game developers, are an open example of parallel franchises.

Similarly, although Spiny appears in a few Kirby titles, Kirby is not a parallel franchise. Kirby was created by HAL Laboratory, a second-party Nintendo developer that has developed nearly every game in the franchise. Unlike The Legend of Zelda, a Kirby title has never been developed concurrently alongside a Mario title, whereas this has been done for The Legend of Zelda as early as its first game, which was developed alongside Super Mario Bros..

Super Smash Bros. series

The Mario franchise is the flagship representative of the Super Smash Bros., and the series' English name is a pun on Super Mario Bros..

Banjo-Kazooie and Conker franchises

Diddy Kong Racing is the first appearance of both Banjo and Conker, who would later star in the Banjo-Kazooie franchise and Conker franchise, respectively. Despite this, Microsoft is the rights holder to Banjo-Kazooie and Conker while Nintendo retains the Donkey Kong license.

Bootleg and fanon content

Mariopedia allows coverage for Mario-related bootleg games and fanon but only on the respective Bootleg: and Fanon: namespaces. As with the rest of the wiki, we do not allow explicit adult content such as pornography (see our censorship policy for more information). Mario-related fan games with violence can have articles, but images depicting gore, decapitation, and an abundance of blood are not allowed. 18+ fanon is not allowed at all. It is important to note that neither namespace may be used for experimental or joke edits, the former of which should be done in the sandbox instead.