Mario is in...Less Games Than I Imagined Actually - Crossover Quest

So, I was looking at some of the previous stuff I'd done to find crossovers, and found that Mario, for being known for doing everything, isn't actually in as many crossovers as I expected. I'm not sure if this is because I'm discounting a lot of crossovers with the Legend of Zelda for already being included, but there aren't that many. There are some though, so let's dive in.

Mario, along with his brother Luigi and Peach (who isn't his brother That would make certain scenes awkward) is in SSX On Tour, picking up a hobby of skiing and snowboarding. I guess he's quite good at it, but I was never really good enough to know.

He's also shooting some hoops with them on NBA Street V3. You'd think with all the exercise he does, he wouldn't be so portly. Maybe it's just all the cake that Peach gives him.

Finally, on the side of Mario sticking himself into other people's games, there's Fortune Street, a Monopoly-esque game that started out as a Dragon's Quest minigame, but eventually became its own thing. Incidentally, the series also features Final Fantasy characters, but not in the same game as the Mario characters.

However, Mario doesn't just sneak into other games. There are characters from other franchises in his own games. Final Fantasy shows up again, this time in Mario Hoops 3 on 3, where a Moogle, Ninja, Black Mage, White Mage and Cactuar turn up to shoot some hoops (wow, I didn't know Mario liked Basketball that much).

And of course, there's the arcade versions of Mario Kart, where he invites quite a few characters from other series to join him on the racetrack. As well as the previously mentioned Pacman, there's also Don-chan, who's from the Taiko no Tatsujin series, a series of rhythm games that only has one game translated into English, which is on the Playstation 2.

Interestingly enough, in the second arcade version of Mario Kart, there's also a Tamagotchi, Mametchi, who you can play as.

You thought I was kidding, didn't you?

So, that's where Mario's gotten around.

Since this was a little short, I'm going to mention something about the Super Smash Bros game I discovered whilst researching this.

Pacman's up taunt is known as Namco Roulette, and it summons one of quite a few characters including at least one character from Dragon Buster, Taiko no Tatsujin, Bosconian, Galaga, Galaxian, The Tower of Druaga, Rally-X, Baraduke, Dig Dug, Sky Kid, Gaplus, Xevious, Libble Rabble, King & Balloon, Valkyrie no Denesetsu and Metro-Cross.

So that's 16 games included in just a single taunt, in a game that in its first installment had 12 characters total. Nowadays, a mere taunt has more characters than an entire game used to have.

That's just... wow.

Crossover Quest: Part One: Smash Bros has All the Franchises

Sorry that this is a day late. I would give an excuse, but frankly, I simply forgot. So to make it up for you (and since I ran out of ideas for theories), I'm going to start something new called Crossover Quest.

The basic idea is that if two franchises have a character in the same game, movie or book, they subsequently have at least one universe that contains both games. So we're going to see how crazy the connections can get.

First: a few rules:

1. It must be a character. Costumes can be remade, as can pictures and buildings. Characters are more likely to be the same person.
2. Yes, crossover games count. You may disagree with this, since that's their point, but I like them. Deal with it.
3. There is no rule three.
4. Profit?
5. Any media counts, except fanart and fanfiction, since that would make it too easy (seriously everything is connected in fanfiction).
6. There might be more rules as I think of them.
7. Franchises will be considered based on if they treat themselves as the same. Pixar and Disney are going to be separate since they treat every movie as an independent one, whilst the Marios will be put together, since they're crossed over often enough it's not worth putting Donkey Kong and the others as their own games.

Some characters (especially Mario) may be featured a lot. Some less so. Either way, it's going to be a fun ride!

So, let's start with the adorable fighting game that might not be a fighting game Smash Bros!

Over the 4 games, there have been characters from a tonne of franchises. Whilst some have multiple characters, we'll just name the most notable (or one I see first) from each franchise to count the entire franchise (sorry Meta Knight).

• Mario (...Mario. Yeah, that was obvious.)
• Link (Legend of Zelda)
• Bayonetta (...Baynonetta)
• Captain Falcon (F-Zero)
• Pikachu (Pokemon)
• Cloud (Final Fantasy)
• Corrin (Fire Emblem)
• Duck Hunt (... You've probably guessed)
• Fox (Star Fox. Congratulations Nintendo, you're really creative.)
• Nana and Popo (Ice Climbers)
• Kirby (Yeah...)
• Little Mac (Punch-Out!)
• Lucas (EarthBound)
• Mega Man (Do you really need me to tell you?)
• Mr Game and Watch (...)
• Olimar (Pikmin)
• Pacman (Was there a rule at the start of videogames that you had to name your game after the main character?)
• Pit (Kid Icarus - His name isn't Icarus!)
• R.O.B. (Wouldn't actually be a character if it wasn't for this game! Was literally made so that stores would sell NES', because he's the toy that loves you and isn't going to steal your soul.)
• Ryu (Street Fighter)
• Samus (Metroid)
• Sonic (Okay, I get it, you were trying to copy Mario. You didn't have to copy their lazy naming scheme as well!)
• Snake (Metal Gear)
• Villager (Animal Crossing, and your nightmares)
• Wii Fit Trainer (Wii Fit. I bet you played that once and then forgot about it)
• Miis (Those games you played when you got the wii and promptly forgot about)

So, wow. We've got 26 franchises within one game. Yay! Just some oddities:

The Miis. They're not going to count for anything but their own games, since they're meant to be representations of yourself rather than actual characters.

Pikachu and Pokemon. This will be the games only, not the anime or any mangas, simply due to how different they are. You could argue that Pokemon Yellow puts the anime and games in the same universe, but due to some (major) differences, I'm going to say they're separate.

R.O.B. He's mainly included just out of completion, but we'll say that Stack Up and Gyromite have been included in the universe because of this, simply because, well, you're not really going to get them anywhere else.

Next time on Crossover Quest: Mario really gets around!

How Long Would the Choosing Ceremony Take? - Divergent

Allegiant is being released next week in the UK, so in honour of the thinking girl's Twilight, that's broken the mold of every teen series since Harry Potter by not stretching its final book out into two movies, lets just see how long it would take each year for the Choosing Ceremony.

So, what is the Choosing Ceremony? Basically each 16 year old takes it in turns to walk up, cut their hand and let the blood drip into one of the five bowls on a table. I guess no-one's afraid of blood in this universe.

Honestly, I'd just prefer the sorting hat. This just seems needlessly
insane. I mean, I like the series and all, but still, needless stage fright.

In the books, it's said to take all day, because it's morning when they arrive and the sun is setting when they leave. Could this be possible?

Well, first you'd have to consider how long it'd take for one person to do it. In the movie, they never show how long it takes to get down the steps (because unless they have some mystical teleportation skill never shown, they can't go from near the middle to right at the front in the space of time of one meaningful glance), so lets assume it takes about 40 seconds, considering that some are sitting at the top, which would take longer, and some would spend the time having surprised looks like they haven't had a bunch of people before them do the exact same thing (Tris...).

After that is the actual sorting. This is actually shown in full, by multiple people in the movie. This takes a very short amount of time, about 12-15 seconds depending on hesitation, then about eight seconds of walking off and the stuff being replaced before the next is called.

So, all in all, each person takes about a minute to choose their faction.

The only faction which its shown the number of initiates is Dauntless, which has 34 (33 plus the one who immediately becomes factionless because he doesn't jump). If we assume every faction has equal numbers (despite the fact that means you advertise either having fun and excitement or spending your life studying to teenagers and expect them to equally choose), that means you have 170 people to go through every year (which raises questions about how they survive with a population that has only enough people to fill one year of a small high school born each year). There's also basically a minute of pure talking by the leaders, which is oddly short considering they're meant to be leaders (seriously, look at any ceremony. They will have ages of speaking by random officials, or at least it'll feel like it).

So that's just 171 minutes, or nearly 3 hours. If anything, the amount of time it's taken is far overestimated. Huh, I thought it'd be the opposite way around.

That's still 3 hours of watching people drip their blood into bowls. I'd bring a book. It's about to get very boring after the 20th.

Why Are Mario and Luigi the Only Guys to Save Peach?

So, Mario games are slightly popular, aren't they? And they've all got a pretty similar plot. The plumbers (/tennis players/worst doctor ever/star football players/ party organizers/ morally questionable zoo owner/ Mario has far too much time on his hands, and is never actually doing what his actual job is) are hanging out with the princess, and then she gets kidnapped. Instead of the castle guard sorting it out (which... seemingly doesn't exist? Seriously, you'd think after getting kidnapped... ten times? Peach, it's like you want to get kidnapped.)

And you can hardly say you're defenseless. You
fight pretty well in Galaxy 2 and your own DS
games. Heck, you can fly! And you have superpowers!

Peach's security issues aside, why is it that when she inevitably gets kidnapped, it's the role of some plumbers to go save her?

Because they're the only ones who can. They're the heroes Mushroom Kingdom deserves, not the ones they need.

It'sa me! Batmario!

The main groups that live in the Mushroom Kingdom, and aren't on Bowser's side are Toads/Toadettes and Yoshis.

There is no way that the Toads could save Princess Peach (yes I know, they did in Galaxy 2, I still don't know why), because, simply put, they'd be instantly stopped. In the first game, Bowser has something that's not really explained that can turn any Toad into a square made of bricks (that's an... oddly specific power, I must admit). With those sorts of odds, they probably wouldn't have volunteers lining up to go save the princess. And if there are people who could do it without a near certain chance of doom, why not use them?

That leaves Yoshis (Yoshies? Yoshii?). But they only really started to exist in Super Mario Bros, by which time the brothers had gotten pretty settled in their part time job of princess saving. So it could be that they didn't actually live in the Mushroom Kingdom until after the events of that game, where they would realise that the mild protection that comes from being in a kingdom with Mario and Luigi is worth leaving their own society.

So, Mario and Luigi are basically the last bastion of defense for the Mushroom Kingdom and most of the (somewhat) good aligned world?

Oh gosh, imagine if Bowser attacked the Mushroom Kingdom whilst Mario was busy being wrongly accused in Isle Delfino. Good job guys, you threatened the safety of a kingdom and all of the Toads because you couldn't be bothered to notice that the guy that arrived literally that day probably didn't commit the crimes that had happened earlier. It's not like he could time travel or anything...

Okay, I guess he can.