Fawful for Mario Kart 8!

Over the years, Nintendo has released many different types of games featuring Mario. Most games have introduced new, memorable characters, especially the RPGs. Mario RPGs have had more new characters in every installment (except Paper Mario: Sticker Star, unfortunately) than other Mario games. But said characters never get to compete along with Mario and friends in other games such as Mario Kart.

The only characters they pick for these games are from the main series or other spinoffs, like the obscure character Honey Queen who is seen ONCE in both of the games she is in. Most RPG characters, despite gaining large fanbases, never appear after their debut game. Fawful is the exception. He appeared in three of the four games in his series, had major character development, and became an instant fan-favorite sensation to millions of gamers. But it seems Nintendo has killed him off for good now, due to his death scene at the end of his latest appearance.

Now let's look at what has been going on in recent Mario Kart installments. Newcomers in the last two installments have included multiple recolors, including Baby Daisy, Dry Bowser, Funky Kong, and Metal Mario. Dry Bowser and Funky Kong weren't so bad, but Baby Daisy needed to get a Yoshi's Island debut before she got stuck in a Kart game. Metal Mario is just Mario, only shiny and with a distorted voice. Then there's utterly random characters with not many fans such as Honey Queen.

Where is the RPG representative so many fans have been waiting for? Nintendo seems to only favor the games where Mario has detailed blue eyes.