How Nintendo Revitalized Pauline in Mario Games | From Obscurity To a Super Star

[@fishnewt1331]

Peach: “Oh, you want to be a part of the cast once again? You will have to go through with being a damsel in distress.” Pauline: “I literally joined before you.”

[@INFERNO95]

The first lady of nintendo is finally getting the respect she earn.

[@_frankiefreak_]

I remember seeing her for the first time on a Mario vs DK DS box cover in stores & then tried to find out who she is on my dad’s computer. I remember telling everyone in elementary school that there’s more Mario ‘women’ than just Peach, Daisy & Rosalina & everyone was so surprised when I brought drawings and prints of her to school. As someone who admired the character out of love for the Mario girls specifically years before Odyssey - I can’t express how surreal it feels for me to continually see her become playable in Mario games, it literally always makes me speechless because she used to be one of the most niche & obscure characters in the entire Mario Franchise literally only pre 2017, which is WILD to think about. A lot of Mario Spin off games need 4 players in a room/lobby, so I think it’s just incredible that you can have that with all the Mario Ladies now. Amazing video & I truly hope more people recognize the incredible history of this Mario once forgotten character! ❤

[@StevenJones851]

That's cool to know

[@obeth74]

Omg you read my mind! I felt the same! I always found her so interesting and pretty design wise. I would got excited when there was a trophy of her in Smash Wii U. I used to make nintendo art of the Mario models and I would use that wiiu one cause it was the only one out there and now there are so many!

[@SorceressRose]

Pauline really deserves all the love and I’m glad she got the spotlight she deserves. Honestly, we need a spin off game where Pauline, Mario, Donkey Kong and Cranky Kong are in it. Cranky Kong being the first DK from the arcade game, it’s funny how DK just ended up following in Cranky’s footsteps in the Mini spin offs.

[@yellowgamers5996]

im glad to see Nintendo bringing back the most forgotten character Pauline back to the spotlight after Her long absence

[@brianjude6789]

@@yellowgamers5996WHERE IS DONKEY KONG JUNIOR?!?!?!?!

[@SorceressRose]

@@brianjude6789 Considering DK Jr. is basically the current Donkey Kong's dad, it's weird they haven't reintroduced him, like they did Tiny Kong and stuff. Also the movie retconned DK Jr. as well.

[@StevenJones851]

I'm glad she's getting more love and I'd love this video game idea

[@josearielortiz2055]

Can you imagine Pauline being in a Donkey Kong Country game, where DK, Diddy and the DK Crew rescue her from King K Rool?

[@heidifedor]

Pauline was a regular character in the Donkey Kong segments of Saturday Morning Supercade which ran on CBS from 1983-1985. She sported a similar red dress, but was a blond as that was how she was portrayed on the video game cabinet.

[@OrangeToadGamer]

I love the butterfly effect that Mario Odyssey has done for Pauline, from being stuck in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series to being a mainstay in the spinoff games, truly amazing!

[@clarenceandgennymcneil251]

I LOVE it when companies dig up old obscure characters and give them new life.❤

[@hummus_exual]

I’ve always been a massive Pauline fan ever since I played the Minimario DS games as a child. I’m not up to date with the newest Mario games releases, but I’m happy she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves, as well as making a cameo in the movie.

[@mubzytv]

I’m glad Pauline is getting the love she deserves. Although I never played any Donkey Kong game, she was great in Mario Odyssey and that game solidified her to become a mainstay character for spinoffs. When people predicted which characters will appear in Mario Kart 8 booster dlc, Pauline was one of the popular choices by fans

[@tylerhughes9090]

I think it won’t be stretch that Pauline with be a playable character or a trophy assistant in the next Super Smash Brothers game !

[@paullangland6877]

I have an educated guess to why Pauline became relevant again in the Mario franchise. So we have Mario and Luigi obviously as the 2 main characters. Then we have Wario and Waluigi has kind of like Bizzarro versions on them. Well either way we have 4 human male characters. On the opposite side we had Princess Peach for the longest time until Daisy became a mainstay by the end of the N64 era and into the GameCube. That's 2 female human characters. Then we got in the Wii era, Rosalina, who was designs in a way to be a 3rd human female character. Now the ratio of male to female human characters is 4:3. I believe the revival of Pauline was there to help balance the Male and Female ratio of human characters. Supposedly Nintendo did consider a Wario like version of Peach and Daisy but ultimate scrapped the idea for whatever reason. Since the introduction of Rosalina and the revival of Pauline, I think helped add more balance to the choice of characters that we can play as in the Mario franchise. Just my thoughts.

[@armorbearer9702]

I see. Nintendo first reintroduced her with a new design. Next, they worked on a new backstory for her. Now, everybody loves her.

[@SegaMario]

I'm so glad she's getting the love she deseves after 36 years of obscurity. Bringing her into Odyssey was a genius move and the relevance boost she needed to finally join the roster of recurring spinoff characters. She's pretty much the fourth princess now, or technically the first since she came before Peach.

[@NMW567]

honestly she just highlights how hard nintendo ignores its secondary characters. Why tf do we get random ass generic enemies as playable characters when we could get e.gadd, dixie, captain syrup, tatanga, or literally anyone from mario & luigi.

[@midnightcoffee6463]

Seriously! Even Lubba from SMG2, or even Wart from SMB2, or Paper Mario characters would be cool too

[@volvoman5262]

Regular Goomba and Koopa are nown by public and are great for marketing, those one time rpg characters don't

[@NMW567]

@@volvoman5262 Pauline was only in donkey kong for years, your comment only supports what I said. None of the characters I actually mentioned by name are one time rpg characters either, and a character doesn't need to be playable to be used in marketing.

[@volvoman5262]

@@NMW567 Pauline got a full on re-intudoction in Mario oddysey. Before all of the spin offs, Unlike what your saying

[@NMW567]

@@volvoman5262 "re-introduction" what does that even mean? Any major appearance would serve as a reintroduction, and the very idea that they would need to be reintroduced is because they don't use them often in the first place. Not to mention E.gadd, DKC and warioware characters wouldn't even need to be reintroduced, it hasn't been that long since they've appeared in a game. They didn't make a big show of putting funky in mario kart or k.rool in sluggers, they just did it. The idea that they need a big return before appearing in spin-offs is not even true they just don't take advantage of their existing characters.

[@naeshaunedwards7731]

I’m so glad that Nintendo finally decided to look back at Pauline, and decided that after Odyssey that they should revive her. With Pauline being one of the original theme, it always felt like Pauline should’ve been there during games like Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 64, the sports games, the Mario and Sonic games since the beginning, but she was just done so dirty. Now that she’s in the spotlight, I hope that next she’ll be in a 2d or 3d mainline game as a playable character, or maybe even have her own game based around New Donk City with her own unique levels and enemies, and I hope she can appear in Smash someday even.

[@dereckroesch7034]

As the saying goes "Better later than never" I knew her by watching Mario Vs DK gameplays and instantly loved her design! And then in Odyssey I loved her even more! Now she's got to be in every spin-off and even mainline games. And we have to give so much credit to her new voice actress who also can sing soooo well ❤

[@franknova987]

Yeah, first time I saw her redesign was when I bought Mario vs Donkey Kong: March of the Minis, when I saw her coming back in Odyssey 's trailer, I flip in happiness

[@IanJulian02]

As a long time mario fan, I love seeing how the characters have evolved. I always adored Pauline when I was a kid playing Mario Vs Donkey Kong, and I was so shocked when I was young, and she never was in other Mario games! I can never express my excitement when I see how she’s become a mainline character now, and I hope she starts to make it into more merchandise too.

[@christopheredwards788]

Pauline deserves a lot of respect and love. Hope she'll be in the next Smash Bros game.

[@gamesandmorewithdylan]

I remember when Odyssey first came out and seeing Pauline, I had no idea who the heck she was and actually didn't like her that much because I thought she was weird.. But now I absolutely LOVE her and she's my main for every Mario Spin-off. In my opinion she easily tops Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina! And I'm so happy on how far she's came and that Nintendo is treating her as if she's part of the main cast like Mario, Luigi, Peach, ect. The only thing I want Nintendo to do now is include her in Smash since she easily has the skin alts and move set for her to be in there. Or at least PLAYABLE in a mainline Mario game.

[@zachatck64]

Honestly I think Pauline would be considered a DK rep in Smash considering her origin and connection to the Donkey Kong franchise. But either way I'm all for it!

[@gerardsantos174]

With new hope from pauline, I’m excited to see who’s the next mainstay mario cast whether from a new game or past characters.

[@alexandrocorona9283]

Imagine it’s Wapeach lol. When that concept art came out. I swear I was seeing so much fanart.

[@papermario3428]

​@@alexandrocorona9283She's been discarded 2 times, Nintendo doesn't give a damn about this character. Some speculate that this is a marketing strategy done by Nintendo themselves with the Concept Art of Wapeach, when in reality it was published by Fumihide Aoki without authorization from Nintendo.

[@Bugnacious]

I always find it fun that they felt the need to hit the *exact* beat of "Mario dives at Donkey Kong in an attempt to wrestle Pauline out of his grasp, misses, grips the hem of her dress, is left with a scrap as the ape scampers off" in every Mario Vs Donkey Kong game she appeared in so that they could lean on the torn hem look from Donkey Kong (Game Boy) As much as I do enjoy this series, they really did phone it in with the setup and ending. Yes, even before the one-frame Tipping Stars intro that couldn't even afford to do the moment I just mentioned. At least MvDK2 had pre-rendered cutscenes, and the in-engine models of Mini-Land Mayhem depend on the viewer whether it's better than the slideshow from the third game. Minis March Again has the excuse of being DSIware, at least.

[@drivforc7867]

3:38 wait... is mario grinning at DK? Like "hah, loser"

[@mathusalemreyes6261]

hope nintendo soon reveals her voice actor in mini land mayhem game cuz she really sold that role lol

[@Eucalyptus_Sage]

i remember playing and loving the ds mariovsdk games, and I always wished I could play as Pauline, since i usually play Peach and Daisy. Im so happy thats a reality now and idc what anyone says, Pauline beinga main stay is an amazing thing, after all, she deserves it after being one of the original 3 characters

[@MarioKartGamerDude]

I’m excited to see her in Mario baseball, whenever we get a new title!

[@SA-lb2xr]

I am so glad she got her spotlight in the main cast and i am always happy when she shows up 🤗🤗🤗🤩🤩🤩😍😍😎😎😎😎🩷 Rosalina and Pauline are my favorite super mario ladys 🤗🤗🤗😍😍😍🩵🩵💙💙💙♥️♥️♥️💖💖💖

[@peacockqueen]

It's a shame that there are no more Mario and Sonic games in the Olympic Games, we could have Paulin in a future installment of the saga

[@jaretco6423]

I wonder if Nintendo will ever make more forgotten Mario characters in an next mainline Mario game to become popular. Like would it be cool to see Stanley from Donkey Kong 3 or Spike from Wrecking Crew?

[@ryanjones358]

I feel like there's a good chance we could see Spike in something since they had him in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Why include such an obscure character in that film unless they had plans to do more with him in the future?

[@Lemuel928]

He’s gonna wear an edgy jacket and said yo with sunglasses?

[@papermario3428]

Stanley is very unlikely to return, he's too generic to be as popular as Pauline. Spike on the other hand is very likely to return, his design is enough to make him stand out from Wario and Waluigi. However, we must remember that Pauline was in a certain sense kept alive during the Mario vs Donkey Kong series until 2015, even if she did not appear in other Mario games, in Super Mario Odyssey she became popular thanks to the song Jump up superstar, it will take a lot of work to make Spike popular.

[@ryanjones358]

@@papermario3428 The movie is a good start.

[@Mario87456]

@@ryanjones358I would hope that if they do start using Foreman Spike more they will use his design from the movie. Although I would think they have to always call him Foreman Spike and not just Spike at least in English since there is a Mario enemy of the same name and that could get confusing if they don’t do that.

[@AdventureRuben]

Great, hopefully we’ll Dixie, Foreman Spyke (another TRUE OG), E. Gadd and Toadsworth back as main characters 😂

[@renny2049]

She's so pretty

[@NickMario1]

Nice pfp

[@VictorTAnderson]

This is a very well-put together video 👍

[@hakeemjones3001]

Soo glad she’s getting all her attention

[@fernando98322]

If you weren't there for that E3 2017 trailer, you wouldn't get it

[@hatsudopia5085]

My gf always calls her "that woman" I have no idea why.

[@MDMcNugget]

She feels threatened 😂

[@rtothec1234]

She is jelly.

[@camo658]

so dk used to be bowser and pauline used to be peach?

[@dannyawesome63]

can’t wait for her to be added into the next smash game! ☺️

[@batjope23]

They should write and compose a new song for her.

[@skycreeper0173]

Super awesome video. I really enjoyed it!

[@hakeemjones3001]

Yasssss Nintendo did a great thing bringing Pauline back the first original damsel of the game!!!!

[@lucaspalomino-fs8tz]

Dude can you imagine if nintendo somehow manage to bring back stanley the bugman? that would be insane!

[@sparkleprizm199]

She’s become my new main in all the new Mario spin offs. I love Pauline she’s so fabulous ❤

[@LeoReds]

Peach por mucho tiempo fue mi personaje favorita, pero Pauline me atrapo y ahora es mi fav, espero verla en muchos juegos y con las demás, Peach, Daisy y Rosalina 🥰

[@contrabandodeedits4413]

La vdd yo casi comparto lo mismo, mis favs son daisy y Pauline, y realmente adoro cuando nintendo la incluye en los juegos ❤❤

[@MagillanicaLouM]

Annoyed it took so long but appreciate we're here now.

[@Galaxina95]

She's my favorite Mario character❤

[@JoiningIrons3306]

Now Pauline has been appearing in every Mario game, she could get in Smash!

[@erikbihari3625]

What about her movie cameo(where her voice come from lexi bunny)? That doesn't count because spike was there?

[@Grant-dx3qt]

Now I need a Plum revival

[@mariosandoval5582]

I suggest a game with all the Nintendo Starlets together: Peach, Daisy, Pauline, Rosalina and Toadette

[@batjope23]

We're already getting them + Birdo together in Jamboree.

[@mariosandoval5582]

@@batjope23 I meant to an adventure game or a main game this one is a spin-off

[@EFGamingcube]

I feel like nintendo gonna bring wart back when the next console releases

[@obeth74]

I sense she might be a newcomer for Smash Bros

[@drivforc7867]

5:10 LMAO

[@curajacaster]

i love pauline ♥

[@Zoticachatzi]

You forgot her little crossover in the Mario movie

[@james.b.mcgill]

I've never played a single Mario Party game.

[@volvoman5262]

Than you have great chance now

[@raprips]

recommend you mp 1 through DS and the switch titles

[@BK2410]

you forgot that she was also in mario kart tour. and that's the reason she's in 8dx

[@imaniislander755]

1:23 I did not know that 😳.

[@Lemuel928]

She’s the legit bunking mayor of New Donk City,ladies and gentlemen.😎

[@rtothec1234]

Pauline was hot in Mario Odyssey.

[@Chicken-Nuggetyum]

Nintendo: We’re bringing Pauline back Me: But I want the SMRPG duo, and Mini Mario😡😫😭

[@Chicken-Nuggetyum]

Don’t get me wrong I love Pauline. I just want to see my boys in action again

[@volvoman5262]

Mallow would be amazing

[@Chicken-Nuggetyum]

It would

[@Zand0r]

I think pauline should be waluigis gf, or wario and waluigi fight over her lol

[@bilis2866]

Tennis aces slander? oof

[@Mikewee777]

Ms. Carmen SanDiego deserves more attention than the gorilla chaser.

[@mirai4738]

Meanwhile Rosalina is slowly dying

[@jaretco6423]

What do you mean?

[@mirai4738]

@@jaretco6423 she is the only girl with no original mainline presence on the switch, 3d world is a wii u port. She has not been in a mainline game for a decade now. She is barely in any merch, barely promoted and she was another Waluigi during this era, someone who exist only to be in spin-off and that's it. But it seen like no one care because she is jingling the Mario galaxy nostalgia keys. And before someone say Spark of Hope, wow a spin-off with the rabbids where she is a damsel in distress who barely does anything and you will no see her during 95% of the game, she is litteraly the Peach of the game and everyone eat that up just because it's not Peach. Again jingling keys.

[@jaretco6423]

@mirai4738 OK look. I get where your coming from and yes, Rosalina hasn't had any major roles for an while outside of 3D World & Sparks of Hope. But being another Peach clone and has no trait of her character is something I can't agree there cause she's nowhere near as bland and just acting like another Waluigi for just being there is stupid because Waluigi hasn't even debut of any mainline games & he's more of an whatever character than Rosalina has.

[@joelsytairo6338]

This video could be summed up in like one sentence.