Super Mario 007

Overview

Super Mario 007 delivers a jarring departure from the beloved Mushroom Kingdom adventures, casting Mario as a gun-toting assassin ordered by Princess Peach to eliminate Luigi. This bizarre premise sparks outrage among Mario purists while offering fleeting amusement to players seeking absurdist humor. The game blends first-person shooting with chaotic boss battles, but technical flaws, punishing difficulty, and a tone-deaf narrative overshadow its occasional moments of novelty. What emerges is a dissonant experience that alienates franchise fans and struggles to justify its existence as either a parody or a serious entry.

This game makes a mockery of the original Mario games. The thought of Mario using a gun to kill the bad guys is disgusting.
Anonymous

A Tone-Deaf Betrayal of Legacy

The core controversy lies in Super Mario 007's fundamental misunderstanding of its source material. Mario's transformation into a ruthless hitman—tasked by Peach with assassinating his own brother—strikes players as character assassination in the literal sense. The narrative framing feels less like clever subversion and more like a violation of the franchise’s lighthearted spirit. Princess Peach’s role as a bloodthirsty instigator particularly rankles fans, clashing violently with her established persona. This isn’t playful satire; it’s a jarring tonal car crash that reduces iconic characters to hollow violent archetypes. The "beheading" punishment for mission failure, mentioned by multiple reviewers, epitomizes the game’s edgy-for-edginess’-sake approach.

Longtime Mario enthusiasts express profound disappointment at seeing Luigi reduced to a target, especially given his underdog status in the main series. The game’s attempt at dark humor—like Luigi monologuing about "bullets of hate"—lands with a thud for most, feeling more like a crude YouTube parody than a cohesive vision. While a handful of players chuckle at the absurd premise, the overwhelming sentiment is that this concept disrespects Nintendo’s legacy rather than celebrating it.

Punishing Gameplay and Shallow Mechanics

Beyond narrative misfires, Super Mario 007 frustrates with uneven design and relentless difficulty spikes. The core loop alternates between straightforward shooting galleries segments and infuriating "dodge-the-boss" sequences where Luigi or other characters unleash unavoidable attacks. Players report dying within seconds during certain encounters, with checkpoints offering little relief from the trial-and-error torment. This isn’t challenging in a rewarding "Dark Souls" sense; it’s frequently cheap and poorly telegraphed, draining any potential fun from the core action.

The gunplay itself feels undercooked, lacking weighty feedback or strategic depth. Enemy AI behaves erratically, oscillating between bullet sponges and instant-kill snipers. While the inclusion of Yoshi-riding segments and coin collection nods superficially to Mario traditions, these elements feel tacked on rather than meaningfully integrated. Only the final boss battle against Luigi earns measured praise for its intensity, but even this highlight can’t compensate for the preceding hours of frustration. Co-op mode exists but inherits the same fundamental flaws, magnifying the agony rather than alleviating it.

You die too quickly, the graphics suck, and it’s impossibly hard. My advice is to avoid this game.
Anonymous

Fleeting Bright Spots in a Muddy Presentation

Amidst the criticism, a minority of players find redeeming qualities in the game’s unabashed ridiculousness. The sheer audacity of watching Mario wield assault rifles against Shy Guys or dodge Luigi’s "hate bullets" elicits guilty laughs from those with a high tolerance for irony. For these players, the game functions as a so-bad-it’s-good curio—a digital equivalent of a B-movie that’s best enjoyed with friends and lowered expectations. The post-death animations, described as darkly comedic by one reviewer, land as unintentional highlights in an otherwise grim package.

Visually, the game splits opinions. Some praise its "cool graphics," while others deride them as dated and unpolished. The truth lies somewhere in between: character models vaguely resemble their Nintendo counterparts but animate stiffly, and environments feel barren and repetitive. Performance issues compound these shortcomings, with long loading times and occasional crashes noted by multiple players. The soundtrack apes Bond-style espionage themes but clashes bizarrely with Mario-esque sound effects, creating auditory whiplash.

Verdict

Super Mario 007 commits the cardinal sin of fan games: it fundamentally misunderstands why people love the source material. Between its character-assassinating premise, unbalanced difficulty, and lack of mechanical depth, it offers little beyond morbid curiosity for completionists. While dark humor resonates with a niche audience, most players will find this experiment in franchise-blending to be a disrespectful, frustrating slog. File this one under "interesting failures"—best observed from afar, never played.