Toadette: Forgotten Fungal Friend of the Past

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Toadette was a popular Mario character created by Nintendo in 2003. Although the main purpose of her creation was to provide a partner for Toad in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (similar to how Waluigi was created for Wario to have a partner for Mario Tennis), Toadette was unique in the fact that she was one of the first spin-off characters not created by Camelot Studios that bordered between the major and minor character classifications. Many people consider Toadette to be a minor character because she never really played a large role in a major game (unless you count her appearance in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as Mario’s tutor), but others call her major because she appeared in several games following her debut. It almost felt like Nintendo was going to do something big with Toadette, seeing how she had appeared in almost every Mario game on the GameCube after Double Dash. In the GameCube era, Toadette had grown a significant fanbase and was considered to be a prominent character in the series, almost to the extent of Waluigi and Daisy’s importance. But once the Nintendo DS debuted, Toadette slowly began to disappear, only appearing as an NPC in Mario Party DS and a boss character in Yakuman DS, a Japan-only Mah-Jhongg game.

When the Wii arrived, Toadette had begun popping up again in titles such as Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party 8, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. In 2008, the sequel to Mario Superstar Baseball, Super Mario Sluggers, was released.  Super Mario Sluggers was special as this was Toadette’s last appearance in the Mario series overall. Toadette fans became concerned as the pink mushroom girl began to disappear again, being absent in spin-off titles such as the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, Mario Sports Mix, and future Mario Party and Mario Kart titles. Others complain about Nintendo’s laziness with the generic Toads playable in New Super Mario Brothers Wii and that Toad and Toadette (along with the Princesses, Wario and Waluigi) could have easily taken their spots. What was odd about Toadette’s disappearance was that after Super Mario Sluggers, Toadette was never again mentioned, not by name, not even by a cameo. It was like she died and nobody wanted to talk about it.

Today, many people hope to see Toadette reappear in new titles, but get their hopes crushed seeing Toadette left out time after time. People say Toadette will not return since she was just a character made for the GameCube era, or that she may be replaced by another female Toad character similar to how DK Jr. and Koopa Kid were replaced by Diddy Kong and Bowser Junior. Others say she still has a shot because Baby Peach and Baby Mario, who were both on the same boat as Toadette, returned as playable characters in the new Mario Tennis Open, but others disagree saying that the babies are more important and considered more major than Toadette. While Toadette’s fate of ever returning to fame in a new Mario game is uncertain, it can definitely be said that her legacy still lives on in the hearts of her fans.

August 25th will mark 4 years of Toadette’s disappearance, and 2013 will be her 10 year anniversary along with her 5th year of disappearance.

 

Thanks to Caitlyn and Sillysimeongurl for the fan art!

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