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[kicker]

Originally this was just a poll for us to guess at, then we decided to try to actually categorize and count them, that's why the initial replies are a little odd

Almost every single genre I can think of has a star wars game, mario is the only other ip that has that much breadth, but I think the apprehension nintendo has with spreading their ip out has limited the number of genres. Not that it's a bad thing
Which do you think has more genres in its collection?

So far:
1. Megaman - 21~
2. Star Wars - 20
3. Mario - 19
4. Sonic - 17~
5. Pac-Man - 16~
Again, ~ means there are some games we aren't sure perfectly fit the genre

With only games that 100% fit their genres:
1. Star Wars - 20
2. Mario - 19
3. Megaman - 17
4. Sonic - 15
5. Pac-Man - 13​

EDIT 1: I decided to table and sort the ones I could find. Feel free to suggest corrections
Rules:
- Only videogames (digital games)
- Genres are defined according to official wikis and our collective agreement (think each game in that genre would fall under the same game awards or wiki entry category)
- Only official games from the ip. No crossovers or guest features.
- If you want to suggest a videogame for a particular genre, you ahould try to provide a link to it

Spoiler: Further edits

EDIT 2: removed VR since some posters argued it isn't distinct enough to be its own genre, and a lot of the VR games are just modified forms of the other genres. what do you think?

EDIT 3: added a table for miscellaneous genres that don't fall under the regular ones since there are so many of these games

EDIT 4: re-added VR to miscellaneous genres because it's been argued there are enough games with an experience completely unique to VR to make them as much of a genre as lightgun, rail shooter or arcade games. So if we're adding those, why not VR (also the wiki entries for the games have to state VR for them to count)

EDIT 5: Added Adventure and Art Tool to miscellaneous genres

EDIT 6: Asked for a title change and added Sonic and Pac-Man columns since some posters are convinced one of sonic, pac-man or megaman is the actual most diverse ip in gaming

EDIT 7: Added a red asterisk next to games that we aren't entirely sure fit the criteria

EDIT 8: Added Mega Man games

EDIT9: Added Mega Man games, Added Shmup genre under miscellaneous

EDIT9: Added more Pacman, Megaman games thanks to Draxon Gamer specifically. Removed Lego Star Wars from Star Wars 3d Platformer since it is categorized as an action adventure and only has a few levels with some platforming.

~ means iffy, or we aren't sure if the game perfectly fits the genre
�

Genre	Star Wars	Mario	Sonic	Pac-Man	Megaman
Dance/Rhythm	Kinect Star Wars	Mario Undokai	-	-	Sound Rangers: Rhythm and Battle~
Racing	Star Wars Racer series	Mario Kart series	Team Sonic Racing	Pac-Man World Rally	Mega Man: Battle & Chase
Sports	-	Mario Sports, Tennis, Golf, etc	Sonic Golf, Tennis, Billiards, etc	-	Mega Man Soccer, etc
Action (specifically First-Person Shooters)	Battlefront, Republic Commando, etc	-	-	-	-
Action-Adventure (Third Person Action-Adventure, etc)	Jedi Fallen Order, Force Unleashed, etc	-	-	-	Mega Man Legends 2~
3D Platformer	-	Super Mario Odyssey, 64, etc	Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Adventures, etc	Pac-Man World	Mega Man X7
2D Platformer	Super Star Wars, Star Wars 1991, etc	Super Mario Bros. series, etc	Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Rush, etc	Pac-Man 256	Mega Man 1,2,3,4,5, etc
Strategy (rts, turn-based tactics, etc)	Star Wars Empire at War, etc	Mario + Rabbids	-	-	Rockman Strategy
Simulation (truck sim, construction sim, pet sim, farming sim, aerial combat/flight sim, etc)	X-Wing series	-	Good Friend Chao	Pac-Man Reborn	-
RPG	KOTOR, etc	Super Mario RPG?	Sonic Chronicles	Pacman Monsters~	Mega Man X: Command Mission
Party	-	Mario Party series, Warioware, etc	Sonic Shuffle	Pac-Man Party	Intuition! Rockman~
Puzzle	Star Wars Puzzle Droids, etc	Mario vs Donkey Kong series, etc	Sonic Eraser	Pac-Attack	Rockman: The Puzzle Battle, Panic Fire, etc
Fighting	Masters of Teras Kasi	nil*	Sonic Battle, etc	-	Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
Arcade	Star Wars Battlepod, etc	Luigi's Mansion Arcade, etc	Sonic the FIghters, Sonic Battle	Pac-Man, etc	Mega Man: The power battle
MMO	Star Wars The Old Republic	-	-	-	-
Total main genres	12	10	10	8~	12~

Miscellaneous Genres	Star Wars	Mario	Sonic	Pac-Man	Megaman
Level Maker/Editor(what's the genre even called?)	-	Mario Maker	Sonic Level Creator	Pac-Man Maker	Megaman Powered-up
Digital Table/Board Game	Star Wars Chess, Monopoly Star wars	Mario's Game Gallery	-	-	Rockboard
Digital Sewing	-	Mario Family 2001	-	-	-
Edutainment	Star Wars Jedi Math, etc	Mario Teaches typing, etc	Sonic Blast Ball	Pac-Man Plus	Mega Man X: Math Tornado
Point-and-click Adventure/Visual Novels	Yoda Stories	-	The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog	Pac Man 2	-
FMV/Railshooter/Lightgun	Star Wars Rebel Assault II- The Hidden Empire	Yoshi's Safari	Sonic Ghost Shooting~	-	Super Adventure Rockman
Shmups (dodonpachi, gradius, etc)	-	-	-	-	Megaman Rush Marine
Pinball	Star Wars Pinball	Mario Pinball Land	Sonic Spinball	Mr and Mrs Pac-Man	Mega Man Pinball
Virtual Reality	Trials on tattooine, Vader Immortal, etc	Mario Kart Arcade GP VR	-	Pacman VR	Megaman VR: Targeted Virtual
Augmented Reality	Star Wars Jedi Challenges	Photos With Mario, Home Circuit	Sonic Ring Hunt~	Pizzahut Pac-Man~	-
Casino/Gambling	-	-	Sonic's Casino Poker	Pac-Man Wild edition~	Rockman Poker
Trading Card Game	Star Wars Card Trader	-	-	-	-
Art Game	-	Mario Paint	-	Pac-Pix	Rockman Sprite Logic
Total Miscellaneous	8	9	7~	8~	9

I figured there would be more, but If you think about it, all these franchises have a large amount of games in a few particular genres.
If we compared by sheer quantity regardless of genre, it would probably be Star Wars on top
If we compared by quality, it would probably be Mario on top

Feel free to suggest games for any missing genre

Spoiler: Main Sources for the games listed above

Sources:
Star Wars - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_video_games
Mario - https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games_by_genre#
Sonic - https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Categories:Games_by_genre (Parse *very* carefully, their genre listings are dubious. Try to check youtube, wikipedia or some other source to verify), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog_video_games
Pac-Man - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pac-Man_video_games
Mega Man - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mega_Man_video_games, https://megaman.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Man_(franchise)

Super Smash Bros. is not a part of the Mario franchise, Super Smash Bros. is a crossover fighting game series published by Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, an independent affiliate company, during 1998. It began as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time, Dragon King: The Fighting Game, and featured no Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises

Although Super Smash Bros. is not a part of the Mario franchise, the game is heavily influenced by said franchise, more so than any other Nintendo franchise.

The above text is from the Super Mario Wiki and is available under a Creative Commons license. Attribution must be provided through a list of authors or a link back to the original article. Source: https://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros.​

 

[Mozzarella]

Mario, it has racing, platforming 2d and 3d, rpg, puzzle, fighting, strategy and probably even more.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Super Mario All-day

 

[kicker]

Mario, it has racing, platforming 2d and 3d, rpg, puzzle, fighting, strategy and probably even more.

Thing is, there are star wars games in all of those, on top of genres that mario doesn't cover like shooters, flight sims, souls-like action adventure, etc.

Only genres I can think of that mario has and star wars doesn't cover are turn based tactics with mario+rabbids, and platform fighter with smash, but even then I'm sure that there's a star wars tactics game out there I just haven't heard about

 

[RayBoy]

Of star wars games there is everything

 

[Mozzarella]

Thing is, there are star wars games in all of those, on top of genres that mario doesn't cover like shooters, flight sims, souls-like action adventure, etc.

Only genres I can think of that mario has and star wars doesn't cover are turn based tactics with mario+rabbids, and platform fighter with smash, but even then I'm sure that there's a star wars tactics game out there I just haven't heard about

Yeah it could be Star Wars too, i didnt actually count them, i just merely guessed based on what games i know and it seems i know plenty of Mario games lol.

 

[hemo memo]

Mario, it has racing, platforming 2d and 3d, rpg, puzzle, fighting, strategy and probably even more.

Sport

 

[kicker]

Yeah it could be Star Wars too, i didnt actually count them, i just merely guessed based on what games i know and it seems i know plenty of Mario games lol.

Yeah, we're all just guessing here. There are too many games in both these franchises for us to have played them all

 

[T4keD0wN]

Mario has surprisingly a lot, but when it comes to quantity its Star Wars and its not even close

CRPG, MMO, TD, Souls-likes, RPG, Puzzle, Life-sim (Sims4), Platformers, Monopoly Hack and slash, Racing, Angry Birds?, Flight sim, Dice, Card, Gacha, Tactics, RTS, Pinball, TPS, FPS, Chess
+tons of mobile games which i couldnt even classify and whatever those Vader immortal and Tales from the Galaxy's Edge VR games count as

 

[Pelao]

Any example I can think of from Mario, I can think of one from Star Wars, but there are some Star Wars examples for which I can't think of any from Mario, such as first-person shooters and flight simulators.

 

[phil_t98]

Mario, it has racing, platforming 2d and 3d, rpg, puzzle, fighting, strategy and probably even more.

Star Wars had had racing 2d and 3d plus flight games RPG’s and even a dancing game. There was a Star Wars fighting game to

 

[AJUMP23]

Mario.

 

[RAIDEN1]

One genre that Star Wars missed the boat on (and to this day remains a mystery) is not having a point and click adventure for it, similar to Fate of Atlantis....if Indy could get it, then why not Star Wars? & I very much doubt we'll ever get one for that genre unless someone from the indie scene did it before it would then get subsequently taken down..it could have been like Full Throttle meets The Dig but without the obscure/tough puzzles

 

[Billy Awesomo]

Mario also has taught typing as well, and played go fish. Imma going with Mario on this one.

 

[ANDS]

Star Wars. Without question. Like, it isn't even close.

. . .one reason that it is unquestionably SW is that LUCAS INC. wasn't (and still isn't) afraid to license the everloving shit out of their IP. Nintendo is far too protective of Mario to do so.

 

[DelireMan7]

I am waiting for Star Wars tennis and soccer game.

 

[kicker]

I feel like this just turned into 'which franchise are you more familiar with'

I am waiting for Star Wars tennis and soccer game.

Good point, star wars does lack sports games, but I'd still give it the edge

 

[dezzy8]

Star Wars has MMOs, FPS, TPS, Fighters, Racers, traditional RPGs, souls like rpgs, space sims, rts. I’m surprised there wasn’t a Star Wars MOBA in development when everyone was trying to cash in on that wave.

 

[funkygunther]

I think this can benefit from a bit more of an objective analysis. Gut feel I say Star Wars, even counting Mario's different sports.

 

[Drizzlehell]

List of Star Wars video games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Star Wars has covered such an insanely wide range of genres, formats, and platforms that Mario doesn't even come close. The voting here is vastly misinformed.

 

[Robb]

My spontaneous answer is Mario, but that’s probably because I don’t know about most Star Wars games out there.

 

[kicker]

List of Star Wars video games - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Star Wars has covered such an insanely wide range of genres, formats, and platforms that Nintendo doesn't even come close. The voting here is vastly misinformed.

I guess episode 3 released just before the period publishers stopped making tie-in games for feature films.

Now that I think about it, there really was a whole decade between the sequel and the prequel trilogies

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Overall it isn't even close in favor of Star Wars, but they both have specific niches that the other does not.

One genre that Star Wars missed the boat on (and to this day remains a mystery) is not having a point and click adventure for it, similar to Fate of Atlantis....if Indy could get it, then why not Star Wars? & I very much doubt we'll ever get one for that genre unless someone from the indie scene did it before it would then get subsequently taken down..it could have been like Full Throttle meets The Dig but without the obscure/tough puzzles

You know that is a good point, Star Wars would have definitely been a great fit for that.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Instant thought: Mario

After thinking about it: Shit, Star Wars really did appear in a lot of genres.

Tie? Star Wars?

 

[Drizzlehell]

I guess episode 3 released just before the period publishers stopped making tie-in games for feature films.

Now that I think about it, there really was a whole decade between the sequel and the prequel trilogies

God damn, this really makes you feel old...

 

[Hitchyhero]

Based on the ones I know I said mario bit looking at this thread there seems to be a ton of star wars games I didn't know about.

 

[justiceiro]

Still waiting for that Mario adventure game.

 

[Deerock71]

I'm guessing Star Wars, but it's only a guess.

 

[RAIDEN1]

God damn, this really makes you feel old...

Metal Gear 4, the last great Metal Gear game...

 

[Sleepwalker]

Star Wars had had racing 2d and 3d plus flight games RPG’s and even a dancing game. There was a Star Wars fighting game to

Its definitely star wars, with the caveat that most games fucking suck lol

 

[diffusionx]

Mario:
2D platformer
3D platformer
sport (tennis/golf/baseball/soccer/olympics)
racing
puzzle (single-screen/stuff falling)
RPG
fighting
crappy edutainment
paint/art
party/board game
dancing game (DDR Mario)
strategy (Mario vs. Rabbids)
light gun
pinball


Star Wars:
board game (chess)
space shooter (arcade/sim/FMV style)
racing
2D platformer
3D action/adventure (TFU/JFO/etc)
RPG
fighting
MMO
FPS
crappy edutainment
strategy
puzzle (angry birds)
dancing? (Star Wars Kinect)
pinball

I would say Star Wars but it kind of depends on how you would split up genres

 

[Lasha]

Do star wars equivalents of Mario teaches typing, Mario paint, and Mario is missing exist?

 

[Ulysses 31]

Do star wars equivalents of Mario teaches typing, Mario paint, and Mario is missing exist?

Is there a Star Wars Mario Party?

 

[phil_t98]

Add Mario paint to the mix to

 

[kicker]

Y'know what I'm just going to make a table and add games as we go along

Super Mario All-day

Of star wars games there is everything

Do star wars equivalents of Mario teaches typing, Mario paint, and Mario is missing exist?

I'm guessing Star Wars, but it's only a guess.

Based on the ones I know I said mario bit looking at this thread there seems to be a ton of star wars games I didn't know about.

Instant thought: Mario

After thinking about it: Shit, Star Wars really did appear in a lot of genres.

Tie? Star Wars?

Overall it isn't even close in favor of Star Wars, but they both have specific niches that the other does not.

My spontaneous answer is Mario, but that’s probably because I don’t know about most Star Wars games out there.

Mario.

Any example I can think of from Mario, I can think of one from Star Wars, but there are some Star Wars examples for which I can't think of any from Mario, such as first-person shooters and flight simulators.

Mario also has taught typing as well, and played go fish. Imma going with Mario on this one.

Star Wars. Without question. Like, it isn't even close.

So I made a table in the op based on the digital games I could find, and it seems like star wars edges mario out.

I would say Star Wars but it kind of depends on how you would split up genres

Yeah, this is the main issue

Really though, Star wars has a *lot* more games in terms of quantity, but they're mostly around similar genres. Star wars has more action games, Mario has more sports games, etc, and they both have a weird amount of impossible to categorize games too.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Y'know what I'm just going to make a table and add games as we go along













So I made a table in the op based on the digital games I could find, and it seems like star wars edges mario out.


Yeah, this is the main issue

Really though, Star wars has a *lot* more games in terms of quantity, but they're mostly around similar genres. Star wars has more action games, Mario has more sports games, etc, and they both have a weird amount of impossible to categorize games too.

Do the NES/SNES Star Wars games not count as 2D Platformers? And I think you could maybe consider the Star Wars Minecraft and Roblox stuff to be Level Maker?

This also made me realize that there aren't really any "sports" in Star Wars, are there? Pod Racing I guess, and that holo-chess thing, but there isn't like a Quidditch type thing that could translate into its whole own game.

 

[diffusionx]

Do the NES/SNES Star Wars games not count as 2D Platformers? And I think you could maybe consider the Star Wars Minecraft and Roblox stuff to be Level Maker?

This also made me realize that there aren't really any "sports" in Star Wars, are there? Pod Racing I guess, and that holo-chess thing, but there isn't like a Quidditch type thing that could translate into its whole own game.

yea, there are tons of Star Wars 2D platformers. if vehicular combat is a sport, then Star Wars has a game, although that's not too different from battle mode in Mario Kart...

 

[kicker]

Do the NES/SNES Star Wars games not count as 2D Platformers? And I think you could maybe consider the Star Wars Minecraft and Roblox stuff to be Level Maker?

Yeah, that counts. Must have missed it

 

[cireza]

So I made a table in the op based on the digital games I could find, and it seems like star wars edges mario out.

All sports games are the same thing for you ? You are including maybe ten different Mario games in a single line doing this.

There are Star Wars 2D platformers by the way. Master System, SNES, Game Gear come to mind.

 

[phil_t98]

Does super smash bro class as a Mario game? It’s a Nintendo fighting game not just Mario characters?

 

[Azelover]

It's almost beyond believing that Star Wars is actually older than Mario. At first consideration I thought it was the opposite. But Mario still wins I think..

 

[kicker]

All sports games are the same thing for you ? You are including maybe ten different Mario games in a single line doing this.

Yeah, Initially sports was separated into tennis, golf, basketball, and so on.

Issue is, if I expanded sports like that then I would also have to expand strategy, vr, education and simulation since there are subcategories. It would get kinda crazy then.

In the end, If you go to Mario golf's wikipedia page and Mario tennis', they're under the same genre (sport), and both sources I used compiled sports games under one genre

 

[kicker]

Does super smash bro class as a Mario game? It’s a Nintendo fighting game not just Mario characters?

You're kinda right, but then it kinda is? I don't know.

If I don't use smash then mario doesn't have a fighting game in its franchise

edit: yeah, smash isn't a mario game

Although Super Smash Bros. is not a part of the Mario franchise, the game is heavily influenced by said franchise, more so than any other Nintendo franchise.

The above text is from the Super Mario Wiki and is available under a Creative Commons license. Attribution must be provided through a list of authors or a link back to the original article. Source: https://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros.

 

[Chastten]

Considering half of all of Mario's games are sports games and they are all the same genre according to the table above, Star Wars wins by default.

Also, not counting Smash Bros. as a Mario game (a single character) while counting any game set in the Star Wars universe (a literal universe) is kinda... cheating. I mean, obviously Star Wars will win when you set the rules in their favor.

 

[kicker]

Considering half of all of Mario's games are sports games and they are all the same genre according to the table above, Star Wars wins by default.

I don't know, based on the table we can see that mario still has a crazy amount of games that aren't based on sports.
Initially sports was separated into tennis, golf, basketball, biking, snowboarding, and so on.
Issue is, if I expanded sports like that then I would also have to expand strategy, vr, education and simulation since there are also distinct subcategories there. It would get kinda crazy then.

Also, not counting Smash Bros. as a Mario game (a single character) while counting any game set in the Star Wars universe (a literal universe) is kinda... cheating.

The thread is about the star wars ip against the mario ip because there is no other ip as widespread as these two. Do you think it would be more fair to compare nintendo games vs Star wars games? Yes, it's a literal universe, which makes it all the more impressive that mario even comes close to comparing.

I mean, obviously Star Wars will win when you set the rules in their favor.

eh, I think the rules are fair enough. I'm not counting any game that happens to have star wars characters, only games that are explicitly developed as star wars games, otherwise there would be no comparison. There are several sports games with star wars characters featuring.
Also, on the Mario wiki site itself, 'Racing' is listed under sports. I separated racing because everyone considers it a separate genre

 

[Futaleufu]

Also, not counting Smash Bros. as a Mario game (a single character) while counting any game set in the Star Wars universe (a literal universe) is kinda... cheating. I mean, obviously Star Wars will win when you set the rules in their favor.

The table above puts chess and RTS in the same category. Level maker is not a genre in itself.

 

[BlackTron]

In black and white number count, the answer is Star Wars. Mario is still by far the IP with the best number of genres/quality average ratio. Probably by a long shot.

 

[The Stig]

i would say that

RTS and turn based strategy should be counted separately. and star wars has done both. should add another

 

[kicker]

In black and white number count, the answer is Star Wars. Mario is still by far the IP with the best number of genres/quality average ratio. Probably by a long shot.

Oh yeah, definitely. In fact, I'm sure the reason people don't remember a lot of these star wars games is that most were shite

 

[Robb]

So I made a table in the op based on the digital games I could find, and it seems like star wars edges mario out.

I’ll throw these in to the mix out of curiosity;

Mario Family, shirt patterns design-type game - if that’s a genre?

Super Mario Bros. 35, battle-royale - or does it fall under 2D platformer?

Super Mario Run, endless runner/auto-runner - if that’s a genre? Or maybe it’s just a sub genre to something else?

And if VR counts I guess Mario Kart Arcade GP VR should be included.