Stick with the routine. It's safer than it's predecessor and a better alternative to an all out war of genocide with modern power ups, moral, ethical, and the resulting power vacuum dilemmas notwithstanding.
In the first games, the Mushroom Kingdom was faced with an all out war against the Koopas. Young toadstools were sent to fight an old ascocarp's war as mycelium clashed with turtle shell time and time again in an almost futile effort to stave off an invading army. Then the capital was captured along with the country's ruler, a la France by Nazi Germany during WWII. Rebellious young toadstools (la Résistance) managed to shake off their koopa invaders with the help of a plumber named Mario (foreign intervention), driving them back to their own kingdom (Nazi Germany) and finally confronting and defeating their leader on his home turf.
Compared to those earlier games, Bowser's antics today seem relatively tame. So far he's just skipped the invasion and ensuing bloody war and just gone after the Princess with Mario left to save her, a foreseeably endless number of proxy battles fought between two world powers unwilling to resort to world ending means to defeat the other yet simultaneously unable to pass up an opportunity to flex their muscles in the other's face. While core gameplay mechanics remain the same, new power ups and locals are introduced in each game as technological advances spurred on by the possibility of war stack up and new foreign domains find themselves swayed by the influences of these world powers and their rapidly expanding foreign policies. It'd actually be a pretty entertaining allegory for the Cold War if it hadn't already ended (unlike the Mario franchise). I can easily envision Ronald Reagan taking the place of Mario and Mikhail Gorbachev the place of Bowser.
In the first games, the Mushroom Kingdom was faced with an all out war against the Koopas. Young toadstools were sent to fight an old ascocarp's war as mycelium clashed with turtle shell time and time again in an almost futile effort to stave off an invading army. Then the capital was captured along with the country's ruler, a la France by Nazi Germany during WWII. Rebellious young toadstools (la Résistance) managed to shake off their koopa invaders with the help of a plumber named Mario (foreign intervention), driving them back to their own kingdom (Nazi Germany) and finally confronting and defeating their leader on his home turf.
Compared to those earlier games, Bowser's antics today seem relatively tame. So far he's just skipped the invasion and ensuing bloody war and just gone after the Princess with Mario left to save her, a foreseeably endless number of proxy battles fought between two world powers unwilling to resort to world ending means to defeat the other yet simultaneously unable to pass up an opportunity to flex their muscles in the other's face. While core gameplay mechanics remain the same, new power ups and locals are introduced in each game as technological advances spurred on by the possibility of war stack up and new foreign domains find themselves swayed by the influences of these world powers and their rapidly expanding foreign policies. It'd actually be a pretty entertaining allegory for the Cold War if it hadn't already ended (unlike the Mario franchise). I can easily envision Ronald Reagan taking the place of Mario and Mikhail Gorbachev the place of Bowser.
