Mario Mandate

Afterwords – Paper Mario: Color Splash (Game Informer)
The "Mario Mandate" is a colloquial term used by fans to describe what's perceived as a Nintendo-ordered reduction of creative character designs, original characters and fictional races, and story in the Mario franchise since the 2010s.Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake's new Toad could mean an end to the controversial "Mario mandate" (GamesRadar) Some theorized mandates appear as speculation with no confirmation from Nintendo, while other restrictions have been officially confirmed by Nintendo developers.
==Fan theorized mandates==
* In Mario Party Superstars, the Mushroom Shop Clerk is replaced with a generic Yellow Toad. There is currently no confirmation if this decision was mandated.
* In the remake Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, the uniforms of the crew of the Koopa Cruiser and Ankoopas are replaced with generic Koopa Troopas. There is currently no confirmation if this decision was mandated. 
**The Koopa sprites in the remake Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions differ from the previous sprites in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, and were not reused for convenience. 
* In the remake Super Mario RPG, many characters were renamed to more generic names from the original game, notably, Frogfucius being renamed to Frog Sage.
==Officially confirmed mandates==
===Paper Mario series===
Paper Mario’s development team lays it all out (Video Games Chronicle)
Nintendo developers have officially confirmed mandates in the Paper Mario series. During the development of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Shigeru Miyamoto had asked producer Kensuke Tanabe "It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?" and "As much as possible, complete it with only characters from the Super Mario world".Paper Mario: Sticker Star team explains removal of RPG elements (VG247) Kensuke Tanabe has since stated that restrictions are enforced by an "IP team" that is "pretty strict".Paper Mario Producer Says His Team Has "Almost Complete Control" Over Creative Direction (Nintendo Life) “Ever since Paper Mario: Color Splash, we have almost complete control over the creative direction of the game. Mr. Miyamoto checked in on development once or twice, but there were no specific requests to make changes. However, all character designs have to pass a check by our IP team, which is pretty strict.”
* Original characters and races in Paper Mario are no longer possible, unless they are outside of the Mario universe such as sentient inanimate objects like stickers and stationary.
* Toads in Paper Mario can no longer have individual characteristics such as age or gender.Paper Mario Producer Says Team Is "No Longer Able To Graphically Represent Individual Characteristics" In Toad NPCs (Nintendo Life)
* Complicated stories in Paper Mario are to be avoided.Paper Mario dev says he’s moved away from complicated stories and modifying Mario characters for original characters (Nintendo Everything)
The release of the Nintendo Switch remake Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2024) appears exempt from these Paper Mario restrictions by keeping its original character designs, fictional races, and story, however there are no confirmations if only remakes are exceptions to the rule.
===Super Mario Galaxy series===
Miyamoto: Why I Spiked Mario Galaxy 2's Story (Wired) (archive) "I told Miyamoto about what Koizumi had said, and he looked slightly taken aback. “He said that?” “Yes.” “Well, I put a stop to that at the beginning, this time,” he said, and for emphasis punched the air with his fist." 
Shigeru Miyamoto has expressed "I'd like to go with as little story as possible" and "I've always felt that the Mario games themselves aren't particularly suited to having a very heavy story" regarding story in the Mario franchise. In contrast, Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi stated that he would try to find sneaky ways to add more story to games he worked on without Nintendo EAD higher ups noticing too much, he also mentioned that these were aspects that Miyamoto wasn't too fond of and occasionally disliked.Interview: Super Mario Galaxy Director On Sneaking Stories Past Miyamoto (Wired) (archive) “They were always saying, let's not try to push the story forward too much. So I would sort of try to find sneaky ways to get it in without them noticing too much. For example, I always liked the idea of you coming upon another character and hearing little bits of conversation that slowly begin to reveal different parts of the story. And that was the way that I tried to work on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. A lot of the EAD games that do seem to have a lot of story, a lot of that came from my influence. But those are aspects of the games that Miyamoto wasn't nearly as fond of and occasionally didn't like.” 
In an interview, Miyamoto was taken aback when he learned of what Koizumi had said, and officially stated that he had mandated a stop to it from the beginning of Super Mario Galaxy 2's development.
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