I guess I don't feel as strongly about the modern interpretation of Mona. I feel like some of her fans hyperfixate on her Mega Micro and Party games design - I feel like her being a "rebel" disappeared pretty early on. I mean, by the time Smooth Moves came out she was a cheerleader for her school's team, which doesn't feel true to her original characterization (to me, anyway). I feel like the girly girl interpretation of her has been prevalent longer than her rebellious side. Granted, these two interpretations can be joined and make a fun character: while I'm not a huge fan of the art style in Game & Wario, I felt that Mona's story in that portrayed her as tough and feminine very well.
Maybe this is going into semantics, but I feel the series has gotten a different art style but the characters haven't been redesigned. While I've grown to like it/find it cute, the characters look more "chibi" now. Jimmy looks about the same to me, other than maybe being portrayed as a little younger. (This is most likely due to the cuter art style and his new voice, though. I doubt this was intentional) They did soften some of his features though - I feel like his cheekbones aren't as prevalent as they were originally. I guess I am a little confused about your feelings about the newer version of Jimmy, what makes you dislike him? He's more or less the same character to me, just with a few minor changes. I suppose you can make the argument that he's became more driven by 80's nostalgia than 70's in Gold and post-Gold content, but he's been established to be interested in aerobics for a while now.
Crygor used to be chubby! I do miss that, but I guess you could make the argument he's started taking better care of himself or something. I liked how in GIT they went back to the original outfit he had in Mega Micro and Party games. I will say that I never cared for his outfit in Gold though, it always looked like he was wearing a baby's onesie to me, lol.
Why I dislike the current version of Jimmy is...hard to articulate. It's actually the same way for me for a lot - no, a
majority of the characters - that they just don't give off the same vibe as before. I just focus on Mona, Jimmy and Crygor the most since those three are my favorites.
But yeah I'm just not really able to put it to words when it comes to Jimmy, not in an easy and succinct, coherent way that truly articulates it. When I start dissecting his current character and comparing it to his classic one, there's actually practically little difference, if you just go and look at the separate parts objectively. But then something about the whole package is just...off? I think this may have to do with his storylines and the current voice direction but I'm still sticking to my guns saying that Jimmy feels way more diva-ish and flamboyant than ever. I'm bad at articulating it as I said, but if I had to put it to words I'd say something like...
Old Jimmy felt more "chill", while new Jimmy feels more "dramatic". In how they move, how they're voiced, how they act, the kind of voice clips they get, their expressions and mannerisms...Old Jimmy and new Jimmy just give off a majorly different energy, to me. They're technically the same character I suppose but my brain refuses to accept these as the same Jimmy. One's a chill goofy guy with weird proportions and a deep voice, the other's a dramatic disco diva with a more exaggerated voice. Both have a flamboyance, both are nice cool dudes, both wear roughly the same outfit (although new Jimmy has glasses about 90 sizes too big), but I think the combination of the cutefied art style, the softening of Jimmy's cheekbones, the more energetic higher-pitched voice and the different energy that whoever currently writes the series is breathing into him just make him feel...off?
New Jimmy is a character I hate to not like. This is definitely a character I'd appreciate way more if I didn't have a very strong pre-defined image of who Jimmy T. is, one that I can't get to match this one, no matter what. There's moments where they feel like one, and moments where they don't feel unified and I lose my ability to enjoy the new take.
As for Mona, I'm aware that the way the character currently is is, on an objective sort of level, a more prevalent characterization throughout the series...but I feel as if, although they softened her up a lot real fast, a little tiny bit of Mona's original character always stayed with her. The intonation of her voice, her features (thinner/longer face, prominent eyes, hair that curls up in bold spikes rather than elegant curls, colored eyelashes/eyebrows), and most of all, that slightly mischievous look to her face...I dunno. I feel like my brain is kind of like a little baby's, when you can fool them and make them think you're not there by putting hands in front of your face. Except for me, it's that when a character is stripped of their usual mannerisms, expressions and body language, I read the character totally differently. And with new Mona, the gentle, soft default expression, the changed voice and the more feminine and elegant visual design cues just strip her of whatever Mona was still left. She's like Jimmy, where I feel like changing a few things totally toppled the whole thing because said changed things were stuff about her character I think you should never touch, but to a more drastic degree because at least Jimmy still feels
somewhat like what they were going for since 2003. Mona feels totally lost and like this is some random girl I have no incentive to care about.
I know this comparison is both strange and sacrilege, but I'd almost compare this to how Riverdale handles the characters of the Archie comics. Now obviously saying "WarioWare Gold is the Riverdale of the Wario series" is the most absurd statement ever...but I'm not even really making that, on any other level than characterization. What I mean is, I'm a big Archie Comics fan, and when I first watched Riverdale I had a similar reaction to the way the show handles my favorite comic characters. Like, these sure are by definition takes on the Archie Comics characters, they most certainly share a moderate number of visual similarities and superficial character traits, but they don't have the same
feel to them. To give it some props, Gold/post-Gold WarioWare is better with its characters than Riverdale is with the Archie cast, but that's hardly saying much.
I understand totally if this is something that happened, not gonna blame the WarioWare team too much, but it honestly feels like since they hadn't had to work on a WarioWare for a while before Gold, they just forgot what makes some of these characters tick and it led to some of them feeling more like imitations than anything. GiT is definitely them getting back in the groove - a lot of the characters and design choices - both in terms of the character designs and that of the cutscenes and microgames - feel WAY more in line with WarioWare than whatever happened with Gold...that one really felt to me like they were just trying to get used to making WarioWare again and only doing a decent enough job (the gameplay was probably the most solid it's ever been though so I don't want to give Gold too much slack).
I think the current cutesy, overly neat, way too clean, way too polished up, finalized and consistent vibe is probably the real source of like half the issues I'm complaining about lol. I'm just waiting for the day they realize "cute" and "WarioWare" isn't exactly the genius design combination they seem to insist it is and go back to the crude and anarchic vibe of literally any of the older games oh god make your pick I'm fine with anythi
I really liked how GIT depicted him hanging out with some of the other characters, particularly Lulu. I love the implied friendship those two have now - want a entire cartoon of that, lol. Something that is kind of odd about Jimmy's modern characterization (though I think this was unintentional) is that he's chattier now, whereas previous games implied he was kind of quiet if not somewhat stoic.
