There are quite a lot of characters who have appeared throughout the Super Mario Bros. franchise. Many of them have been main characters while others have just been familiar faces in the background. Most are recurring characters who we’ve seen time and time again. There have also been a fair share of characters who have only made a single appearance, but have made a lasting impact and are quite memorable, like Geno or Goombella. There is one character from the Mario lore, though, who has been almost entirely forgotten, and that is MC Ballyhoo.

You might be asking “Bally-WHO?” which is totally understandable. He’s only made one-ever appearance, and that’s in Mario Party 8. MC Ballyhoo was the owner of the Star Carnival and served as the primary host for the game. Instead of Toad, Koopa Troopa, or even Toadette, Nintendo decided to go with a brand-new character to host this particular Mario Party game.

MC Ballyhoo is a weird guy. He wears a sentient hat on his head named Big Top and enjoys yelling, a lot. He can also levitate through some form of magic, which is never discussed. He has mentioned that he fears real estate of all things/ His only motivation seems to be to make sure everyone is having the most fun possible, so he’s far from a bad guy; he’s just an oddball.

MC Ballyhoo is a fun and colorful character. Most fans who do remember this guy seem to like him well enough. It never seemed like there was a lot of hate for him. Between him being a unique character and being liked by fans, he definitely had the potential to appear in Mario Kart or one of the Super Mario sports games. Unfortunately, he was never used again. He never even came back to host a later Mario Party game. Of course, this led to many fans of him to become incredibly saddened and for MC Ballyhoo to become forgotten as time went on.

Fans would be sure to celebrate MC Ballyhoo’s return if it were to ever happen. He’s a really fun character who stands out from the rest despite there being so many in the series. Since most Mario characters return at some point in one form or another, it’s odd to have such a standout character never rear his head in a game since the Wii era. Let’s hope that Nintendo decides to revisit MC Ballyhoo at some point so that he may host some more fun games for us. 

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