Starter Pokemon will be based on Peach (Grass/Fairy), Mario (fire/fighting), and Luigi (Water/Ghost).
Grass Starter: (grass/fairy)
Kitnip, Peachita, and Purrincess
Inspiration: Peaches gardens and cat peach.
Fire Starter: (fire/fighting)
Cubburn, Mariooki, Thwackoon
Inspiration: Tanooki Mario, Mario's Fire suit palette, Mustache whiskers
Water Starter: (water/ghost)
Boooper, Louija, Vaxhume
Inspiration: Luigi's Mansion, Ghost Vaccume, Bloopers
Gym leaders serve as mini elite four setups:
You defeat 4 (or so) protagonists who are under the control of the main gym leader villain (who serves much like a champion).
Gym leaders will can be rematched for higher difficulty.
1. Toadstool Kingdom
Leaders:
Mario: Cubburn
Peach: Kitnip
Luigi: Boooper
Bowser*: Dry Bones (Confusion, Poison Sting, Bite, Rock Tomb)
All Mario Sprites thus far:
Pictured below Peach and friends:
Boo(ghost) ---> Vile Boo(ghost/poison) or King Boo (Dark/Ghost)
Dry bones (Rock Dark)-> Dry Bowser (Rock/Dark)
Koopa (Normal) --> Kammykoopa/hammerbro (Psychic) or (Fighting)
Fire Flower ---> Piranha P.--> Petey P. (Grass/Fire)
Goomba (Dark or Normal????) --->???
Bob'om (Fire/Dark) ---> Bombette (Fire/Fairy) /King Bobom (Fire/Dark) /BulletBill (Fire/Steel)
Should be enough Mario representation after this! Maybe one or two more families.
Mario related locations:
Haunted Mansion. Peach Garden, Toadstool Castle