6º to Mario

[Shrikeswind]

Alright! You should know the rules if you've ever played 6º to Kevin Bacon, of course, if you don't, rules are pretty simple: A person is named, for Mario, I make the example of Luigi. Next person connects Luigi to Mario in 6 steps or less, i.e., 1) Luigi worked for 2) E. Gadd who made 3) Bowser Jr.'s paintbrush who is 4) Bowser's son. Bowser kidnaps 5) Peach who is 6) Mario's girlfriend. Or the quicker 1) Luigi is 2) Mario's brother. After the connection is confirmed by the questioner, the one to answer gets to pick the next rounds character. In the event of multiple people with correct connections, first person with a correct connection gets it. Now, since this is Mario, here are some special rules.

2º Rule: No one who has themselves met Mario is allowed as first degree (unless Mario is an optional meet, but you must assume Mario didn't meet the character unless all characters are optional meets.)
Spin-off Rule: No spin-offs. The degrees must be through cameos. The only exception is when the character is original to the game, in which case the game plays as normal but does not remain in spin-off.
Portrait Rule: Having a picture of Mario or looking like Mario is as much a connection as owning Indiana Jones is a connection to Harrison Ford or knowing an impersonator is a connection to Elvis, meaning, of course, it's not.
Bridge Rule: No real-world people may be used as a connection. To make it easy, stick to video games.
Character Rule: The degree MUST be a character. Species and items aren't connections. Only particular characters are connections. If the character shares the name of the species, note it.
Fan Rule: All connections must come from an official game by the series' owner (whatever series it may be.)

To start: Knuckles the Echidna.

[TV Eye]

Okay, I'll give it a shot.

1) Knuckles the Echidna can glide like (2) Princess Peach who rules the Mushroom Kingdom (3) that Mario saves on a regular basis.

There.

[Shrikeswind]

Good, except Peach doesn't glide. She hovers. Also, I can sing, as can Paul McCartney, but that doesn't connect me any more to him.

[Manspeed]

1) Knuckles the Echidna is a former rival of 2) Sonic the Hedgehog who appeared with 3) Mario at the Olympics.

[Shrikeswind]

You could cut Sonic out entirely in that case, but that's not available since it's a spin-off and no spin-off exclusives were mentioned. Any more tries?

[Hiker of Games]

1) Knuckles is a comrade of 2) Sonic, who leaves his shoes at 3) Cranky's challenge room, which is 4 ) frequented by Diddy Kong, the friend of 5) Donkey Kong, who is the 6) rival of Mario.

(Or you can simplify that down to Cranky being Mario's old rival, but this a perfect 6. Why ruin it?)

[Shrikeswind]

Congratulations! You get the next character.

[Hiker of Games]

Hm, this is actually hard to think of one, since very few characters are no further than one or two links to one of the Big 8.

Uncle Rupee. It can be done in less than six steps, but if you can do it in six, good on you!

[TV Eye]

Alright, I'll try it again.

1) Uncle Rupee took rupees from 2) Tingle who sells maps to 3) Link who fights 4) Goomba's in Link's Awakening from 5) Super Mario Bros where 6) Mario is the main character.

That one alright?

[Hiker of Games]

Hm. Technically Shrike's rules say species (like Goombas) shouldn't count. But since I'm likely to be lazy and forget about this post after today, we'll call it a win.

[Koopaul]

Wait aren't Sonic's shoes an item?

[Shrikeswind]

It counts, because they're specifically Sonic's shoes and it's implied Sonic was there to leave them.