The Best Super Mario Games

Ranking Our Favourite Super Mario Games

20/3/2020

March 10 is widely known as MAR10 Day. A day where Nintendo fans all over the world pay homage to the Super Mario Bros franchise and to the chubby super plumber himself. We are at Blue Crescent Studio are big Nintendo fans ourselves and thus, to join in on the celebrations, we originally compiled a ranked list of our favourite Super Mario games. Sadly, tragedy struck as the dreaded Coronavirus stole the show when the Jamaican Government announced our first reported case the same day prompting us to delay this feature out of respect. Nonetheless, the show must go on. Ranked 5 to 1, here are our favourite mainline Super Mario games:

5. Super mario bros (nes 1985)

We are starting our list with the game that started it all...Super Mario Bros. This timeless classic more than deserved its spot on anyone's list as it not only first introduced the Mushroom Kingdom to the world but, it is a great platformer in its own right. So much so, that 2D platformers today still utilize some of the mechanics introduced by the game over 30 years ago.

4. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch 2017)

From Mario's first adventure to his most recent. Arguably, Super Mario Odyssey was developed with Nintendo facing their greatest pressure ever to deliver. Before this generation, it was usually a foregone conclusion that a mainline Super Mario game will be an automatic 9 or 10. However, Odyssey was being released after the fun but small in ambition Super Mario 3D World on the failed WiiU. For the sake of the newly minted Nintendo Switch and even Nintendo's reputation as a modern Triple-A developer, the game had to deliver and bwoy oh bwoy, did it eva! Super Mario Odyssey is herald as one of the greatest games of this generation as it successfully expounded on the groundwork laid by Mario 64.

3. Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube 2002)

While Odyssey can be seen as Mario 64 spiritual successor, Super Mario Sunshine, on the other hand, can be described as its the red-headed stepchild. Many considered it to be the worst of the 3D Mario games but, we simply adore it here for having some truly amazing level designs including some of the most difficult platforming levels ever found in a 3D Mario game. We acknowledge the game is not without its flaws. We docked points for some cringe-worthy voice acting and a weird plot that sees Bowser Jr believing Peach was his mom but, it remains our most wanted Switch port and 3rd favourite Mario game of all time.

2. Super Mario World (Sness 1990)

Simply put...Super Mario World is one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time. This was 2D Mario at it's finest. Top-notch level design, beautiful sprite work, great soundtrack and the introduction of our friendly green dinosaur Yoshi, all set SMW worlds apart from its NES predecessors. It also had arguable, one of the best final showdowns with Bowser of all time.

1. Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 (2007 & 2009)

Was there any doubt? Not only are the Galaxy games considered by many to the best Mario games of all time but also, Nintendo's greatest ever. Super Mario Galaxy took the decade-old 3D Mario formula and somehow found a way to innovate, giving birth to a gaming masterpiece. Then only a mere 2 years later, Nintendo did the impossible of topping its brilliance with a direct sequel in the form of Super Galaxy 2. Their ingenious use of the concept of planetary gravity as the bedrock of gameplay and level design will in no doubt go down in history as one of the greatest achievements in game development. And to think, all of this was done on the 'two Gamecubes duck together' Wii console.

And that concludes another one of our strolls down memory as ranked our favourite Super Mario games of all time. We must stress that only the mainline titles were considered despite loving all the Mario Karts, Mario Parties, Mario whatever. Also, we acknowledge the controversy of our decision to have the pioneering Super Mario 64 off the list. Some of us believed what that game brought to the table was expanded and improved upon in its successors.

Thank you for reading and, please be free to comment below about my list or to provide one of your own.

-YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: