The 5 best Super Mario games –

Freely quoted from Wikipedia:

Mario Day is a celebration of the Super Mario franchise that occurs annually on March 10, as a shortening of the date, “MAR10,” resembles Mario’s name, especially in capital letters. Fans use the holiday to set up their own celebrations, such as playing Super Mario games or dressing up as Mario.

So this week was Mario Day, which of course means a tribute from Gamereactor. Because I think we can all agree that the gaming world wouldn’t be what it is today if Nintendo and Mario had taken turns leading the way. So. In anticipation of Switch 2 and the announcement of Odyssey 2 or Galaxy 3, I wrote about what I consider to be the five best Super Mario titles released. Congratulations, Mario!

(5) Super Mario Land

Satoru Okada and Gunpei Yokoi collaborated on iconic, immortal Nintendo classics like Metroid and Kid Icarus, and when it came time for Super Mario and his record-breaking mustache to make their Game Boy debut, it was these skilled gentlemen who were given the task of translating his feverish platforming action to the monochrome, portable format. I distinctly remember how much I loved this game when the Game Boy first rolled out. The fact that this time the Mushroom Kingdom had been replaced by the new world of Sarasaland seemed fresh and memorable. Okada & Yokoi had taken inspiration from ancient Egyptian design styles, Easter Island and the mythology and manners of both Bermuda and 16th-century China, and the result was originality wrapped up in a small, light gray plastic box.

(4) Super Mario Bros 2

I have only completely re-evaluated this game in the last five years. Because there was definitely a time when I rated Super Mario Bros (1) higher and especially Super Mario Bros 3. There was a time when I thought this was, in all honesty, pretty bad and way short of the “Mario feel,” for obvious reasons. Because as we all know, it was never intended to be a Super Mario game, but was about different characters in a different world, in Japan, but was redirected at the last minute so that Nintendo of America / Europe would have a great title to lean on during the 1988 Christmas sale. I dug it out a few years ago, though, after getting tired of how slow the Mini NES felt in the most demanding games, and hooked up my old NES to a fat TV I had been saving, mostly to show my son Frank a stack of these classics from my youth. And by Super Mario Bros 2, we were hooked for several reasons. For starters, I like the slower pace. I love the quirky original design much more these days than I used to, and it has held up so well over the years.

(3) Super Mario Galaxy

I was never a big fan of the Nintendo Wii. As those of you who read and have read Gamereactor regularly will know. Motion gaming was nothing to me. It always felt to me like a tired gimmick, much like VR did (and still does) or stereoscopic 3D in the cinema. However, there is an exception, or two. And these are called Galaxy. Miyamoto’s use of motion controls in Super Mario Galaxy is known as one of the most whimsically ingenious things the gaming world has ever seen and, as with Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, Galaxy is infused with Nintendo magic, charm, personality and variety. I also remember the moment the disc arrived with us at Gamereactor. It was the first week of November 2007, and Jonas Elfving had already picked up the game for review. As Jonas played over the next few days, I sat next to him, even though I didn’t really have time because as usual we had a print deadline to work toward, and smiled with my whole face at all the ingenuity and innovation it contained. Of course, the second one is probably even better (how is that possible), but it is the first one that grabs this position on my very personal top list.

(2) Super Mario 64

I was reviewing games for the local paper at the time, and just over a month before the release of the hysterically hot, highly anticipated Nintendo 64, I distinctly remember getting glandular fever. And yes, I got as sick as a plague-infected little vole. Hospitalized and all that. Lost a lot of weight, barely had the strength to get up for weeks. In the middle of this, my early review machine (N64) plus Pilotwings 64, Wave Race 64 and Super Mario 64 arrived at the paper and it was my older sister who picked up the package for me. I remember how weak I was when I cut the tape that held the box together, and how incredibly excited I was when I unwrapped the Nintendo 64 box and plugged the machine in for the first time. The rest is… The rest is history. I will never forget my first tentative steps into the most inviting 3D world I have ever seen, just as I will never forget those iconic moments Super Mario 64 was full of. The luge race against that snooty penguin. When that annoying monkey turned up Mario’s hat, that first death of the Bob-omb boss on the mountain, the super-charming hub world, and the moment when Mario finally got his wings on his hat and could explore worlds from the air. Incredible game, incredible gaming memories.

THE BEST SUPER MARIO GAME OF ALL TIME:

(1) Super Mario World

Expectations on my part (everyone’s) were sky-high. Nintendo’s new console was on the way, and the brochure I picked up at the local Korg-Olles toy store told me about the new Super Mario game, which looked absolutely phenomenal beforehand. However, I couldn’t afford a Super Nintendo. In fact, in 1991, I couldn’t even afford a controller. Or a box of potato chips, with potato seasoning on them. So it was fortunate that my classmate bought the device plus Super Mario World on opening day, finished it in a few days (he even stayed home from school to play because he had a fever) and then loaned it to me. I was obsessed with how charming, changing, challenging and fantastically imaginative it was, Miyamoto’s acclaimed 16-volume masterpiece. There’s so much charm, personality and that elusive Nintendo magic in this game that it’s hard to do it justice in text form, regardless of the amount of superlatives. For me, it will always, always, always be number uno in terms of the corpulent plumber’s well-fed all-star career.