There are four worlds instead of eight, rescuing Daisy instead of Peach, and facing off against aliens instead of Koopas. It isn’t necessarily bad, but it doesn’t quite live up to the series’ reputation. ’s nonlinearity, but they’re thoughtfully designed and take full advantage of Mario’s 3D space. was going to come out, it was going to come out perfect; and perfect it did. more than made up for its DS predecessor's shortcomings.

Nintendo was not going to make the same mistakes as its competitors. really is a mixed bag, perhaps the most mixed of any Super Mario game. The cheeky minx! He’s Italian, he wears overalls, he’s got an M on his hat, and he’s got one stylish mustache.

He wields a cannon that fires off various paints, each color affecting Mario’s mood and subsequently, the tone of the battle. A whole lot of chaos. The DS platformer managed to bring platformers back into the spotlight in a big way. Explore Wikis; Community Central; Start a Wiki; Search This wiki This wiki All wikis | Sign In Don't have an account?

His flipping assaults are just as flashy as his persona, but he actually turns out to be a lot more of a pushover than you might expect at first. In, , players could get multiple stars in a single run, but, Is it enough to ruin the game? You can criticize the 2.5D graphics as bland and the music as repetitive, but the original New Super Mario Bros. was quite the game back in 2006. Never too harshly like with Sonic or Mega Man, but more in line with The Legend of Zelda, where the quality is usually so incredibly high that the lesser titles stand out all the more prominently. It’s a nice, if a tad unpolished attempt at bringing Mario to the little screen.

does suffer from its short length and easy difficulty, but it’s so wildly creative that it’s easy to look over those flaws. Super Mario Land suffers from being relatively easy and being all over the place in terms of level to level quality, but as far as Game Boy platformers go? It’s a premise that practically writes itself. Between this Giygas impersonation and Brobot’s Tatanga tendencies, we’re left with an embarrassment of boss battle throwbacks in this series, aren’t we? So why isn’t it higher on the list? Better games have come out since then and it’ll continue to be topped, but. She’s not here for your gags or your games. Now this is the game Nintendo was clearly trying to make with Super Mario 3D Land, but amped up to 11. Also, Mario has a castle and Wario’s first appearance in Super Mario history is stealing said castle. This is both a blessing and a curse for the portable platformer. Being able to choose from Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad is certainly a treat, but the actual level design tends to be quite dull for the most part. What do you get when you add four player multiplayer to a single player Mario game? Most importantly, however, despite introducing several enemies that would end up being staples, it would be decades before Nintendo revisited any design concept from. It doesn’t fix what’s not broken, it simply perfects it. To be quite honest, this whole list could just as easily consist of bosses from the Thousand-Year Door; it’s just that darn good. In a sense, Super Mario 3D World is like a love letter to Mario’s entire history, even paying homage to his sports outings like Mario Kart. A controversial number 1 to be sure, considering that some beloved battles are completely absent from this list (such as General Guy, Francis or the Crystal King), but in much the same way that the Koopa Bros personified everything about Paper Mario’s charm, Hooktail did so for the sequel, ramped up significantly.

You’d surely be a goner had it not been for the newly acquired services of Vivian, one of the Shadow Sirens and Mario’s only true love interest. On top of that, the game clearly isn’t balanced with every character in mind, which can cause lead to strange spikes and dips in difficulty depending on who the playable character is. Better games have come out since then and it’ll continue to be topped, but Super Mario Bros.’ influence and quality is undeniable. Though the series has had its ups and downs, it remains beloved in the hearts and minds of Nintendo fans since it first came crashing onto our Nintendo 64’s nearly twenty years ago (feel old yet?). Because of its handheld nature, levels can’t be as long as in the 3D Marios and are confined to the time limits often found in 2D Super Mario titles, but the 3D design is still trapped in a realm where Nintendo still doesn’t quite know what to do with the limitations of time. Take the 2D Super Mario gameplay, grab the 3D Mario assets, ignore the fact that this combination is basically New Super Mario Bros. and you get Super Mario 3D Land. It also managed to do what The Lost Levels did in terms of difficulty, by creating a natural progression where the game slowly but surely gets harder.

For now, they’re just lovably lame. is, let’s not forget about the game that managed to perfect the 2D platformer genre and reign supreme as one of the greatest video games of all time. Many series died in the transition, many didn’t even bother by sticking to a 2D hybrid, but Nintendo wasn’t going to fall behind. Why is it though, every time I fight my boss, I just end up fired? Super Mario 64. Instead of just ramping up the difficulty, Galaxy 2 experiments with the ideas presented in the first Galaxy while bringing some new concepts to the table.