It’s March 10th, which means it’s Mar10 Day! This day celebrates our favourite platform jumpin’, Koopa stompin’, mushroom chompin’ hero; Super Mario! Last year, we celebrated 35 years of Super Mario with the release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars , which contains three of Mario’s best 3D platformers! Let’s take a little look at some of his best moments to date! 🙂

Where it all began

Everybody who had an NES system at home will undoubtedly know the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge. The game is one of the most iconic side-scrolling platform games of all time and introduced us tothe Super Mario Bros. Mario was formerly only known as “jumpman” 

Almost everybody knows Mario, which puts him on par with the likes of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He’s been Nintendo’s mascot for decades now and whenever Nintendo releases a new Mario game, or one of its many spin-offs, they are sure to be selling millions of copies of these games.

Where we are now

It’s astonishing just how loved Super Mario really is. Ever since the introduction of Yoshi to the cast of Mario games, I’ve been a big fan of them as well (since there are multiple Yoshis!) and whenever Mario teams up with Yoshi, well it’s always great. There’s been a whopping 21(!) main Super Mario titles released across multiple platforms, starting with the NES, the GameBoy all the way up to the Nintendo Switch. There are so many, in fact, that it’s quite hard to choose a favourite out of all of them. But I will share my most favourite ones with you and tell you what makes this game so outstanding.

#5 Super Mario Odyssey

The most recent 3D Mario game, released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019. This game featured Cappy, who replaces Mario’s signature cap and which gives us a couple of new gimmicks, like throwing Cappy so he can function as a makeshift platform to jump on. But if you throw Cappy at an enemy, Mario can sometimes control that enemy for a brief time, opening all sorts of new gameplay features. Mario could also collect a whole lot of costumes in this game, which added a lot of extra flavour. The game is fairly challenging, especially if you want to collect all of the moons in the game.

#4 Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins

One of the best GameBoy games ever to be made. This game was fun, challenging and introduced us to Rabbit Mario! The game also featured Wario as the main villain, who would later be given his own game with Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land. What makes this game truly outstanding is the addition of a world map, which allows you to complete all of the worlds in any order. The soundtrack is also one of the best on the GameBoy systems. I still think back to playing this game a lot and it’s probably one of my fondest GameBoy memories, besides Link’s Awakening and the Pokémon titles.

#3 Super Mario 3D World

Although the Wii U was quite a flop, the game library for the Wii U contained quite a few gems. One of them was Super Mario 3D World, a sequel to Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS. Although the Wii U and Switch don’t make use of the 3D technology the 3DS had, these games are still great, but it has to be said that it takes a bit of getting used to the gameplay, because it’s not always easy to tell where you’ll land after a jump. Careful watching of your shadow helps. But I just had so much fun with this particular game. The Cat Mario suit is one of the most fun Mario forms ever, giving him the ability to climb walls, pounce enemies and soar through the skies! The levels are quite numerous as well. This game was re-released along with Bowser’s Fury and a review will be posted on my site soon, as I just ordered a copy today 😉

#2 Super Mario Bros. 3

I’m still not sure which one wins the ultimate battle for the #1 spot. It’s a tough choice between this title and Super Mario World, because they’re both such great games. I think I’ll do another article on this ultimate battle sometime soon, because both of these games have their pros and cons, but what they both are is pure classics.

Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced us to a world map, featuring dozens of levels, bonus games and even shortcuts! What makes this game fun too is that you can play it together and you can even duel to fight for the bonus cards you get at the end of every level! Super Mario Bros. 3 is also quite challenging and even frustrating at times, but overall it’s just pure Mario goodness!

#1 Super Mario World

It’s most certainly nostalgia talking, but yet, it’s not just that. This game remains my favourite Mario title after all this time. Super Mario World was the launch title for the SNES and it has aged so incredibly well. The graphics still look good, the music is great and the gameplay has set the bar for all other platform games ever since. Not just is this game quite big, the level design and the challenging Star Zone, which leads to the extremely challenging Special Zone. If you manage to complete these levels, you may call yourself the master of this game. 😉 

So, what do you think about my personal Super Mario top 5? Do you agree? Or do you think I should have added other games, like Super Mario Sunshine, or Super Mario 64? Although I do rank them highly, I would probably have swapped Sunshine for Odyssey, but it was a really close call. I’m curious what you guys think! 

Happy gaming!

~Jeffrey