The Committee is in session. We’re taking on various issues in gaming, and our word is final. In this first installment, we decide where every Mario platformer belongs in the history of the series.
In support
Graham Russell: Let’s be clear: Super Mario Land is not great. But it’s not horrible, either. It was made in an era when developers weren’t afraid to experiment with how a game feels, an era when sequels didn’t have to have the same gameplay and when the principles of the industry were still getting figured out. Land was a fun game, despite being on the most limiting system the series has ever been on at the beginning of its life cycle. Indeed, many Mario games are home runs, and this one was simply a solid single. At least it didn’t strike out.
In opposition
Andrew Passafiume: Super Mario Land does not at all feel like a Mario platformer. It feels like a generic game with Mario thrown into it for good measure. I could easily call this the worst game in the main Mario series, but nothing about it ever feels distinctly like a Mario game, so it even fails at that.
In support
Mike Clark: Take Super Mario Bros. and design a whole new set of levels around it that are more challenging than anything the game had to offer. This is The Lost Levels. We get more of what made the original so great while upping the difficulty. It also gives us Luigi and his defining traits in the original Super Mario Bros. style, at least for America. Being able to play with his looser traction and different jumping style created a paradigm shift.
In opposition
Lillian Harle: The Lost Levels has only come out in the US three times: Super Mario All-Stars on the Super Nintendo, on the Virtual Console, and Mario All-Stars on the Wii. And for good reason – the game is brutally hard. (And people complain about the difficulty of Sunshine?) The game’s best explained this way: it’s an official romhack of the original Super Mario Bros. Those in the Super Mario romhacking community know that games like that can be absolutely brutal.The Japanese SMB2 is along those lines, requiring such feats as Bullet Bill-bouncing, perfect frame jumps, and quite a few tricks involving springboards and Paratroopas. The game simply isn’t fun, especially when it suffers from the same flaw that the original SMB does: when you game over, you have to start all over. There’s a reason the phrase “Nintendo hard” exists: to explain this game.
In support
Shawn Vermette: Super Mario 64 is the best of the entire Mario franchise. Not only did it propel Mario into the 3rd dimension, it did so better than any other legacy franchise made the conversion from 2D to 3D. The creativity used to create the world; the smoothness of the controls and the camera; and the sheer joy one felt while playing SM64 puts it ahead of the pack. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that, despite serving as the inspiration behind Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy, everyone else here has forgotten the joy of playing SM64, or the possibility that they never experienced it to begin with. There has to be something wrong with them to have ranked it as one of the worst Mario platformers.
In opposition
Mike Clark: I’ll give credit to this game launching us into the world of 3D. The transition is historic and the game should be commended for it. But to actually play this is only a good experience if the player has firmly affixed a set of nostalgia glasses on their face. The gameplay and physics are lackluster, the camera is bloody horrible, and the controls are revolting, especially for flying and swimming. If you played it before quality came around you probably like this. If you didn’t, this just isn’t worth the time.
In support
Justin Last: Every Nintendo platform needs a Mario title, and the DS was no exception. New Super Mario Bros. managed to take the original Super Mario Bros. formula and update it for the modern gamer. Controls are as tight as ever, levels are replayable thanks to the three optional coins scattered throughout each level, and some worlds feature branching paths. The Koopa Suit makes for a great risk vs reward power-up, and the ability to retain an item returns (though in a diminished capacity) from SMB3. Handheld gamers are used to high-quality Mario titles like Super Mario Land 2 and Nintendo delivered with NSMB.
In opposition
Graham Russell: New Super Mario Bros. tried to strike this balance between two-dimensional gameplay and a three-dimensional engine, and it just didn’t sit right. While its successor on the Wii had much looser level design for the sake of multiplayer, NSMB was clearly a tight single-player experience, and it just lacked that precision it needed. It’s certainly forgivable, but without a compelling twist on the gameplay, it just doesn’t deserve to climb up this list.
In support
Gerry Pagan: Although it shouldn’t really be included with these other Mario games, I liked Wario Land for the change in perspective from the more agile plumber to his bigger, tougher counterpart. The power-ups were fun, the platforming was entertaining and it had a nice premise that set the stage for Wario’s personality in his later appearances.
In opposition
Shawn Vermette: None of the Super Mario Land games were particularly good, and I only really spent much time playing Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. I can recall being not at all interested in Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land when it first came out. Seriously, who wanted to play a Mario game where you didn’t get to play Mario? Sure, Wario provided for a completely different playing experience, but in a Mario game you expect to play as Mario and rescue princesses, not run around trying to get enough coins to build your own castle and make Mario jealous.
In support
Graham Russell: Okay, okay, it wasn’t originally a Mario game. Let’s all get over that, shall we? It was still an EAD-developed side-scroller, and why it wasn’t always a Mario game is really beyond me anyway. What makes the game great, though? Multiple characters. Sure, there were usually clear choices for each level, but the fun of SMB2 was that playing a level with Toad felt totally different from traversing the same level with Peach. It’s a concept that hasn’t been fully revisited (let’s forget about SM64 DS, shall we?), and one that I’d heartily support a return of.
In opposition
Lillian Harle: The game isn’t Mario. Plain and simple. The only thing that makes it like Mario is that it uses characters from that universe. Enemies that first appeared in Doki Doki Panic do end up appearing in later Mario games (like Shy Guys, Tweeters, and Birdo), but otherwise, the game has almost no impact on the series as a whole, unlike SMB3, Mario 64 or Mario Galaxy. It’s wholly unremarkable and, to be honest, not really all that fun. Sure, it can be interesting to lift up enemies and use them to kill its brethren, but on the whole, there’s very little to the game itself. It’s a side game series that Nintendo thought would be nice to include Mario characters in. I’m not saying that we should’ve gotten the original SMB2 over this one – far from it. In fact, Mario probably would’ve died in the US if they had done that.
In support
Lillian Harle: A lot of people don’t seem to like Super Mario Sunshine very much. From what I’ve heard, a lot of people cite FLUDD (the water-spewing backpack machine that’s basically the core of the gameplay) as the reason. Still others say the difficulty is the reason for their distaste. But I felt that Sunshine was a great entry in the series for one reason alone: the introduction of right stick camera control. Sure, the actual concept of using the right stick for camera control had been around for a while before Sunshine came out (in fact, once the DualShock was released, I’m pretty sure most games took full advantage of it), but it was the first Mario game to do so. Mario 64‘s camera was, for lack of better words, absolutely asinine. To be able to control the camera yourself made what might otherwise be very difficult 3D platforming much easier. That’s not to say that the game isn’t challenging. But it’s a good kind of challenging. At no time did I find myself overly frustrated by the game. The graphics are absolutely beautiful for a GameCube game – the only game I can think of rivaling its look is Metroid Prime and Prime 2: Echoes. The water effects in particular are pretty stunning, even in standard definition. Sunshine is certainly the black sheep of the 3D Mario platformers, but it is by no means bad. For the only “true” Mario game on Nintendo’s sixth-generation console, it’s a lot of fun.
In opposition
Justin Last: Mario is at his best when faced with myriad environments, challenges, and power-ups. Super Mario Sunshine took that and destroyed it. Where SMB3 had the desert, the sea (with its horrible, no-good, giant gulping fish), the sky, the ice, and a world inhabited by giants, SMS has only Delfino Plaza with its tropical paradise theme. Where Super Mario Galaxy has the Boo Suit, the Spring Suit, and the Ice Flower, SMS has only the FLUDD. Super Mario Sunshine is a clear misstep for the series, and I was glad to see Nintendo abandon the FLUDD in favor of the different suits in Super Mario Galaxy.
In support
Gerry Pagan: Basically a mix of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World on the Game Boy, the game is a fun portable version of the tried and true Mario formula. Some of the smaller changes like the minigames at the end of each level are a nice enough addition to make the game worth playing.
In opposition
Andrew Passafiume: While this definitely feels more like a traditional Mario platformer than the first, 6 Golden Coins still feels out of place in the series. It’s definitely a way more enjoyable experience than its predecessor, but one that just isn’t very memorable.
In support
Gerry Pagan: Do I really have to get too into this? Super Mario Bros. is considered one of the best games of all time for a reason. Stages are expertly designed down to the precise enemy placement in every stage, cleverly hidden shortcuts and secret rooms can make the game last either a few hours or just a few minutes. There’s a reason why 25 years later, people are still playing the game over and over. The game is accommodating to every type of gamer, from the more casual player looking to kill time to the more intense people looking to improve on their speed run times. Best of all, it’s still fun all the way through. This is one of the ultimate cases of a game surviving the test of time, with gameplay that has proven to be a timeless and a true classic.
In opposition
Justin Last: Super Mario Bros. is a first effort, and it shows. Yes, the game is a classic, but the difficulty ramp is too steep (I’ve never made it past World 5 personally), and the game constantly struggles with artificiality. Score is kept but not rewarded. Time is treated similarly. Arcade roots are easily seen and the Mario series has still not grown past the pointless need for lives. I’m not pumping quarters into an arcade machine anymore, and the game experience should be indicative of that.
In support
Graham Russell: I’m really floored by the lack of support for Yoshi’s Island. (Okay, probably not as floored as Shawn.) When the “best game of all time” talk starts up, the Super Nintendo is usually well-represented. We hear three names: Super Metroid, Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island. And all have valid claims. No offense to the Donkey Kong Country games, but it’s clear that Miyamoto’s team is the master of the platformer genre, and Yoshi’s Island was their last great achievement before moving on to three dimensions. True, it doesn’t play like Mario, but the variety of the different transformations, as well as the relatively-forgiving “protect Mario” life system, made for the most pleasant game I’ve ever experienced.
In opposition
Mike Clark: The concept and visual style seemed attractive and a change from the norm that had made Mario prevail for years. Execution was painful and annoying. Listening to Mario whine incessantly while having to collect tons of odds and ends for no real purpose made Yoshi’s Island a much weaker game than its predecessor. We went from a great platformer to an annoying collect-a-thon where the slightest screw-up meant a screaming baby. Ugh.
In support
Lillian Harle: Though some people may call New Super Mario Bros. Wii a rehash of the original DS game, the game itself is distinctive enough to stand on its own. Whereas the original NSMB paid homage to the original SMB, NSMBWii pays tribute to SMB3, to great effect. Add to that the multiplayer aspect (plus the fact that you can throw, lift, eat, and otherwise terrorize the other players) and you’ve got a recipe for party hilarity. Though it was a strange design decision to make players 3 and 4 Toads (as opposed to including, say, Wario or Daisy), the additions to the game (such as collecting the Star Coins like in NSMB, and the Penguin Suit and Propeller Hat) make this game stand out on top of the plethora of Mario games out there. Let’s not forget the fact that 2D platforming is almost a dead art nowadays, yet Nintendo keeps its roots alive. Bravo.
In opposition
Andrew Passafiume: New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a very well-made game that harkens back to the days of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. But it never felt like it reached the same levels of excellence that the classic platformers did. While I enjoyed my time with it, the game just feels almost like a rehash more than a re-imagining or a new game altogether. The co-op is fun, but it can also be more intrusive and bothersome than enjoyable during certain levels.
In support
Gerry Pagan: Mario’s debut on the Wii still holds strong even with its sequel’s release. One would think camera problems would be all over this style of game, but even among all the flips, planet flipping and soaring, the experience is always fun and hardly ever frustrating. Galaxy 2 just couldn’t blow me away like this game did. The presentation and premise is excellent, the gameplay is solid and even the story segments are enjoyable. Does it raise the bar for good 3D platformers? I think so.
In opposition
Shawn Vermette: Super Mario Galaxy is considered by many to be one of the best games of the decade. Unfortunately, those people are overrating the game. Yes, Super Mario Galaxy is a great game. But one of the best of the decade? It isn’t even one of the best 5 Mario games I’ve played. Sure, it has its roots in Super Mario 64, the best Mario platformer, but unfortunately it fails to live up to the standard set by its forbear in one important criteria: it isn’t as fun to play.
In support
Mike Clark: Take a game that excelled in just about every aspect and make it better. That is Super Mario Galaxy 2. Overall superior level design, from a ton of new features and ideas to remade stages from past games. The inclusion of Yoshi, a series staple and a welcome change to the Galaxy formula. Improved level access over the first game’s, while keeping or upgrading the game as a whole. This is what 3D Mario is meant to be.
In opposition
Shawn Vermette: Super Mario Galaxy 2 is, like its predecessor, considered to be one of the greatest Mario platformers of all time. But, while it is a great game, it is just barely better than Super Mario Galaxy, which leaves it well below the threshold set by the top Mario platformers. It has a lot of game available to play, but yet fails to be as enjoyable to play as it should be. And that is ultimately what Mario games are measured by.
In support
Justin Last: Super Mario Bros. 3 may be the finest NES game ever made. Much of what was new in SMB3 is now commonplace in Mario games. We now have new and interesting power-ups in each iteration of the series, and SMB 3 with its inclusion of Kuribo’s Shoe, the Tanooki Suit, the Raccoon Suit, the Hammer Brother Suit, and the Frog Suit are to thank for that. We’ll always be able to throw fire, but if Nintendo hadn’t taken a chance with SMB3 you might not be able to transform into Cloud or Boo Mario today. SMB3 also introduced the overworld map which went on to make Super Mario World and Super Mario Galaxy 2 better for including it.
In opposition
Gerry Pagan: I’ll be frank here, just because I don’t rate this game very highly compared to the other Mario titles doesn’t mean I neither dislike it nor think lowly of it. That said, I’ve never been of the side that considers SMB3 the best in the series. While fun, I didn’t find it as memorable as some of the later titles. The Koopalings are kind of just there, with the flying airship levels themselves feeling like more of the same. There’s very little I can say against the game, but it just didn’t wow me like others did.
In support
Andrew Passafiume: Super Mario World is the closest thing to perfection the Mario series has seen. While the original games on the NES are great, with Super Mario Bros. 3 being the best of the bunch, World just does everything better. The level design is flawless, the difficulty finds the perfect balance, and the game boasts a plentiful number of secrets to find. There has never been a better Mario game.
In opposition
Graham Russell: I can’t really knock Super Mario World. The stakes this far up the list are high, though, and I just don’t feel like World ever had the transcendent quality of a game like Super Mario 3, Galaxy or Yoshi’s Island. It’s a great game, but it feels just a bit too derivative to be that magical experience worthy of the #1 ranking.
What do you think of our picks? Let us know in the comments.
