Best Super Mario Games Of All Time

What'southward the best Mario game e'er? Where practise yous even begin to rank them? Let'due south face information technology, whatever of the games in the pinnacle 10 could justifiably have the top spot. All of them could easily be somebody's 'all-time game of all fourth dimension', and there'll always be someone who believes the series peaked with The Lost Levels. That'due south an opinion y'all're entitled to!

Ranking all these classics is an inexact scientific discipline, but we hither at Nintendo Life take debated, made our private cases most this or that entry and come upwardly with a definitive compromise which we're all happy with. Yep, of course, at that place are personal favourites that some of u.s.a. would like to see bumped upwards college, but democracy has given us a handsome listing, regardless.

And if you're non in agreement? Well, we take two reader-ranked lists — 1 for the 2nd Mario games and another for the 3D Mario games — where you can have your say. Check them out to see how they compare to our personal picks:

  • Every 2D Super Mario Game Ranked
    Every 3D Super Mario Game Ranked

This ranked list is for the mainline Super Mario platformers only (both 2D and 3D) so you lot won't run across any spin-offs or sports titles. We've also excluded Yoshi's Isle, despite its official championship, for the same reason Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 doesn't feature either. Both games are spin-offs that, titles bated, are distinctly lacking in the Super Mario department.

You can check out our selections of the Best Zelda Games and Best Pokémon Games elsewhere, just without farther ado, we present our list of the Best Super Mario Games...

21. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES)

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES) Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (NES)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Date: 1st Oct 2007 (U.s.) / 14th Sep 2007 (Britain/European union)

The Lost Levels is a bit of a novelty for us westerners. The sequel to Super Mario Bros., it was released equally Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan, only Nintendo of America deemed information technology besides difficult for western players, and to an extent, you lot can come across where they were coming from. It's a sequel in the truest sense of the word - difficulty-wise, it picks up where World eight-4 left off in the original game.

It wasn't until Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES that we got to experience this game, where information technology picked up its 'Lost Levels' moniker. It'south non bad past any means, simply it'southward the sort of thing that would be a New Game+ mode in a modern game. It lacks the residual of challenge and reward y'all might associate with Mario platformers - it's unforgiving from the off, then but seasoned Mario veterans demand use. It'south available on Switch for anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, so feel costless to exam your mettle with it.

twenty. Super Mario Run (Mobile)

Super Mario Run (Mobile) Super Mario Run (Mobile)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 15th Dec 2016 (Usa) / 15th Dec 2016 (UK/EU)

Next up is Super Mario Run, which served equally Nintendo's first foray into mobile gaming (unless you count the ill-fated Miitomo). Information technology'due south a solid effort with clever compromises to allow for the one-touch control scheme. Mario runs automatically and vaults over enemies and small obstacles, and you pull off tricks past tapping at the right moment, jumping high or low depending on how long you agree your finger on the screen.

Nintendo updated the original game with Remix fashion providing addictive bitesize levels of platforming when you've only got your phone to hand. In the Mario canon it might be an also-ran, but it'southward a polished little feel that's pleasantly free of the microtransactions y'all observe in Nintendo's more recent mobile offerings.

19. Super Mario Land (GB)

Super Mario Land (GB) Super Mario Land (GB)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 31st Jul 1989 (U.s.a.) / 28th Sep 1990 (Britain/European union)

Super Mario Land was impressive when it was outset released for the Game Boy. The sequel might take made this original seem inadequate by comparison, but information technology's still a very fun Super Mario experience, albeit a short one. Only nigh the fourth dimension things are really getting practiced, the credits roll, only if you haven't played Super Mario Land before, yous owe information technology to yourself to give it a try - it's still worth playing through at least once, if only to run across where Mario'south portable adventures began. Cracking music, too.

18. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Engagement: 9th Oct 1988 (U.s.a.) / 28th Apr 1989 (United kingdom/European union)

Super Mario Bros. 2, or Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic to those in Japan (or Super Mario USA when its plumberised grade made its mode back due east), was the follow up to the original Bros. that we got in the w, a famously reskinned version of a Japan-only title with unlike mechanics to the original Mario game. It introduced the abilities to lift and throw objects and a screen that scrolled left and correct and up and down. Yes, the verticality of levels was a profound change from the first game.

Super Mario Bros. 2 remains very well regarded in the west and many of the elements it introduced have become mainstays of the series, even if the game's mechanics remain something of an anomaly in the 2d branch.

17. New Super Mario Bros. two (3DS)

New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo EAD

Release Engagement: 19th Aug 2012 (USA) / 17th Aug 2012 (Uk/European union)

A rare numbered Mario sequel, this is one from a series which continues to separate gamers to this mean solar day. New Super Mario Bros. 2 doubled down on – of all things – coin collection to create a strangely compulsive platformer in the familiar mould. Although hardly revolutionary, the 3D was a nice impact and if you tin cover the banality of its obsession with gold, it's a very solid, very enjoyable 2d Mario.

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sixteen. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch)

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo

Release Engagement: 11th Jan 2019 (USA) / 11th Jan 2019 (UK/EU)

New Super Mario Bros. U Palatial is an impressive package, offering the best of modernistic-era 2D Mario, madcap multiplayer and glimpses of the outrageous invention that was to come in Super Mario Odyssey. Combining the New Super Luigi U DLC content, plus various extra bells and whistles, this Deluxe Switch port of the Wii U original offers the tantalising adventure to replay a top-drawer Mario game on a handheld. Gameplay aside, ageing visuals and the irritation of being kicked back to the world map after every death stand out every bit things that could have been improved, but this is nonetheless a fine 2d Mario game.

15. Super Mario Land 2: half dozen Gilt Coins (GB)

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB)

Publisher: Nintendo / Developer: Nintendo R&D1

Release Date: 2nd Nov 1992 (USA) / 28th January 1993 (UK/Eu)

The original Super Mario Land was a solid beginning for the series on Nintendo's Game Boy system, but nothing could gear up gamers for what the developers were able to do with this sequel. They managed to better every aspect of the game and fifty-fifty made the take a chance a much longer and more rewarding feel this fourth dimension around. The difficulty is perhaps a bit on the easy side, only it's still i of the best Game Boy titles ever released and a testament to merely how capable a game organization the Game Male child truly was, and still is for that matter. A handheld marvel.