Ranking Every Mainline Mario Game

Super Mario Bros Wonder releases in a couple months and it's looking like a massive shake-up to the series getting a new major Mario release is always a treat but today I want to take a look back at the mainline Mario titles that have been released over the last few several decades and see how they hold up today ranking them from the very worst to the best but first I want to clarify what constitutes a Mainline Mario game I'll keep it short but if you want to skip to the ranking there will be a time stamp in the description for that I have a few rules for what belongs on this list in spoiler alert it's just kind of made up Nintendo's never made an official list of Mainline Mario games but there is a bit of community consensus the first rule is that it has to be a Super Mario platformer basically it's part of the Super Mario series and isn't a spin-off like Mario Kart or Mario Party the second rule is that Mario has to be the main character this might sound stupid but Super Mario World 2 and Super Mario Land 3. those games are just Yoshi's Island and Wario Land games they were clearly just given those subtitles for marketing purposes and it doesn't make any sense to include these games and not their sequels that play identically and the third rule is that the game had to have released on a Nintendo console sorry Super Mario run fans but it doesn't seem fair to compare a mobile game to a full price title on actual Nintendo Hardware next no duplicates this includes ports remakes collections Etc it's just to keep this list at a reasonable length finally I'm not including Mario Maker titles I think it's completely fair to say these games are Mainline since they have their own levels story and whatnot but I want to take into account everything each game has to offer and when a game has millions of levels that's just not possible you could argue it's the best Mario game because it has an infinite number of great levels and you could argue that it's the worst Mario games since 90 of those levels were made by kids who don't understand level design it's virtually impossible to try and find a fair place to put these games the last thing I want to say really quickly is keep in mind that Mario games are pretty good basically if you think a game you love is too low on this list it's probably an amazing video game I just think the other Mario titles offer more but again we're talking about Mario games we're basically comparing the cream of the crop anyways without further Ado let's get into this list first up on this list is Super Mario Land and honestly this game is about what you'd expect it to be the fact that it was released for the Game Boy is what ends up holding it back it's simply due to Hardware restraints it's just a very simple Mario game and you can't hate it for being the way it is but it doesn't have enough depth to be any higher on this list even with how short the game is it still offers some interesting gameplay mechanics like being able to fly in the plane or explore underwater in a submarine but a lot of these levels are still forgettable making the final boss an alien instead of Bowser is also an interesting change of pace in this game actually introduced Princess Daisy to the Mario Series so overall the game has a lot of charm and it's cool that they tried to do something original even on the Game Boy but the other games on this list are just plain better also the Overworld theme is kind of a Bop for absolutely no reason Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels is next and I've got beef with this game see in Japan this was their Super Mario Bros 2. Nintendo thought the rest of the world couldn't handle the game's difficulty so are Super Mario Bros 2 was a completely different game thus this game being rebranded to the Lost Levels when it made its way to the rest of the globe years after its release while the game is definitely difficult the level design is also just kind of flawed it just feels like Nintendo decided that difficulty is inherently fun and because of that this game is evil the first mushroom you see in the game actually kills you and there are work pipes that will reset you all the way back to Worlds you've already been in sometimes this game feels like some awful troll level in Mario Maker except it's a full-on Mario game developed by Nintendo themselves seriously the difficulty isn't just making tight jumps or tough Maneuvers but you straight up get punished for exploring sometimes the Saving Grace of this game is simply the fact that it uses the Super Mario Bros engine also having levels that you can play after beating the game which is a super neat addition but that's about the only thing keeping this game from being the absolute worst on this list Super Mario Land 2 is definitely an improvement over Super Mario Land but it's still a Game Boy game you can tell this game took inspiration from Super Mario World with how it has a massive connected Overworld and there's just so much creativity here the game centers around six zones and beating each Farm Boss will give you the golden coin the zones are pretty cool each having their own unique theme in the space Zone you actually fight against tatonga the final boss of the first Super Mario Land which is a great throwback after collecting all six coins you return to Mario's Castle that has been taken over by Wario who you must defeat seeing an evil version of Mario at the time was probably a bit weird but it's nice that Wario's become a staple of the Mario series since so why is this game so low well because the gameplay is not that fun it's just clunky and I understand that that's because the limitations of the Game Boy but that doesn't mean I have to like it the carrot power up is kind of neat but it's also pretty broken you can pretty much just Spam the jump button to skip over any level and honestly with the way this game controls I wouldn't blame you for doing so and now we arrive to the game that started it all Super Mario Bros the fact that this game is so low isn't because it's bad but it's a testament to how much Nintendo has expanded on this format since this game released the game did so much not only for Mario but also gaming in general arguably saving the video game industry single-handedly and you can definitely see why with its mechanics power-ups and level design so many games have been inspired by this one even with its somewhat linear format this game still offers every player a unique experience with several hidden secrets like the warp pipe that lets you skip entire worlds the core concept of this game is amazing and Nintendo has been able to take this concept and run with it in recent years but yeah going back and playing this game after playing all the other Mario titles it definitely has been improved on not being able to travel backwards in levels and going back to small Mario after getting hit no matter what power-up you have those are definitely features that can stay in that time period Super Mario Bros 2. yeah this isn't even a Mario game it's actually a reskin of a famicom game called Doki Doki Panic earlier I mentioned that the US got a different version of Mario 2 than Japan and uh this is it honestly it's kind of weird to think how iconic Mario enemies like Shy Guy and Birdo were not actually Mario characters to begin with this might be the weirdest Mario game for that reason but it's still a platform I'm not sure about the choice of the turnips as a power-up but I can't pretend like eating this at enemies isn't fun I think the best thing this game offered was having four playable characters each with their own abilities we saw this return in 3D world and it still holds up really well as a feature even with the main cast being replaced with Mario characters Bowser sadly does not return in this game instead we get work this little frog looking guy and I'm not sure about him either but don't worry because it was all a dream oh yeah they switched Berto and Astros names in the credits how can you make such an obvious mistake next up is the new Super Mario Bros 2. this game's main gimmick was coins and that's neat I guess it just feels a bit oversaturated for the most part like cool I clicked all these coins and now I get to collect even more of these coins after a while it just kind of feels stale and that's pretty much how the new Super Mario Bros series fell at this point despite having two in its name this is actually the third installment and it's basically just more of the same a lot of what this game tried to do had already been done recently you have the same world format same Koopalings even bringing back the Tanuki Leaf this had just been done in Super Mario 3D Land so it simply didn't hit as hard what even keeps it this high on the list is the fact that it's fun I like running and jumping through levels and looking for hidden star coins but unfortunately it feels like junk food the coin collecting stuff has its moments but for the most part it's not too satisfying a lot of the marketing for this game would challenge you to collect 1 million coins but at the end of the day it's just an arbitrary large number speaking of arbitrary large number if you're enjoying this video so far consider subscribing we have a rival Channel called Wii U stop and look at their sub count we have less subscribers and every time I'm reminded of this I cry myself to sleep look at me right now so please consider subscribing so we can finally surpass them it would mean the world to me new Super Mario Bros Wii U is next and this is the same problem all over again I could see arguing that this is the best new soup game because it has the most content but it doesn't do that much new stuff once again it's more of the same I mean the baby Yoshi's are cool and being a squirrel is funny and all but this series was immeasurably stale at this point this game released the same year as new Super Mario Bros 2. nobody was buying a Wii U just to play this game this game mainly beats Super Mario Bros 2 because it has better multiplayer also letting a fifth player use the stylus to create blocks was admittedly an interesting feature but most of the time the person behind the GamePad would become power hungry and start sabotaging everybody else perhaps the most interesting thing about this game was the challenges yeah who remembers those let's move on Super Mario 3D Land was about exactly what it needed to be Nintendo had previously tried to Port Mario 64 to the DS and it didn't control too well this was pretty much them learning from their mistakes because of that this game is more linear than what most people would expect from a 3D Mario title but I think they made the right choice here it's still interesting especially how it manages to revive old power-ups while introducing new ones it also tried to implement the 3DS's 3D feature into some sections but I don't think anyone actually used that this is just a standard Mario platformer with simple level designs and it works really well with its respective console however because they went with a safer option it doesn't stand out too much as a Mario game which is why it's stuck in the middle of this Rankin new Super Mario Bros believe it or not this game was once actually considered a somewhat novel concept at the time this was the first 2D Mario platformer in over a decade it had some great power ups like the mega mushroom and the blue shell and also a lot of fun level design choices two of the worlds in this game are actually unlockable through beating a couple of bosses with mini mushrooms which is a nice secret to have the coolest secret in this game though is that Luigi is playable which I didn't even know until years after playing this game when you've beaten the game you can hold L and R and then click on your file to play as green Mario himself the mini games from Mario 64 make a return here too I spent way too much time playing poker against Luigi's kid a kid that age should not be playing that much poker a lot of people would probably rank the original new Super Mario Bros over the Wii version but I think that new Super Mario Bros Wii is better when this game came out the series was still interesting and didn't feel still yet what gives this game an edge over DS is that it has simultaneous multiplayer with up to four people and it was the first Mainline Mario game to do this having four players at once offered so much and made this game way more fun no longer did you have to take turns with your little sibling or cousin or whatever I'm not going to pretend like this wasn't absolutely chaotic at times but that's just part of the experience and fun this game also brought back the Koopalings which was at one point also a novel concept as well and then Nintendo made them take up seven character slots in Mario Kart 8 and we all hated them okay having an NES title this high on the list might seem ridiculous but I think Super Mario Bros 3 genuinely earns its spot here since it was released later in the nes's lifespan it heavily pushes the boundaries of that console and it shows so much of what you love about Mario originates from this game just look at the world map every world has its own theme which is a core part of Mario games today honestly Nintendo might have been more creative with the theming then than they are now just look at Giant land where everything is way bigger than Mario this game also has amazing power-ups items like the Tanuki leaf frog suit and Goomba shoe are incredibly fun to use it also has the hammer suit which is frankly a massive waste of potential it's only in a couple of levels and Nintendo refuses to bring it back even in Mario Maker there's also items that you can use on the map which makes the game fun to replay as you get a new experience every time if you really want to you can simply grab two warp whistles in world one go to world 2 and then immediately skip all the way to world 8. making this a great game to speedrun it just feels like Mario 1 walked so Mario 3 could run in this game paved the way for Mario titles to soar Super Mario Sunshine is so good but it's also so weird a lot of people say that this is a game you either love or hate and well I don't think it's perfect I don't know why anybody would hate it it controls really well and the camera is definitely an improvement over Mario 64. flood does take a bit of time to get used to but once you do get used to it it becomes second nature and definitely adds to the experience there's a lot of fun levels some really cool boss fights and Yoshi makes his first 3D appearance I will say this game is more linear than Mario 64 since you have to collect the seven shines from every area however the thing people usually clown on this game for is its story and like at least they tried of course it may be a bit silly but it's also a Mario game like I don't expect the highest quality when it comes to storytelling I thought it was pretty cool the voice acting was pretty bad but you know like I said they tried my two biggest gripes with this game are that some of the levels simply aren't very good and blue coins just suck earlier I praised the camera Nintendo decided to throw all that away when they made the Pachinko level also if you want 100 this game you need to collect 240 blue coins and they're a massive pain to keep track of it also doesn't help that some blue coins in certain areas will just straight up not spawn depending on what shine you select but fear not because when you do 100 the game you get a postcard Neato all right next is Super Mario Galaxy and I already know a lot of you are gonna hate me for this simply put Mario Galaxy is a beautiful game its Story the characters the atmosphere I understand why people love this game so much but I don't think it's as fun as some of the other Mario games even though it's a 3D game the level design and mechanics make it feel fairly linear and at times redundant hopping from planet to planet is pretty cool but when I have to do it in the order the developers want me to the game feels less personal and as a consequence less replayable the Comets don't really help since they basically force you to replay the same levels with a slight twist even the power-ups feel more restrictive you sacrifice your spin drum just to fly slowly hover slowly spring jump slowly the coolest power up is the red star and sadly it's only used in one level also if you truly want a hundred percent this game you have to collect every Star and then do it all over again with Luigi G but fear not because when you do 100 this gain you get a postcard who who keeps doing this whose idea is this in all seriousness there's so much this game does right the levels are still fun things like the Hub world and Rosalina's storybook are really charming and I'm almost convinced that the aliens came down from Earth to compose this game's soundtrack because it has no business being this good I still think this is a great game and I'm glad it exists but I just prefer the other formats Super Mario Galaxy 2. it really feels like Nintendo made the levels in this game by taking what they already had in Galaxy in heavily expanding on it and we also see this in the power-ups the cloud flower and The Rock mushroom are actually fun to use and Yoshi also returns with some items of his own so yeah this is a more fun game overall but it sacrifices some of the things that made Galaxy so memorable the story is much more mundane Rosalina is replaced by a big Luma and instead of the comet observatory you get to travel across the galaxies on Mario's face now this Hub world does become more fleshed out as you progress through the game with new faces you meet joining you on your adventure but it's just not the common Observatory now you actually unlock Luigi in the middle of your adventure this time and then when you collect all the normal Stars you have to click the green stars which are hidden throughout the galaxies a lot of people hate these but I'll take this over Super Luigi Galaxy any day my biggest complaint about this game is the final Bowser fight you just ground pound these little moon like objects towards him and it's way too easy you'd pretty much have to try to lose now we're entering the top five and leading off we have Bowser's Fury all right grab your pitchforks maybe a torch and let me explain Bowser's Fury is a fairly short game that most people will beat in several hours I mean Nintendo decided to bundle it with 3D world because it probably wouldn't sell Too Well by itself considering its length however I'm putting it on this list regardless because it's a completely new story that plays like every other game on the list the reason it's this high is because it's an absolute Blast for every single second you're playing it there are constantly new ideas being thrown at you and it's pretty much never boring with how many different objectives and types of sections there are I love the idea of having one big giant level because it's great at letting you play at your own pace the way you want to the final boss fight is also insanely cool the way you're able to play is a giant cat version of Mario without being too overpowered and making the boss fight too easy is a perfect balance at making this one of the most interesting boss fights in any Mario game it literally takes the entire big level of Bowser's Fury and makes it a Boss Arena it's crazy basically for what it is this game is extremely close to being the perfect Mario game with this level of creativity however how short it is I just can't justify putting it any higher number four is Super Mario World and this is the highest 2D Mario game on this list Super Mario Bros 3 pushed the NES to its absolute limit in this game is what you get when you take a lot of those limitations away the game obviously has better graphics but you also have 96 levels across a massive interconnected map filled with tons of cool Secrets it also introduced Yoshi for the first time ever Miyamoto had envisioned Mario riding a dinosaur since the very first Super Mario game was in development and in this game his dream finally came to life Yoshi is such a cool addition and there's a reason he's in pretty much every Mario game nowadays the mechanics of this game function extremely well too and the movement might just be the best across every 2D Mario game considering how fluid it is however the main charm of this game comes from its presentation in overall Vibe the new Super Mario Bros games kind of just blend together and are somewhat forgettable at times but this game game stands out from the rest from the 16-bit graphics to the music to even the sound effects so much of this game is just simply iconic and it makes the game a joy to go back to and play today this game's level of personality is something that's been missing from 2D Mario basically since and I really hope we see it return in Super Mario Bros Wonder coming up next is Super Mario 3D World how is this number three because it's fun new Super Mario Bros Wii added four player co-op and made that game an absolute blast this game did it for a 3D Mario title obviously this game was going to be more linear than the other 3D Mario games but it doesn't really take away from that experience while you have to play the game level by level completing each World in order you don't care because the developers are actually creative Geniuses this game introduces so many new ideas so many interesting Concepts before you can even become bored of a level you're already starting the next level which is equally as fun and creative as the last one anything and everything you think of the developers have put into this game just look at the Double Cherry this was originally a glitch and the developers were like I don't know why they're two Marios but put that in the game too and of course you can experience this joy of the game with three other people 3D World doesn't have a deep story but it also doesn't pretend to be a tear-inducing masterpiece I think the music is also a perfect example of this while Galaxy went all out with an orchestra this game uses a lot of jazz music it's just very upbeat basically serving to remind you that you're playing a Mario game so Jump Around grab a super Bell and have fun when considering why we even play video games and when a game is as fun as 3D world is I think it's completely fair to give this title the third spot on this list the second highest Mario game on this list Super Mario 64. this game is a bit of an acquired taste because it's the first 3D Mario game the movement can feel clunky and the camera can be downright horrendous at times but weirdly enough as you process through the game it starts to feel like you're in full control certainly doesn't have the most natural feeling movement of any Mario game but it also has the most precise movement because of how difficult the game is to master it may be the most satisfying the main appeal of Mario 64 though is that you can play the game at your own pace as long as you get the required amount of stars the game really doesn't care where they came from and because of that this perhaps might be the least linear Mario title it is also your own experience there's thousands of ways to beat this game including cheating yeah this game is broken and I love it there's something about collecting a star in a way that you just aren't supposed to that just feels so rewarding the amount of exploits and glitches this game has coupled with the fact the movement is is so precise makes this game a speedrunner's paradise in my opinion this is the most replayable Mario game because even though you've collected all the stars you can experience the game in a completely different way honestly this game is definitely not perfect and not as accessible to new players as a lot of other Mario games but it's also like a beautiful accident we're never getting anything like this ever again the biggest disappointment with this game is the fact that Nintendo botched two opportunities to remaster it the DS version is fun and definitely offers some cool additions but playing a 3D platformer on a d-pad just isn't great however the 3D All-Stars version is just straight up lazy aside from the HD upscale it's just a version of the game from 1997 that had removed some of the popular glitches and exploits they didn't even bother to make the camera better at all they could have done so much the devs originally wanted to make the game two player and they could have finally made that possible I think they could have made elf finally real on Honestly though even if you haven't played this game and didn't think it was for you I recommend giving it a second chance because it can take a bit of time to appreciate hell I'm a 21 year old who was born in 2002 and didn't play the game until I was 18 years old in college I have no Nostalgia for this game whatsoever and I still have these feelings for this game so if you haven't played it give it a second chance take a bit of time to appreciate it as the overall Masterpiece that it is all right the final game the greatest Mario game of all time I'm not gonna keep you guys waiting anymore it's Super Mario Bros 2 Game of the Year Edition that's right baby 35 years in a row thrill though while Mario 64 is my favorite Mario game I wouldn't say it's the best it definitely has its problems and just isn't for everyone the Mario game that I think is the best however is Super Mario Odyssey this game lets you have your cake and eat it too because quite literally it has a little something for everyone you have an actual story like Galaxy while also having 3D Mario return to form with its sandbox collect-a-thon gameplay the worlds are also so creative and fun to explore you can travel to the remains of our ancient ancestors you can hang out with Mario's ex-girlfriend yeah they brought her back oh ruined Kingdom yeah that's pretty boring just kidding there's a freaking Dragon it's literally like you're playing Skyrim now and the movement is the icing on the cake sometimes it's just fun to go to New Dong City and jump around and do some more kicks pair that with the ability to throw Cappy and bounce off of him it's just amazing this game also cares so much about Mario and his legacy the Mushroom Kingdom comes back and look at the outfits the 8-Bit and 64 costumes are just so cool but so many of them are also Niche references that most people wouldn't even recognize or care about but they included them anyways the one thing I don't like as much about Odyssey is the moons getting a moon from completing a difficult obstacle isn't too satisfying when I just got a moon from ground pounding a shiny spot in the dirt like five seconds ago but honestly I think this just boils down to personal preference I haven't even talked about the capture mechanic instead of having just a few new power ups everything is a power up having Mario turn into a dinosaur was insane and then he becomes an actual human which is somehow infinitely weirder The Genius of the capture mechanic becomes so Apparent at the end of the game when you spoiler alert get to play as Bowser having Mario rescue Peach while scratching and fire breathing to their escape as Bowser might be one of the greatest moments in any Mario game ever the capture ability alone has so much potential and I'd love to see what else they do with it if only we ever got a sequel to this game anyways that's my ranking for every Mainline Mario game let me know in the comments below what your favorite game on this list was and why you think all of my opinions suck and if you're wanting more Mario talk go check out this video right here talking about 100 facts about Super Mario toodles [Music]

Channel: Switch Stop

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Keywords: Nintendo Direct, Switch News, Switch Stop, mario odyssey, super mario 3d world deluxe, mario ranking, super mario ranking, mainline mario ranking, super mario bros, super mario sunshine, super mario 64, super mario galaxy, bowsers fury, super mario world, super mario 3d land, ranking every mario game, ranking every mainline mario game, ranking every super mario game, every super mario game ranked, super mario ranked, super mario land

Id: XcUi6lT7SY0

Length: 26min 4sec (1564 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2023