The Super Mario Bros. Series was a significant factor in the NES' success. The NES, overall, revitalized the console market that died with the Atari 2600. The collapse was so bad that there was an infamous burying of video games in a dump which has been well-documented at this point.
Will that ever happen again in the video game industry? It’s hard to imagine Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft tossing their consoles in a ditch and collectively shrugging their shoulders. So, in celebration of the NES’ accomplishments, let’s look at the many Mario games on the system. This list will only rank games with Mario specifically in the title to keep things pure. So, games like Donkey Kong and Wrecking Crew, as examples, are out. This list also won't include games for the Famicom Disk System, such as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros., and Return of Mario Bros.
7 Mario's Time Machine
Mario's Time Machine is barely a Mario game at its core. It is one of many educational games based around the popular plumber to help cash in on that market which was huge in the 80s and 90s. It is essentially a history lesson wherein players could take Mario around the world and across time.
There are some puzzle elements, but they aren’t riveting to solve. It is an easy game to skip that no hardcore fan needs to see or play.
6 Mario is Missing!
Mario is Missing! Is kind of an educational experience as well, but at least there is more of a game here. Mario, as the title announces with its exclamation point, is missing.
Luigi is on a mission to find his brother across the Mushroom Kingdom, sort of like a prototype of Luigi’s Mansion sans the ghosts. The sprites look a lot like the ones from Super Mario World except downgraded to the NES’ capabilities. It’s still not a game one would call fun, but at least it had more to do with it.
5 Mario Bros.
Mario Bros., like many early entries in the series, was an arcade game first. The concept is simple as Mario has to go through a series of rooms and defeat every enemy before he can progress. He has no power-ups, but Mario can use shells from Koopa Troopas to knock out other enemies. There is also a POW Block in the middle of the room.
It is a simple experience, but it can still be fun alone or with a partner to see who can get the better score.
4 Dr. Mario
Tetris redefined puzzle games, and a litany of clones followed its release; Dr. Mario was one of those clones. Matching colors and blocks was still part of the puzzle process, but there was a twist. Mario had to break down viruses with the help of pills he threw at them.
It’s still odd to think that Mario somehow got a doctorate to do this after being a plumber for so long. His career has had a wild ride over these past thirty-plus years, but jokes aside, this is a solid Tetris-like.
3 Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. Is one of the most well-known video games of all time. It is an absolute classic that has appeared on almost every console and handheld Nintendo has put out since the NES launched. It has gotten straight ports, remakes, and remasters as well.
By today’s standards, the original can be hard to go back to since the controls aren’t as tight as its sequels. No one can take away the history and impact this game has had over the years, though, archaic controls or not.
2 Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 2 was what the West got instead of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. It is a re-skinned version of another Japanese game, Doki Doki Panic, which would explain all of the giant changes made to the gameplay and world. When it turns out it was all a dream of Mario’s, it sort of made sense.
It makes less sense now since a lot of the enemies have appeared outside of Mario’s dreams, such as Birdo and Shy Guys, but fans of the Mario series really don’t care about semantics. It’s a weird “sequel,” to be sure, but weird is good in this case.
1 Super Mario Bros. 3
Is Super Mario Bros. 3 the best 2D platformer in the series? Some think so, but others think Super Mario World is superior. No matter which side fans fall on, most can at least agree they are both amazing Mario games on top of being amazing platformers.
Super Mario Bros. 3 felt like the first true sequel to Super Mario Bros., and Nintendo put everything into it. The world was bigger, it looked better, there were a lot of cool new power-ups, and so much more. Every Mario game following this on consoles controls like a buttery smooth dream, and it’s all thanks to Super Mario Bros. 3.