Best Mainstream Mario Games

I love this game. It's one of my top FGOAT (favorite game of all time). Why do I love this game? Basically, it takes the greatest things of every 3d Mario games before it (except 3d Land because it doesn't really stands out), and makes it even better. Super Mario 64, let you explore the levels, and discover secrets, and let you collect most of the stars in the order you want. Odyssey, is the same thing but with even more moons, and is now better design around that concept, by not making you go back to the hub world after every moons, and adding checkpoint teleporters. Sunshine has fludd which is an amazing weapon to make the game control amazingly, and also have charming NPC being the Piantas. Odyssey, not only brought the dive and triple jump back, not only add a new rolling and high ground pound jump, not only let you kill enemies with cappy as well as letting you bounce on cappy, but also cappy let you transform into multiple enemies which all controls amazingly! Also, I would say Super Mario Odyssey have the best motion controls of any games. They are optional, you got reasons to use it, and they are simple, meaning, you don't have to do complex maneuvers with motion controls. Plus the game feels much more alive than before, with a lot of different NPCs and new species. I love the shiverian especially. Galaxy 1 and 2 are very polish with nothing too annoying being in those games, and they have one of the best soundtracks of video game history. Odyssey, is somehow even more polish than both Galaxy games, even though it has more collectibles, and Odyssey's soundtrack is my second favorite video game soundtrack of all time, and is better than Galaxy thanks to more variety. Finally, 3d World have a one of the second greatest level-design in the series. However, Odyssey comes first thanks to all the transformations. Even without transformations the levels are great! Not only that but odyssey stands out in ways the other Mario games doesn't. It has many details such as the fact you can enter the odyssey in three different ways, when you fall asleep there is a bird that stay on your nose, and many more. Also you can buy many costumes, you can fight amazing bosses, and the story is surprisingly good for a mainstream Mario. I could go on and on, but I won't say anything else except I love the scene where Cappy talks to Mario at the end of the level of the darker side of the moon. Not only, is this scene a great character development for Cappy, but it also remembers the reason why you play video game: fun. Now that I think about it, that's maybe the theme of Odyssey: the fun you have in video games. I mean listen to jump up superstar and you'll know what I mean.

I remembered back when there were commercials of that game when I was young, and this game didn't disappoint when I played it. The presentation is even better than the first game which already was one of the best looking games on Wii, and while I slightly prefer Galaxy 1 soundtrack over 2, it's still in my top 5 video game soundtracks. The level-design is the third best in the series in my opinion, and this game has the best use of Yoshi in a Super Mario game, and believe it or not it's thanks to motion controls. The bosses are pretty cool, and Bowser Jr's Doomsday Machine is one of my favorite bosses of all time, especially on the Daredevil comet. This game also have a very good post game material, with world 9, and especially the green stars, which is a much better reward for getting the first half of the stars than the same game but with Luigi. Whether, which 100%reward between the star festival or the perfect run is the best is debatable though. I mean, the perfect run is more interesting, but rewarding all of your efforts with more work is pretty painful, especially since after that you just got Rosalina on your ship. That's one of the reasons why I love Odyssey's version of the perfect run: you get two very cool reward for doing it. Never the less, I love Super Mario Galaxy 2.

This game is criminally underrated. It's the best 2d style Mario game (no, the Galaxy games are not like the 2d Mario games in my opinion). This game has the second best level-design in the series, and the bosses are decent. I love clear pipes especially. Also this game is great looking, and the music, while not as good as the galaxy games is still on my top 20 video game soundtracks. This game also marks the come back of SMB2 multiple characters, on top of adding Rosalina in the post game. This game does have it flaws. I would have prefer the timer to be out of the game, and the post game can be painful, because you have to replay all levels, with all 5 characters. Even then, this game is great.

This is my most nostalgic game of all time. It looks great, it sounds amazing, and the level-design is better than most Mario games as well as good bosses. However, I have to say, compare to the previous three entries, its level-design is pretty boring. I mean this game have a lot of ideas like the boo mushroom which are not use to their fullest potential. Never the less it's still great, and has a better difficulty spike than the two previous 3d Mario.

This game is ridiculously underrated, and is my favorite Gameboy and 2d Mario game. I have to admit, the new super Mario bros games can compete to this game because of the star coins, but this game is great thanks to how unique it is. The plot, not only took out Bowser as the main antagonist, but also took out the damsel in distress cliché. I love Wario by the way. This game have a great presentation for the Gameboy and his distinct look from other Mario games makes it more unique. This game also have great levels that are very original. The soundtrack isn't very good though. I know this might be because they repeat the main theme a lot, and that lowered the variety of the soundtrack, but games like Mario World, Sunshine, Wario Land 2, and many others, have made a better job at making a great soundtrack that repeats the same songs in different ways. That being said, I still love this game, and the new super Mario bros series should take example of this game.

This game is special. I love FLUDD, and how it expends the controls, and the presentation and music are great. My greatest complain however, is that this game has the least interesting level design of the 3d games. Other than that, I don't have that much flaws. 100% is only bad in some missions and is actually really fun, and while I'm the first to say that Sunshine is way more linear than people credit it for, I'm also the last person to complain when a game is linear or not.

Despite my thoughts on the qualities of 2d Mario, the new Super Mario Bros games are better than world, and 3. The world map is combinaison of the ones from 3 and world, with mushroom houses, and secrets levels everywhere, and Star Coins are a great addition for completionist. Also, I think the level design of those games are better than the world and 3. The reason why U is my favorite is because I think it has the best level design, and the challenges are good. Luigi U is also a good expansion. By the way, if you think deluxe is worst than the original, I don't know how you can prefer the same thing but less over the one that has more. Also, Bowsette should be call Peacher or Bowseach, because Bowsette should be a fusion between Toadette, and Bowser.

Same as U, only with slightly less things.

People seems to prefer the original 64, but I have to disagree. I don't care about the D-Pad, especially since there was no alternative on the DS. Great games, like A Link to the Past and Super Metroid could have made a way better job with the controls they could had, like mapping item slots to L and R in a link to the past, or having controls like zero mission in Super Metroid. In Super Mario 64 ds, there was no way they could have better controls. In fact I think 64 DS controls are better than the original, thanks to better overall camera that you can turn with the L button, ocarina of time style. The reason why I love this remake is because of the fact it's more ambitious than most remakes. A lot of good remakes lacks reason to be buy if you already have the original. Take ocarina of time 3d for example, which is a enormous improvement of the original, but lacks new features to make it feel new. 64 DS add more stars, and even new worlds, some annoying stars were improved, and we have a great multiple characters feature which is a good example of what DK64 could have been. Combine this with all the things that were great about the original (except five itty bitty secrets) and this game worth to be in my top 10. The reasons why it's not higher is because of flaws that were already in the originals like the lack of checkpoints and the fact you're force to go back to the hub world each time you get a star.