Top 10 Best Super Mario Flash Games

Yesterday was March 10th, which was MAR10, basically Mario's day. Because of this I thought of celebrating Mario's day with a list, but since I was busy yesterday the list will be here now instead. I'll be looking at the best Mario flash games. You see back when I didn't have any consoles and just a computer, this was where I played most games, flash games on the internet specifically. Most games I played were Mario games, and this was what made me learn about Mario and Mario games, and made me love them. So, why not look at which Mario flash games were the best ones? With that being said, here's the list.
The Top Ten
1 Super Mario 63

It's quite obvious that Super Mario 63 would top this list considering how impressive this game is. The fact that it's a flash game and for free on the internet to play and yet it's so well done is just excellent. It's almost as if it is a Nintendo game considering how much quality that was put into this game. It's mostly like a mix between Super Mario 64 (in terms of levels) and Super Mario Sunshine (in terms of FLUDD) and a bit of Super Mario Galaxy inspired things as well such as the excellent story, with the sprites and graphics of Yoshi's Island, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Super Princess Peach and it's 2D. Despite being 2D it's anything but linear as you can pretty much complete the levels in any order you want and the levels themselves aren't linear either. This game even has its own hub world, Peach's Castle from Super Mario 64. After all this game is kinda like a 2D version of Super Mario 64 but much better. Oh and the story. I mean the story is awesome for a mario game and it's amazing how they put such a serious story in a fan-made mario game not even by Nintendo? I mean this easly tops this list.

2 Super Mario Flash

Super Mario Flash was for most of us, the first Mario game we ever played. It certainly was for me anyways. I remember being a kid and randomly stumbling on this game, not knowing anything about Mario, and I fell in love with it. From the artstyle, to the gameplay, to the level editor. Yeah, level editor. The main game of Super Mario Flash is good enough. You play as Mario or Luigi as you traverse across an island to beat ten levels, and it's fun. Similarly, to Mario Forever Flash, the artstyle is based around the SNES port of Super Mario Bros in the levels, but there's also a map which borrows from Super Mario Bros. 3. Overall, this main game is good, but it couldn't on its own have brought Super Mario Flash at 4th place. That's where the Level Editor comes on. Super Mario Flash was the original Mario Maker, and it was seriously ahead of its time. It let you not only create levels, but there was so much customization. You could pick a theme for the main level, a theme for the bonus level, a song, and whatever tileset you wished for. Nearly all this which was stripped away in a game we do not speak of. Imagine a free game that offers more than an official one. That's Super Mario Flash to you. You could have a snowy night level that played the Boss music. Super Mario Flash is without a doubt one of the best Mario Flash games.

3 Gangster Bros.
4 Tuper Tario Tros.

In 8th place we have Tuper Tario Tros. This is by far the most different Mario Flash game from any other on this list, as it merges Super Mario Bros. with Tetris. At first glance, this game doesn't seem to be anything in particular. Just a normal Mario platformer with a stupidly large resolution. But then Mario encounters a wall too steep to climb up. This is when the game introduces its gimmick. You must switch between two game modes. In the standard one, Mario is just casually walking on the level, in the other mode you are building the level by playing Tetris. Yeah, Tetris in Mario. Might sound a bit overpowered, but the twist is that the game is constantly auto-scrolling, and Mario can't move in Tetris mode. So you can't just slack around. And the end is just as tense, you think you've completed the level but the castle is gone, and so you must rebuild it from scratch. At the same time you're under a strict time limit, and goombas are falling down from pipes. So you need not only to build the castle in the limited time span, but you also must make sure not to get killed on the go. You don't need to fill the entire castle but it will earn more points. This game is just so original, so why is it only at #9? Well it's because it's also the most wasted potential for a Mario flash game, as it's just ONE single level. If the game had had maybe four levels, or eight, it would've felt more complete, but as it stands now it's kind of lackluster. Had this game had more content packed to it, it could've easily made my top five.

5 Super Mario Defender
6 Mario Ghosthouse

If you asked me what Level theme in Mario has had the biggest downfall, it would be the Ghost House theme. When it was first introduced back in Super Mario World, ghost houses were a kind of level out of the norm where instead of walking straight, you had to look for secrets to get anywhere. They were fun short levels where you had to use your brains instead of your brash. Then the newer games completely botched the Ghost House theme and just made it normal platforming levels with trolls everywhere, but the point is, I love the OG Ghost House theme. So why not base an entire game around them? It's the ultimate ghost house that Mario needs to find a way out of. The way to do this is by collecting all the coins in a room so that a door can spawn and take you to another one, but a twist is that not all rooms lead to the next one. Even the very first room contains leads to two other ones that are basically dead ends. Overall, it's an ok game but it's also unfortunately one of the more frustrating games in Mario Flash, and some of the later levels can be very annoying in how they prioritize platforming difficulty over critical thinking, but as it stands, I still like it. This is one of the few games which tackles the mega Ghosthouse gimmick, and it is probably the one that does it the best. Similarly to Luigi's Revenge what puts this game on the list is mostly just the fact that the standard for Flash games tends to be low. But I like it, and it could've been a lot worse.

7 Mario Remix Boss Edition
8 A Koopa's Revenge 2

A Koopa's Revenge 2 is certainly an interesting game and a huge, HUGE improvment on the original. So basically this duology of games is like the opposite of mario games as you control a fellow Koopa Troopa who must defeat mario, and in this game, Mario has kidnapped Bowser. Yeah, it's sick. And it's quite a well-made game. The world map is huge and there's tons of levels and secret levels and you can take different shortcuts and it's much bigger and better than in the original. Oh yeah, and all the levels have a day/night cycle. Basically if you play a level and it's day, the next time you play a level it'll be night and vice versa. The music is borrowed not from the mario series but are different songs from different compositors and it really fits. It deserves to be high up here.

9 Super Mario Flash 2

Yeah. The Super Mario Flash duology is basically the root of mario flash games and mario level editors in the first place and is one of the reasons it's so high up. I have the sequel above the original simply because it's a bit bigger and has more levels and a bigger world, and a more improved level editor with tons of more features. The level editor is the focus of the game and it really works well. It's basically a flash version of Super Mario World in terms of the graphics.

In third place we have the successor to Super Mario Flash, titled Super Mario Flash 2. This game is basically in every way an improvement over the original Super Mario Flash, both in terms of the game itself, but also in terms of the Level Editor. The original Mario Flash was taking Super Mario Bros. and putting it on the internet, with flairs of the 3rd game. Super Mario Flash 2 on the other hand borrows from Super Mario World, both in artstyle and in map design. Granted I prefer SNES Super Mario Bros. artstyle but it's hard to deny the improvements of this game. Now there's P-Switches, more level variety, more difficulty, just to name some. Now one problem I have with Mario Flash 2 is that the difficulty can be unforgiving. Most of the game is pretty easy and pay respect to the original game, but bits of it are just poor game design. Level 3 has a painful gap in which you have to use a trampoline to get over, but actually bouncing off it requires way too precise timing. And the entirety of Level 9 can just… But overall, this game is fun. But what's more fun is the improved level editor. It retains all features of the original Level Editor, but adds so much more. You can make vertical levels, add layers, add multiple choices of winning a level, make different versions of an enemy, custom music, make objects move, auto-scrolling, and much more. To think that Super Mario Maker, a game that came out five years later, only had a fraction of what a free game had says a lot. Without a doubt Super Mario Flash 2 is amazing.

10 Super Mario Bros. Star Scramble 2: Ghost Island

Super Mario Star Scramble is one of the few Mario Flash games that has its own franchise, consisting of a trilogy of games. In these games, Mario must collect a certain number of shines in order to traverse to the next level, pretty self-explanatory. The first game is a bit primitive, but it's quality. The second game is definitely better, and the third entry changed the aestethics too much. But the point is, it's a consistent trilogy. It's a unique spin on the 2D Mario franchise, it's one of the few Mario Flash games I can say the developers really cared. Of the three games, none makes this list actually. Well, kind of. In 8th place we have Super Mario Star Scramble 2: Ghost Island, a halloween-themed version of the second entry. Although the levels are brand new. The reason this one's my favourite of the bunch is because of the spooky aestethic, which makes it stand out more than the rest. The levels have a very grim theme, with a graveyard in the background, the air is bluish, and there are boos everwhere. And despite the fact that the song that plays during the levels is a little bit too happy, it strangely fits, and I don't know why. Overall, Mario Star Scramble 2: Ghost Island is a very solid game, and I think most of us can agree.

The Contenders
11 Super Mario Bounce
12 A Koopa's Revenge

The predecessor of "A Koopa's Reveneg" is easly much weaker than the sequel but overall I found loads of enjoyment in this game as well. It doesn't have the same quality or nearly as good levels or original bosses, but it's still fun. So this time there are a total of five worlds (and three secret levels) all with three levels within them and a boss battle in the third level of each world. Oh yeah and the first and third levels in each world have the same background but the second one has not. Fun side note. The bosses aren't good but I like how you fight agianst the mario bros., peach and even the wario bros.. That's a fun idea. The controls are way worse than in the sequel and the enemies all die in one hit with blood all over them but still.

13 Super Mario Bros. Star Scramble
14 Mario Forever Flash

Well I guess you could call this the flash version of the fanmade mario game "Mario Forever" (that game is awesome, but it's not a flash game) but with only four worlds and it's very similar to Super Mario Flash and I thought it was a cool game. It's quite challenging and has left a lot of nostalgia in me, and it plays smoother than Super Mario Flash (even though that game is overall better). This game kinda is the more simplified version of Mario Forever.

Now we're getting to the really good stuff, starting with Mario Forever Flash. Just from the title of the game, it's obvious that this game is directly inspired by Mario Forever, one of the best Mario fan-games of all time, with the only difference being that Forever Flash is half as long and uses more aestethics from Super Mario All-Stars. And while Mario Forever itself is amazing, it's not a Flash game so I can't have it on the list. But Mario Forever Flash is almost as good. You follow Mario through four difficult worlds in a very basic platformer that takes direct inspiration of Super Mario Bros. on the SNES. Aestethics and music are directly ripped off it, and I like that because Super Mario Bros. on the SNES has one of my favourite art styles in all of 2D Mario, with its bright colours and fun detailing. And for a Flash game, the controls are suprisingly fluid. You always feel like you're in control, and that's important because this game is STUPIDILY hard! I don't mean it just requires skill, in the second half of the game, you'll pray that you don't lose a life, as the platforming is some of the most difficult in all of Mario. Like it's stupid luck whether or not these Koopa's are in the right spot. But this game is also hard because of a lack of power-ups. Some levels have no Power-up boxes, some have just one. Only in the beginning are there at least two question blocks in every level, after that it's up to you. Luckily as I said, the controls makes it bearable, and the game ends on a good note, with a relatively easy final level and satisfying final boss. Overall, Mario Forever Flash, not bad. Could've been better but it's one of the best Mario flash games for sure.

15 Luigi's Revenge Interactive

Starting off the list we have Luigi's Revenge Interactive. Have you ever played a game that you thought was super fun as a kid, but now that you're an adult you realize it hasn't aged well at all? Well one of those games is Luigi's Revenge. This game and another one, Super Mario Flash Version 2 have a lot of similarities. These are very short games which contain precisely three short levels, with relatively primitive controls, a final boss that revolves around the Shift button, but most importantly, an unnecessary amount of gore. In addition, they're painfully simplistic. This isn't surprising as they were made by the same guy. Why do I have this game on the list then? Well it's simple. Partly because there aren't many good Mario Flash games (most are pretty awful), but also it could've been worse. Super Mario Flash Version 2 is pretty bad but Luigi's Revenge is decent. The controls are definitely better, and the feel is way cleaner. It's interesting how every level is in some way related to castles, whether it be the courtyard, or a castle. This is the kind of Mario Flash game I could just pick up any day of the week and play. It's primitive but it's a charming kind of primitive.

16 Cat Mario
17 Super Mario Bros. Crossover
18 Unfair Mario
19 Super Smash Flash 2

It's not just a mario flash game, but a Smash Bros one too!

20 Mario Starcatcher 2
21 Super Mario Bomber
22 Mario BP Oil Spill
23 Mario Cart Flash
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