The BIG Mario Vote Thread! Voting Closed, Top Ten Unveiled - Thanks For Playing!

It’s the Nintendo series everybody can agree on: kids, pensioners, the casual and the hardcore all love a bit of Super Mario. The Mario games, in many people’s opinion, represent the absolute apex of computer games. There’s nothing I’ve seen that’s as clever, comprehensive, original and so brilliantly, brilliantly designed as the best games starring Super Mario. What’s best about the Mario games is that, looking back, it’s almost all highlights. He’s got the best platformers, he’s got the best cart racers, he’s got the best sports games, he’s got the lot.

So let’s discuss those games. The ingenious gameplay, impossibly catchy sounds and astounding sights that make that game better than that, but not as good as that, and on par with that. Good luck with this one: some of these games are so good that they’re almost impossible to type about!

Usual voting thread rules apply - send me a top ten by midnight next Monday morning (subject to change: I might extend it if necessary).

In:

Anything that features Mario as a playable and/or as the main character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_(franchise)
(Examples: Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Mario Party, Paper Mario, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Dr. Mario, Mario Picross etc. etc.)


Out:

Super Mario All Stars:
Four separate games that you're welcome to vote for...just not as one, like this compilation.

Super Smash Bros.:
Is Smash Bros really a Mario game? It’s not really a Zelda game, or a Metroid game, is it? Leave it out, ta.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island & *snigger* Yoshi’s Island DS:
Games from a coexisting franchise. Decided as Yoshi games, rather than Mario.

Luigi’s Mansion (1 and 2) & Super Princess Peach:
Mario is there, but he’s not playable. Out!

Donkey Kong Country, Yoshi’s Story, Wario Land, WarioWare etc. etc.:
Games from coexsiting franchises.

~

Excellent thread idea!  Without further ado:

• YI, YIDS and indeed T&G are all more Yoshi than Mario.  If we're omitting Story, I'd omit these as well.  He is the same Mario, though...
  
• I'd say "no" on SPP and LM(2) for the same reason, but I agree that it's closer.

Stickied briefly!  I'll probably vote next weekend.

Great vote idea, personally I would like to vote for super MARIO world 2: yoshi's island. Maybe we vote for any game that has MARIO in the title.

Nice idea for a vote, I look forwards to seeing the results!

Mario Picross? Not really about Mario but it has his name attached.

Edit: Never mind it doesn't make my top 10 after all.

Edit Edit: Now I've seen it's in the OP anyway  

andyman949 wrote:

Nice idea for a vote, I look forwards to seeing the results!

Mario Picross? Not really about Mario but it has his name attached.

Edit: Never mind it doesn't make my top 10 after all.

Edit Edit: Now I've seen it's in the OP anyway  

Cheers.

As for Picross, I'll put it in the same camp as I would the Virtual Boy games, NBA Street V3 and SSX On Tour: if you feel strongly enough about them then by all means go ahead and vote for them - they meet the criteria after all. But you know they're not going to make an impact on this thread. Harmless enough, all the same.

Great idea Phillips!  

As for your up-for-debates, depends really. I saw you eliminated Yoshi's Story, so that would rule out the other Yoshi games. And if the Wario Land games aren't in, I'd say SPP and Luigi's Mansion should be out as well.

Nice idea!

Luigi's Mansion's gotta be out for me, too. Mario is in there as himself, but he's merely a story/motivational tool to push Luigi (and the player) through the game. Picking a top ten won't be half as hard as selecting the order, I reckon.

I got mine down to a top 12 pretty easily. Turns out I'm not much of a fan of 2D Mario, which surprised me.

Mario Baseball wins, close the thread  

I'd never spotted the little statue Luigi in that SM3DL pic before.

Jesus, there are loads of Mario games that were all great, aren't there? There's a reason he's on top of the world.
The original Donkey Kong shouldn't be in it because that's not Mario, that's his dad. #maths

OBJECTION! It's DK's dad and the real Mario, isn't it?

(Balladeer: Using Internet memes years after they were popular.)

Its DK's grandad, so for that Mario and the one in all the mushroom kingdom games to be the same guy, he'd need to be 60 or 70 years old.

And considering Shigsy said Mario isn't their surname, being Mario's sons would explain why they're the Mario Bros.

Do you want us to add any comments with our top tens, Phillips?

He's getting some from me, anyway. And what about dishonourables? For all his great games, there are a few Mario moments I'd like to name and shame...

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, right?

Confession time: I'm not really a fan of Mario.  Outside of the Galaxy games and Mario Kart I'm generally not all that fussed with the franchise.  

Balladeer wrote:

He's getting some from me, anyway.  And what about dishonourables?  For all his great games, there are a few Mario moments I'd like to name and shame...

I'm more or less planning to send exactly what I sent on other votes. As far as dishonourables go, though, even the worst of the worst Mario games aren't exactly bad.

There is at least one I can think of that's aggressively mediocre.

I can think off 19 to vote for including yoshi's island.

Is super mario 64 and 64 DS, are they voted together or individually as DS is differnt with the 4 different characters..

Is mario the missing level counted as a game.

Last one Hotel Mario is in or out.

Can't see why Hotel Mario wouldn't be in, if only for giggles. Or what should have been SMB2.

Anyway, my votes are in.  That was not easy, but I whittled it down to ten good and five bad.  In a shocking turn of events, I agree with Andyman: not many 2D games in my upvotes.

Honorable Mention now for Hotel Mario it's actually a good game.

Also sent my votes which consists off 3 2D Mario's, 2 3D Mario's, 5 not traditional Mario Platformers's

This is a faboo idea!

I'd say no to including the Yoshi's Islands, the Luigi's Mansions and Super Princess Peach. You don't specifically play as Mario at any point of any of them.

Few things:

Comments would be grand. I plan on treating this in the same way as Balladeer and Jay did their last-gen Nintendo votes.

Dishonourable mentions...sure, if you like. I'll put up the best.

Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS are fundamentally the same game. I'll count it as one.

Lastly...righto, we'll leave Luigi's Mansion, Yoshi's Island and Super Princess Peach off of this list, but the original Donkey Kong does meet the opening post's criteria and so will be included in the results if anyone chooses to vote it.

I think it's stupid not to include Yoshi's Island, as it's called super mario world 2 yoshi island it's the sequel to super mario world and nintendo tried something different with the mario formula.  Which clearly worked as there's now more yoshi based platformers that have span of this game.

If you don't like yoshi island don't vote for it, it's that simple.

I think it's because they're Yoshi games - Yoshi's Story was out off the bat because Mario doesn't feature, and in the Yoshi's Island games he's not needed and could be interchangeable, hell, he is in the DS version.