I already miss Mario’s cat suit era. Bowser’s Fury screenshot captured on Nintendo Switch 2 by the author.

The Best Forgotten Mario Games

For those who want less karting and more jumping

When I was a tiny child, I was fortunate enough to receive an NES bundle with the Mario Bros/Duck Hunt combo cartridge from my dad as a gift. In about thirty seconds, I learned to love Nintendo gaming hardware, and to inextricably associate it with Mario platformers.

Nintendo spent the rest of my childhood aggressively strengthening that association. They launched the Super NES with Super Mario World and the Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, with both titles setting new standards for audiovisual excellence, level design, and tight game controls.

As time went on, Mario sometimes showed up a bit late to the party rather than arriving on day one. The Gamecube swerved with the still-amazing Luigi’s Mansion, with the divisive Super Mario Sunshine coming much later. The Wii launched with everyone’s favorite tennis and bowling game, but Mario eventually jumped into space with Super Mario Galaxy. The Wii U had the totally okay New Super Mario Brothers U at launch. It also got the excellent Super Mario 3D World, though that came out a full year later. Could 3D World have saved the system from being Nintendo’s least popular home console if it had somehow come out earlier or had a bigger marketing campaign? We’ll never know.