Every Super Mario Game Ranked From Worst To Best
For a long time, the word 'Nintendo' was synonymous with video games, and Nintendo has always been shorthand for Mario. The Japanese console mainstay has published dozens of platformers starring the overall-loving plumber since his original debut in 1981's Donkey Kong, and we're here to tell you which ones are the worst and best.
This ranking was originally published on March 31, 2023. We are re-publishing it today with the addition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder for Mar10 Day 2025.
After connecting with his brother Luigi in 1983's single-screen arcade hit Mario Bros., Mario made the jump to consoles—and scrolling—in 1985's NES adventure Super Mario Bros. Nearly 40 years and 25 games later, the Super Mario games comprise one of the longest running and most predictably spectacular series ever. From 2D to 3D, on good hardware and bad, Mario running, jumping, and collecting coins has been a constant not just for Nintendo, but in the fabric of the medium itself, driving it forward, inspiring it, reacting to what's worked, and pushing back against what hasn't.
Trying to rank the Super Mario games is like trying to rank flavors of ice cream. Some are clear favorites. Others are acquired tastes. Most are still better than whatever the alternative is. In putting together this list, which includes input from across Kotaku's staff, as well as direct contributions from many of us, we tried to consider the games holistically: their historical context, their revolutionary or creative innovations, how well they hold up now, and the impressions they've left with us.
The ranking we arrived at is not beyond reproach and is far from scientific, but it is correct. Here we go!
Super Mario Run is a brilliant attempt to make Nintendo's mascot run and jump on a smartphone with just one input. It is also, without a doubt, the worst Super Mario game because making him run is half the fun. Do you want a peanut butter sandwich without jelly? Or chocolate cake without vanilla frosting? Here's a gin and, uh, more gin.
The 2016 mobile game is a decent time waster and…that's it. Perhaps that's why Nintendo hasn't made a sequel to it. Or maybe the Google Play and Apple App stores just remain completely hostile to premium experiences that don't nickel and dime the user. In any event, Nintendo made Super Mario Run so we have to include it on this list and here it is. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Super Mario Run: The Kotaku Review
The New sub-series of Super Mario Bros. games had a penchant for over-promising and under-delivering. 2012's New Super Mario Bros. 2 was the worst offender in this regard. It's comforting, but short, breezy, and at times insultingly easy and simplistic. The soundtrack is largely one song on repeat that will make you want to mute your 3DS sooner than later. The game is a coin collectathon above all else, and while the moment-to-moment gameplay can still be fun, there's nothing really memorable, let alone new, about the third entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series. — Ethan Gach
Read More: New Super Mario Bros. 2: The Kotaku Review
It may sound strange now, but back in 2006, classic 2D-style video games still felt like a bit of an endangered species. Consider this: 11 whole years (!) had passed since the Super Mario series' last original side-scroller, Yoshi's Island. You can see why folks were twitchy. As such, Nintendo announcing New Super Mario Bros. for its DS handheld made for a welcome surprise.
The game's title alone was intriguing: no numbers, no subtitles, just the word 'New' attached to the name of the side-scroller that changed everything back in '85. Indeed, this 'new' Super Mario Bros. attempted something of a return to baseline, jettisoning some of the series' later complications in favor of more basic Mario action. I wondered if it'd rekindle the deep enjoyment I had derived from the original NES trilogy.
It did not. While GameCube's slightly troubled Super Mario Sunshine had exposed some cracks in the edifice, New Super Mario Bros. ended up being the first mainline Mario that felt inessential. Its straightforward level designs and basic run-jump-bop action came off as bland, and its new ideas proved a mixed lot.
The wall-jumping maneuver was inoffensive, but the new power-ups ranged from 'who cares?' to actively detrimental: The mega-mushroom rampages were just mindless spectacle, the mini mushroom was simultaneously too powerful and a frustrating prerequisite for important shortcuts, and the unwieldy blue shell suit actively tried to send you careening off cliffs. I grew bored, and stopped playing around the sixth or seventh world.
New Super Mario Bros. was a solid platform game by most standards and the start of a welcome revival for side-scrolling Mario. But it didn't measure up to the very high standard of its predecessors. — Alexandra Hall
Read More: Nintendo Chief: Mario Is Part Of Gamers' DNA
It was 1989 and Nintendo Entertainment System mania was in full swing. For Nintendo's next trick it introduced the Game Boy, a category-defining new portable cartridge system. The NES had rocketed to success, in part, on the strength of Super Mario Bros., so Game Boy naturally launched with Super Mario Land, a bite-sized take on the platforming plumber.
Luckily Super Mario Land was quite good—heck, it eventually became the fourth best-selling Game Boy game (18 million!). The physics were kinda wonky, but the tiny Mario ran about nimbly, tossing ricocheting 'superballs' at a strange new cast of bomb-shelled turtles, oversized insects, hopping kyonshi zombies, and a literal alien. It even had two mild but pleasant shoot 'em up stages, in which Mario piloted subs and airplanes in hopes of rescuing a new princess, Daisy.
It turns out the weirdness was not just from the new platform, but because development was handled by Nintendo producer Gunpei Yokoi's R&D1 group rather than Shigeru Miyamoto's EAD. (R&D1 later made Super Mario Land 2 and branched off into the Wario series.) Super Mario Land is as off-brand as Mario would ever get, and I'd say the better for it. This was also the first Super Mario game with (very good) stereo music, and the first time western players—who'd missed out on Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2—got to revisit the original adventure's bricks-and-mushrooms formula.
Super Mario Land was a slight but enjoyable jaunt which, in hindsight, feels a little outshone by the brilliant games that followed. That doesn't mean Mario's charming visit to Sarasaland wasn't a great way to burn through another set of four double-As, though. — Alexandra Hall
Read More: Game Boy Games Have Arrived On The Switch
Wedged in-between the release of two of the best 3D Mario games ever, 2009's New Super Mario Bros. Wii offered console players their first full-fledged return to 2D Super Mario action in well over a decade. This second entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series was beefy compared to its handheld predecessor.. The new jump-spin technique added more nuance to navigation and wild, four-player co-op (or was it?) offered a completely different way to enjoy the carefully paced, but sometimes rote levels. If New Super Mario Bros. Wii didn't quite manage to shed the charges of blandness that dogged the DS game, its heavy helping of chaotic multiplayer mayhem made for a pleasant consolation prize. — Ethan Gach
Read More:New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review: Go Buy A Wii
Building on the success of the first Super Mario Land, 6 Golden Coins carved out a cult-classic niche for itself by living halfway between all-time greats Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World and introducing flatulent bad boy Wario to the world. A much more sophisticated affair than its predecessor, you can now roam a world map, scroll in all directions, and occasionally find secret exits that unlock hidden levels.
Mario Land 2 oozes personality from top to bottom, with memorable overworld maps and detailed sprites, including Wario's own imposing and garish figure. Rather than just feel like a fun but inferior approximation of the console 2D Super Mario experience, Nintendo R&D1's 6 Golden Coins feels like the series reflected through Alice in Wonderland's looking glass, complete with a unique musical soundtrack and rewardingly goofy boss fights. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Wario's Big Speaking Role For...A British Supermarket
Super Mario 3D Land is now overshadowed by its bigger, better successor for the Wii U and Switch, and because it's relegated to the 3DS, it may soon become one of the least-accessible mainline Mario games, doomed to relative obscurity. But when it arrived in 2011, 3D Land was one of the best titles for Nintendo's gimmicky dual-screen handheld.
A game of small but satisfying stages perfect for play on the go, it took a refreshingly different approach to 3D Mario platforming than games like Sunshine and Galaxy had, one rooted more in the design principles of early 2D Mario games. Today in some ways it feels like a strong proof of concept, establishing ideas that would be more fully realized in 3D World. But if you ever find yourself with a hankering for some Super Mario action and only a 3DS at your disposal, you could do a lot worse than this charming and innovative pleaser. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: Super Mario 3D Land: The Kotaku Review
By the time New Super Mario Bros. U came along, the whole NSMB series seemed pretty worthy of writing off. Their largely uninspired level design made the whole series feel like a soulless attempt to cash in on nostalgia for earlier Super Mario side-scrollers, with little understanding of what made people love those games in the first place.
That all went out the window with New Super Mario Bros. U (which, thankfully, is not relegated to the Wii U on which it was first released, having gotten a Switch incarnation in the form of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe). Here, at last, was new (and New) Mario platforming with lively, varied levels that also did one of the things Nintendo does best, presenting a fairly easy (but still fun and inventive) challenge that most players of different skill levels can complete to get the satisfaction of 'beating Bowser,' while also providing an intensely challenging and rewarding quest for those who wanted to 100% the game and truly test their platforming skills.
If you overlooked this game because you thought the New series just wasn't delivering on its promise, you may want to give it a chance. It's a terrific 2D thrill ride that actually understands what makes the best Mario level design so good, and sometimes even offers up some exciting surprises of its own. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: The Kotaku Review
Nintendo is notorious for keeping an iron grip on its properties, and if you play its 2015 platformer creation kit for a minute you might understand why: Left unchecked, most of us will create impossible troll rooms that double as torture chambers. Most people can't make levels that capture, much less outdo, the simple brilliance of any single level from the first Super Mario Bros.
But the beauty is in that same madness. Nintendo has, for the most part, moved on from 2D Mario games. Why not let players run wild with their own designs? Every so often, someone will put together a world that rivals if not outdoes Nintendo's own creations. If nothing else, it was a hoot to watch people spend months trying to beat diabolical levels made by Satan himself, along with tinkerers pushing the game engine to its very limits. — Patricia Hernandez
Read More: Super Mario Maker Is Forcing Me To Leave My Wii U On All Day
The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is essentially Super Mario Bros., but harder. Its cute little disk seems to taunt, 'Oh, you think you're hot stuff for rescuing the princess? Well, try these levels on for size.' Except here in the west we couldn't, because the folks at Nintendo apparently deemed this sequel too difficult for foreign markets.
It's easy to see why. Compared to the challenging but relatively chill original, the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 is kind of mean. It sets the tone immediately by making the first 'power-up' a poison mushroom which kills you. Or a few worlds in, you might find a beanstalk that leads to the sky. In the first game this was cause for celebration, but here your reward is a reverse 'warp zone' that sends you all the way back to world 1-1. But don't fret: In a hilarious example of the game's twisted version of 'mercy,' a small chasm next to the unwanted warp pipe offers the opportunity to dispose of your current Mario should you wish to avoid being sent back. Aw, those softies.
Sadism aside, Super Mario Bros. 2 really is more a Super Mario Bros. expansion than a wholly original sequel. A lot of the tile graphics are redone to be uglier, there aren't many new items or foes, and you need to beat worlds one through eight a whopping eight times to unlock the even harder worlds A through D. Oh, and now Luigi has his different physics.Is it good? Sure, in that it's more Super Mario Bros., the landmark action game that changed everything. But the west never saw this sequel until it was part of the 1993 SNES remake package Super Mario All-Stars, by which point we'd also experienced the first two Super Mario Land games, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World. So many folks, myself included, didn't get a chance to experience this one fresh out of the oven, and I know I don't quite appreciate it as much as a result. It's also not a big leap to suggest that the first Super Mario outing is just plain more appealing to a wider audience. — Alexandra Hall
Read More: Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan + Super Mario Bros. 2 USA = My Dream Game
Bigger and better than the first in almost every way, Super Mario Maker 2 is a pretty obvious case of more is more. The content creator playground remains alive and vibrant, for one, which already puts it head and shoulders above the 3DS and Wii U originals. No, the UI experience isn't quite as good as on the Wii U, whose tablet felt custom-made for crafting new Mario levels. And there are weird oversights and missing features, like no 100-man challenge mode and no ways to track stats or help players easily discover cool creations. The sheer number of new design elements helps make up for that, however. And the new story mode is a drastically better teaching tool that has neat levels of its own. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Super Mario Maker 2: The Kotaku Review
Super Mario Bros. was hardly the first game with side-scrolling, character-based action. Taito's Jungle King / Jungle Hunt had it as early as 1982, and gaming's first true superstar, Pac-Man, got his own cartoonish side-scroller in 1984's Pac-Land. But nonetheless, to play Super Mario Bros. in 1985 was to know that everything had changed.
It was an absolute revelation to see Mario, previously the star of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., bust free from the single-screen confines of the past and run toward the right. A whole world of adventure awaited him, packed with immediately iconic power-ups, unforgettable secrets, a real sense of vastness and depth thanks to subterranean stages, and bonus coin zones hidden in the clouds.
But of course, none of that would have mattered if Super Mario Bros. didn't feel so damn good to play. The option to hold down a button to run, the way Mario soared through the air, the sheer bliss of getting an invincibility star and plowing right through rows of goombas and koopas, all of it elevated Super Mario Bros. far beyond any side-scroller that had come before.
It's also, for my money, the first game in which Nintendo's signature, subtly intuitive level design is on display. There's a reason why world 1-1 remains iconic to this day: Shigeru Miyamoto knew exactly what he was doing, telling you everything you needed to know with just a goomba and one super mushroom. And yet, for all its fundamental simplicity, the game continues to surprise as you progress, introducing nefarious new challenges (those damn hammer bros.!) and capping off each world with a castle so treacherous that surviving leaves you feeling both triumphant and relieved.
Some might argue that although it kicked off an action-gaming dynasty, the original Super Mario Bros. isn't worth going back to today. I disagree. I think its level design is timelessly great (unlike that of some games in the New Super Mario Bros. series), its music and visuals are enduringly charming, and its controls as pleasurable and intuitive today as ever. Games that change the landscape of gaming forever are rare, but this is one of them, no question about it. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: 'When We Show A Power-Up To Mr. Miyamoto, We Get A Bit Nervous.'
Super Mario Bros. was a game about jumping on turtles, growing large, and smashing bricks. Then Super Mario Bros. 2 came out and had us ripping up extradimensional grass to feed a gambling addiction, assailing trans elders with their own eggs, and force-feeding turnips to a despotic toad to liberate a subconscious dream land. Whiplash much?
Nope! I was a child, and did not think to question this massive change in gameplay, tone, or plot. (Wish I could be so mellow today!) I just knew that Super Mario Bros. 2 was hard to find in stores, fun as heck, and had graphics so good that I sincerely believed it looked like a damn cartoon.
Of course, everyone now knows that Nintendo pulled a switcheroo, withholding the real Super Mario Bros. 2—a sort of high-difficulty level pack for the original adventure—and reskinning the Famicom Disk System game Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters for the west.While a few folks will always kvetch about not getting Super Mario Bros.' 'true' sequel, truth is, the weird, trippy adventure we ended up with is a fantastic 2D platformer full of curious, colorful sights and pleasing discoveries. It's got a good difficulty curve and is just an all around pleasant time. A lot of its innovations even persist in the series today, including Peach's float ability, Birdetta, bob-ombs, and the lovably weird shy guys, so I think history is on its side.
I miss the days, before everything went big-budget triple-A and games got 'too big to fail,' when major game companies felt free to develop 'weird sequels.' — Alexandra Hall
Read More: America Got The Better Super Mario Bros. 2
Some might argue that Bowser's Fury, which came packaged with the Switch re-release of Super Mario 3D World, isn't even a Super Mario Bros. game. It's more like an expansion, they might say, just an experiment in modernizing Mario gameplay using a Wii U game as a base. But whatever, it rules, so it's on the list!
Throwing a lot of traditional Mario ideas out the window, Bowser's Fury is an open-world game in which you spend most of your time doing standard platforming stuff but every so often the sky goes dark and you get to fight (or run/hide from) a Godzilla-sized incarnation of Mario's arch-foe. It is a sight to behold, one of the coolest individual moments in series history, and while there's not much variety or scope to Bowser's Fury—the whole game is over in just a few hours—for as long as it lasts this is almost as good as Super Mario gets. — Luke Plunkett
Read More: I Hope Bowser's Fury Is The Future Of Mario
Up until this point, Super Mario games starred Mario and were largely linear affairs. Find some secrets. Survive. Get to the end. Yoshi's Island switched the emphasis from simply getting from point A to point B to grabbing every collectible and solving every puzzle in-between. It had a playful, twee art style that would become a mainstay for Yoshi games moving forward, but still featured the titular hero in an origin story in which the fail state wasn't getting hit too many times, but having your baby Mario abducted.
Some might consider Yoshi's Island firmly in the Yoshi-game camp, but that subtitle stands, and a number of play mechanics, like red coins, went on to become staples of later Super Mario games. Even Yoshi transforming into vehicles like a helicopter hinted at Mario's own transformations decades later in Super Mario Odyssey. From its level design to its boss fights, Yoshi's Island remains one of the most beautiful Mario games ever made, and an oddly subversive, playful mashup that trades challenging platforming for deep exploration. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Yoshi Devolved From Babysitter to Baby
Like a lot of GameCube games, Super Mario Sunshine didn't advance the series so much as take it sideways. The result isn't always perfect, but it can still often manage to feel revelatory. Mario's vacation to Isle Delfino Island sees him strap a robotic water pump to his back to clean up goop and rescue Princess Peach from the consequences of Bowser's poor parenting. Between detailed, open-ended levels and Mario's new water jetpack, Sunshine transforms where Mario can go and how he gets there. It's not quite an open world, but it feels almost as liberating.
The story beats and sporadic voice acting don't always land, and the Pianta and Noki islanders haven't etched themselves into the series' lore the way other, more beloved creatures have. In fact, Super Mario Sunshine has a lot of rough edges, not the least of which are the finicky camera controls. Halfway between a Super Mario 64 sequel and a completely new type of 3D Mario game, Sunshine still managed to rise above its flaws thanks to some clever puzzle mechanics and imaginative map designs. It's a Super Mario game based around a gimmick, but still a great one. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Let's Debate The Merits Of Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the culmination of decades of evolving 2D Mario design ideas and platforming polish. It's full of neat mechanics and new powerups as well as impressive visual set pieces each rapidly discarded one after another like veteran musicians riffing on their greatest hits who have nothing left to prove but keep throwing out new surprises anyway just for kicks. Fitting, then, that some of the game's most memorable moments are elaborate musical numbers that bring out the platformer's inner rhythms and make them sing.
It's a crowd-pleasing victory lap that held back only by its occasional conservativism. Limiting the risks limits some of the payoff, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder never quite reaches the envelope-pushing heights of the best games in the series, but it's excellent nevertheless. — Ethan Gach
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Super Mario Odyssey is one of the best Switch games ever released. It boasts some of the best-looking and biggest worlds seen in a 3D Super Mario game and is just a joy to play. It's one of those games that can easily suck away a whole day before you realize it.
Odyssey is also endlessly creative, using Mario's new hat friend for all sorts of interesting and silly shenanigans. How many Mario games let you become a tank, control a large T-Rex, or turn into literal electricity? Every hour in Odyssey is exciting as you explore new worlds filled with completely original ideas and moments.
And then there's the music! Super Mario Odyssey features some of the best jams in the entire series and that's without mentioning that incredible music-themed stage in New Donk City. It's just a pure joy machine and easily one of Nintendo's best 3D Super Mario adventures. — Zack Zwiezen
Read More: Super Mario Odyssey, Six Months Later
Move aside, New Super Mario Bros.. Despite the 3D in its title and the fact that, yes, the gameplay takes place in three dimensions, it's actually here in Super Mario 3D World that the spirit of early Super Mario's tightly designed obstacle courses is most apparent, and most thrillingly iterated upon. The new Cat Mario power-up belongs directly in the lineage of all of Super Mario Bros. 3's classic animal costumes, and the flagpoles at each level's end hearken back to the game that started it all.
But it's much more than just a tribute to those classics. The 3D environments open up a slew of new possibilities that the level designers make the most of, four-player co-op makes for delightful chaos, and the game's difficulty teeters brilliantly between accessible (for players who want a breezy but satisfying experience) and nail-biting (for those who want to test their skills and tackle every challenge the game has to offer). While other 3D Mario games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Odyssey have focused on more expansive environments for us to explore, Super Mario 3D World's narrower, more propulsive stages chart a categorically different course, one that keeps the spirit of early Super Mario alive while also investing it with wonderful new ideas. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: Super Mario 3D World: The Kotaku Review
Did you think this was gonna be number one? Well it's not, but it's still an all-time classic. Gross Nintendo 64 polygons, a busted camera, and tricky wall jumps aside, 1996's Super Mario 64 isn't just a historically significant relic—it's still a modern-day revelation. Watching Mario break the 2D plane for the first time changed a generation of players, creating one of the defining 'next-gen' epiphanies current leaps in technology struggle to live up to.
Just the movement and physics alone were breathtaking, harnessing the Nintendo 64's new analog control stick to both set new standards in player-character expressiveness and instantly make the digital-only controls of competing games feel antiquated. So enthused were the designers that they went a little overboard, giving Mario the single largest and most complex moveset he's ever enjoyed. It can be a little hard to fully get to grips with, but the high skill ceiling for mastery is a big part of the fun.
Super Mario 64 is also pound for pound one of the best 3D Super Mario games, bursting at the seams with mischievous platforming and satisfying puzzles. From Cool, Cool Mountain to Dire, Dire Docks and Rainbow Ride, the game features iconic maps and some of the most satisfying collectible challenges in the series. Tick Tock Clock haunts me to this day.
The game straddles a difficult inflection point for the series, showcasing top-tier course designs built around Mario's multitude of new jumps, while also being hampered by compromises made to take advantage of then cutting-edge technology. Those weigh it down, keeping it from ranking higher, but in some ways it's a testament to just how strong its fundamentals are that the overall package remains one of the best platform games ever. Maybe Nintendo will remake it one day, making it the number-one Mario game it has the DNA to be. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Super Mario 64 Fans Have Tried To Get This 1-Up Without Dying For Over 20 Years
After Super Mario 64, it was tough in some ways to imagine Nintendo ever delivering another massive leap in terms of imagination and possibility for its flagship series. (Super Mario Sunshine has its place, but a paradigm shift it was not.) What new frontiers were there for Mario, and for 3D platforming, to conquer?
Oh, how wrong we were to doubt. Super Mario Galaxy was yet another massive imaginative leap forward for the series, playing with gravity, with the shape of environments, with a cosmic theme that took the series to bold new places and reinforced the feeling that Mario really has no limits. Buoyed by a gently melancholy story that introduced the character of Rosalina and by the most mind-bending and profound ending in the series, Super Mario Galaxy is all the things we want Mario to be: challenging, inventive, vibrant, intuitive, beautiful, and epic. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: Super Mario Galaxy's Opening Is Still Terrifying
Sequels aren't always better than the original. And in Mario's case, they often tend to feel like uneven leftovers doctored up into another night's dinner; a collection of half-baked ideas, prototypes, and B-sides that didn't make the first cut but are still ultimately good enough to see the light of day eventually.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is not that. Yes it's more, but it's also better, in every way, than its already groundbreaking predecessor. The 2010 Wii game is the definitive 3D Super Mario, complete with gorgeous worlds to explore, ambitious puzzle designs, and one of the most satisfying versions of Mario to control in any game. It somehow has even more planets than the first game, with an even greater level of variation and experimentation. Perhaps buoyed by previous success and the Wii's blockbuster sales, Nintendo's designers seemed to take even more chances—and, I suspect, had more fun—making Galaxy 2.
Super Mario has always fundamentally been a series about gravity. You can't jump if you don't eventually fall, and Nintendo spent decades exploring that in 2D and 3D. Galaxy explored it from the inside out, using Wii motion controls to help you tease it out and feel it deep in your bones, and Galaxy 2 took that to another level. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Nintendo Just Threw Super Mario Galaxy 2 Down The Memory Hole
The debate over whether Super Mario Bros. 3 or its SNES successor represents the pinnacle of 2D Mario platforming may never be settled, but one thing seems certain to me: The plumber's final NES adventure delivered on the promise of a 'world' for Mario to journey through two years before we got the game that's actually called Super Mario World.
It wasn't just the new map system that did it, though that's certainly a big part of it. Getting to see King Koopa's military might represented across the landscape by forts and castles as your quest took you from the bucolic Grass Land (world 1) all the way to the foreboding, Mordor-like Dark Land (world 8) conjured the sense of a true quest against a vast force of evil, while little touches like the ways the hammer bros. moved around between stages brought that map to life–a real, living world.
But the game also represented another massive leap for the series (and for platforming games in general) in its level design, with slopes you could slide down, autoscrolling airships lending a formidable new feel to Bowser's forces, and gimmicks that still surprise and delight to this day, like Giant Land (world 4), in which enemies and environmental features alike are suddenly many times their normal size.
To top it all off, Mario's momentum is newly refined—run interrupted for a bit and you attain P-speed, moving faster, leaping farther, and even able to take flight—and he's got a slew of new power-ups to play with, from the oddball Kuribo's shoe to the iconic tanooki suit. Super Mario Bros. 3 is just bursting with ingenuity and generosity from top to bottom, and upon release utterly destroyed the existing standards for games of this type with all of its inventiveness and fun, seamlessly weaving dozens of great new ideas into one epic adventure. — Carolyn Petit
Read More: The Making (And Legacy) Of Super Mario Bros. 3
This is it. Super Mario World. The best 2D Mario game Nintendo ever made is thus the best Mario game overall. Elegant and simple yet challenging and complex, the 1990 pack-in launch game for the SNES has aged like a fine Bordeaux: silky smooth and exquisitely harmonized. It controls like a dream. The pixel art still looks great. And each of its 73 levels offers something unique, with puzzles that evolve as new block types are unlocked and even a visual overhaul once you reach a certain point.
It's not as daring as Super Mario Bros. 3 or as ambitious as Super Mario Galaxy 2, but it's undoubtedly the most balanced and well-rounded package in the series. Feathers transform Mario into a gravity-defying superhero. Different-colored Yoshi harness various magical abilities from fire balls to mini-earthquakes. And ingenious hidden exists culminate in Star Road, an immaculate series of secret levels whose level of challenge is exceeded only by the amount of imagination on display.
Each zone on the map tells a story, and each one connects to the next, weaving an adventure that's minimalistic but evocative, taking Mario over hills, underground, through foggy forests, and across prehistoric mountains. An underappreciated aspect of Super Mario World is how each new level, and new zone, slowly builds upon the last, not just mechanically but thematically as well. There's no real backstory and hardly any dialogue, and yet each new step and every enemy jumped on carries you along a bit further through the most polished and quintessential Mario adventure ever made.
At least, for now. — Ethan Gach
Read More: Unearthed 1990 Interview Reveals Great Insights About Super Mario World
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I hope things are different in 2026, but for now, here are the games I played and saw at Summer Game Fest 2025. This article will be updated periodically as embargoes lift. I know Mario Kart World is the kart racer to beat right now, and while I can't say definitively if Sega's latest Sonic Racing game clears that high bar, I can say what I've played of Crossworlds is a blast. The big headliners from the show were the crossover characters announced at the showcase, but I didn't play as Hatsune Miku, Joker, or Ichiban; I was focused squarely on getting behind the wheel as my guy Shadow the Hedgehog. Crossworlds definitely feels a bit lighter and floatier than other kart racers, but what it lacks in weight, it makes up for in a surprisingly deep customization system that lets you create builds for your vehicles tailored to your playstyle. I was able to add perks like starting races with a specific item to give me an edge at the beginning of a lap, reducing damage when I was on the wrong end of an incoming attack, or even using aggressive gameplay to my advantage by granting myself a boost if I collided with an enemy racer. I'm interested to see what the meta turns out to be when Sonic Racing: Crossworlds launches on Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on September 25. Guacamelee developer Drinkbox Studios' latest game, Blighted, is unlike anything the studio's done before. In the brief time I spent with the action RPG, I was most captivated by its world, in which people can gain memories of the dead by eating their brains. This desecrated land is overrun by horrifying creatures that stand between you and a monster who has begun feasting on the brains of the living and blighted the rest of this world. The game feels reminiscent of Hades' frantic but strategic combat with an isometric view. Its enemy design is its greatest strength, with several of the monsters I faced requiring me to change up my play style and adapt to the moment. Blighted is launching in 2026. Dosa Divas is the next game from Outerloop Studios, the team behind Thirsty Suitors, one of 2023's most delightful surprises. Though I only got to play about 30 minutes of the turn-based RPG, I was already drawn in by its cheeky, timely satire. The game follows siblings Samara and Amani as they face a third sister, who has created a fast food empire so pervasive that it has essentially turned the culture of cooking into a bygone era. The people in Dosa Divas have become so accustomed to convenience that good food created with love and intention is dying out in favor of meaningless slop. That sure does sound like, well, every creative medium right now in the wake of AI-generated garbage and America's attempts to eject entire cultures from its borders. A quick and easy approximation of something is no replacement for the potential of the original when it's made with heart and soul. This cathartic premise is enough to grab my interest, but its simple yet engaging turn-based combat is also a fun vehicle to ride as I watch this sibling rivalry play out. Snap & Grab is one of the more interesting takes on a heist game that I've seen. Rather than executing the crime of a lifetime on your own, the game has you scope out a location to plan a course of action for someone else to take in your stead. As world-renowned photographer Nifty Nevada, I was able to freely take photos at a fancy rich people party, yet instead of merely capturing the festivities, I was actually taking photos of the penthouse to chart out a plan for one of my goons to come in and steal a priceless artifact for me. I had access to most places in the home, so I was able to take photos of where guards would be posted and note potential distractions or weaknesses in the security system. If I could account for all those pitfalls, it'd be a quick grab and dash for my accomplices. As I walked through the penthouse, I noted several other potential setups that I missed in previous runs, so Snap & Grab seems to give you a lot of freedom to chart your own course. I hope it has more surprises in store when it launches next year. Leading up to my appointment, Mixtape was far and away one of the most talked-about games at Summer Game Fest, and I wasn't disappointed. Beethoven and Dinosaur's adventure game stars a group of teenagers in the '90s creating a playlist for their final night together. Each song on the mixtape is accompanied by what is essentially a playable music video animated in a distinct, Spider-Verse-like, stop-motion-esque art style. Every segment is as unique and memorable as the song that accompanies it. The songs are attached to flashbacks of the group's high school antics, and in just the short time I played, each segment was a rolicking good time full of that kind of 'us-against-the-world' hope you feel when you're a teen who hasn't had that optimism beaten out of you yet. I want it now, but I'll have to wait until the full game is released later this year. Absolum was probably my biggest surprise of the show. I went in with no real knowledge, and was kinda disappointed when I had to stop playing it for another appointment. Developed by the team behind Streets of Rage 4, Absolum marries those same pitch-perfect beat-em-up stylings with roguelite runs. It's frenetic, stylish, challenging, and has a gorgeous 2D animation style that's lovely to look at. I played as an agile character whose base kit prioritized quick, vicious combos, and a grappling hook that let me close distance and tear through enemies with reckless abandon. But Absolum has multiple playable characters with different playstyles that you customize throughout each roguelite run. What I played felt deep, demanding, and rewarding, and I can't wait to play more when the game launches on PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch. The old-school Ninja Gaiden games were a blind spot for me for a long time. I played a little of the 3D action titles on the original Xbox and my fair share of Dead or Alive, but as far as the tough-as-nails sidescrollers that started it all, I never saw Ryu Hayabusa's origins. Ryu isn't the main character in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, but his apprentice Kenji is taking the lessons he's learned from the OG out into the field with him. Ragebound is a pretty tough and unforgiving sidescroller that can lay you out in a second if you're not careful. Its combat is one pillar of that challenge. But its platforming, in which you scale walls, hang from ceilings, and overall use every surface to your advantage in one way or another, tests your spacial awareness while half a dozen enemies are pestering you (or just one enemy you can't even damage under normal circumstance is menacingly charging up an attack, preparing to take you out in an instant). It feels like a faithful throwback, and your mileage may vary on whether you're up for the task. If you've ever played something from Supermassive Games, you probably have some idea what you're getting into with Directive 8020. The narrative horror team is delving into sci-fi for the latest entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, and while I spent probably the least amount of time with it of all the games I checked out (roughly 15 minutes), I did see enough to know Supermassive is still doing what it does best: riffing on different horror genres with difficult choices and consequences for your actions. Directive 8020 shows a space station crew turning against each other in paranoia as an alien force that can transform into anyone infiltrates their group, sowing distrust between them as they try to survive. My time with the game was short but sweet. Vermila Studios' horror shooter Crisol: Theater of Idols wears its OG Bioshock influence on its sleeve. But rather than a sunken city, it takes place in a worn-down version of Spain haunted by twisted puppets and mannequins that can only be destroyed by bullets powered by your own blood. It's unnerving and atmospheric, and its use of your health bar as your blood-fueled ammo means you have to make every shot count, lest you die while fighting for your life. The farming sim genre can feel a bit oversaturated these days, as everyone chases Stardew Valley's success. To stand out in 2025, you've gotta have some kind of twist that keeps things fresh. Grave Seasons illustrated that to me in just 30 minutes. The moment that made it click for me was when I was pulling crops out of my garden and found a severed human hand buried in the dirt alongside them. Farming sims are often viewed as a cozy getaway, so Grave Seasons using it as a stage to explore a supernatural murder mystery is the kind of subversive take that carves out space in a crowded market. Relooted was another interesting spin on a heist game that I played in LA, with its bite-sized robberies feeling like brain-teasing puzzles about meticulously planning one swift run from entrance to exit. The game follows an African crew reclaiming stolen artifacts from Western museums, with each member having a skill that makes them crucial to getting these items back where they belong. Your job as the field agent is to assign your team to different stations, so when you grab an item, you've cleared a path for yourself to book it once the alarms start blaring. Arranging a perfect getaway feels satisfying, and it helps that Relooted's sidescrolling parkour is smooth as hell. I played a few early heists, so I can only imagine how much more elaborate later heists can get, and how crafty I'll have to be to see them through. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Gkids Acquires Multiple Territories For Japanese Action Sci-Fi Animated Feature ‘All You Need Is Kill'
EXCLUSIVE: Gkids has acquired multiple territories for Japanese animated action sci-fi drama All You Need Is Kill, including for North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The movie is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka which also inspired Doug Liman's 2014 live-action adaptation Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. More from Deadline Laika Signs 'Corpse Bride' & 'Frankenweenie' Screenwriter John August To Write Stop-Motion Teen Missing Mother Drama For Pete Candeland 'The Cat In The Hat' Team Defend Warners' Decision To Shelve 'Coyote Vs. Acme': "We Are Lucky To Do Art In Our Profession But We Can't Lock Ourselves In A Basement" 'Arcane' Showrunner Christian Linke On Exploring Character Relationships & Artistic "Extremes" For Season 2 The directorial debut of Kenichiro Akimoto, with a script written by Yuichiro Kido, the new animated adaptation world premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival earlier this week in the Midnight Specials section. All You Need Is Kill is produced by Warner Bros. Japan with animation production by celebrated Japanese animation house Studio 4°C (Tekkonkinkreet, Mind Game). Studio 4°C, which is also at Annecy this year with Yasuhiro Aoki's drama ChaO in the main competition, will be hosting a studio presentation at the festival on Friday, in the presence of the directors and producers for both titles. Set in the near future, All You Need Is Kill follows the story of Rita, a resourceful but isolated young woman volunteering to help rebuild Japan after the mysterious appearance of a massive alien flower known as 'Darol.' When Darol unexpectedly erupts in a deadly event, unleashing monstrous creatures that decimate the population, Rita is caught in the destruction—and killed. But then she wakes up again. And again. Caught in an endless time loop, Rita must navigate the trauma and repetition of death until she crosses paths with Keiji, a shy young man trapped in the same cycle. Together, they fight to break free from the loop and find meaning in the chaos around them. 'With All You Need Is Kill, I wanted to convey that even in the endless loop of life, we can still make discoveries and grow, depending on how we perceive the situation,' said Akimoto. 'All You Need Is Kill is a standout work that explores time, identity, and survival with breathtaking animation and a powerful emotional core,' said Gkids President Dave Jesteadt. 'The story has remained so meaningful for years because it captures something essential about the human condition, and the need to keep moving forward. Director Akimoto has created a brilliant new take that we are sure fans will love.' Gkids and Studio 4°C have previously collaborated on releases for Mind Game, Children of the Sea, while Gkids also recently acquired ChaO, and several other celebrated titles. Further details on the release will be announced at a later date. The deal was negotiated between GKIDS' Director of Acquisitions and Development Rodney Uhler, and Warner Bros. Japan. Best of Deadline List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media

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Nintendo Switch 2 races to record sales, driven by Mario Kart World's blockbuster debut
LONDON -- The Nintendo Switch 2 is off to a turbo-charged start, thanks to a little help from Mario and his friends in Mario Kart World, smashing its own sales record by becoming the fastest selling Nintendo game system ever with more than 3.5 million units sold in just four days. Nintendo sold an estimated 2.7 million units of the original Nintendo Switch in its first month when it launched in March 2017, but have now managed to move over 3.5 million units in just 96 hours, an almost 30% increase in sales in a much shorter period, the company said. The Japanese company released the latest sales numbers on Wednesday and are aiming to sell 15 million units by March next year, putting them on track to meet or exceed expectations in the coming weeks and months. 'Fans around the world are showing their enthusiasm for Nintendo Switch 2 as an upgraded way to play at home and on the go,' said Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer Doug Bowser. 'We are thankful for their response and happy to see the fun they are already having with Nintendo Switch 2 as they explore new features and games that bring friends and family together in new ways.' The Nintendo Switch 2 is the next generation console for the company, its first new system release in eight years, and features a larger screen capable of full 1080p high-definition display, a faster processor that allows for enhanced graphics and performance, as well as redesigned magnetic Joy-Con 2 controllers with mouse functionality, Nintendo said. The system also debuts the new GameChat2 feature where players can voice or video chat and share game screens with friends online. "You'll probably see a first batch of people who can't live without it," van Dreunen said. "If you're a die-hard [Switch] fan, it's like standing in line for the new Harry Potter book or movie,' Joost van Dreunen, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and writer of the SuperJoost Playlist, a games industry-focused newsletter, told ABC News last week. "Nintendo is making a carefully calculated bet with the Switch 2 that will pay off," van Dreunen continued. "While some might have hoped for a more revolutionary device, Nintendo's evolutionary approach shows deep market understanding … The console's focus on accessible and social gaming -- rather than competing with Microsoft and Sony on technical specs -- underscores Nintendo's commitment to shared experiences for all ages." The Nintendo Switch 2 system launched alongside the first brand new Mario Kart game in 11 years called Mario Kart World, featuring an interconnected world where you can drive virtually anywhere with dynamic weather conditions, new game modes and up to 24 drivers at once -- the most in the 33-year-old series history. Nintendo is hoping to build a base, as well as excitement for its new system, ahead of next month's launch of a new 3D platforming game starring Donkey Kong called Donkey Kong Bananza, which Nintendo says will let players 'unleash their inner Kong as they smash and bash their way through a wild, mayhem-packed action adventure.' After its global launch last Thursday, Nintendo Switch 2 is now available for the retail price of $449.99, and is also available as a bundle with a digital download of 'Mario Kart World' for $499.99.