If there is one character that is synonymous with the company Nintendo, it has to be Mario. Mario made his debut way back in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong (although he was called Jumpman at that point), and the success of the game propelled him into the spotlight. However, it was really 1985’s Super Mario Bros. that cemented his role as Nintendo’s flagship mascot, a position that he has held without serious challenge ever since. With Mario’s next big platformer (Super Mario 3D World for the Wii U) just around the corner, I felt like it might be a good time to stop and take a look back at the games that have led us to where we are.

As you probably already know, Negative World is clearly the best though not the biggest Nintendo fan site on the Internet, and we have top ten lists that span all kinds of Nintendo-related topics, from the commonplace (Top 10 NES Original Soundtracks (OSTs)), to the obscure (Top 10 Animal Crossing Fan-Art), to the esoteric (Top 10 Weird Things About Nintendo's "White Knuckle Scorin'") and everything in between. You want lists, we got ‘em.

So it came as quite a surprising revelation to me when I realized that we have never done a top 10 list for Mario platformers. We have done top ten lists for our favorite Zelda, Kirby, and even Castlevania games, but Mario platformers have fell by the wayside. I believe that it is time to rectify that omission.

Before I begin, let me clarify something here. This is not a list of my personal favorites, or a list that a small amount of Negative World editors have put together. Instead, this is a list based on the average scores of the Mario platformer games as rated by Negative World members in our game database, or in other words, this list is about as close to a consensus from the entire body of users of Negative World as we can possibly get. This isn’t just my list, this is our list. Because that is how we roll here.

You will see a few numbers in the header for each game in the last. The first is the average score (out of 10) for that game calculated from all member ratings, and the number in parenthesis is the amount of members who have scored this game (IE the amount of ratings that went into the calculation.) Sweet.

So there you have it, the top 10 Super Mario platformers based on member ratings here at Negative World. If you agree, disagree, or have anything else to add, why not do so in the comments below? And don’t forget to rate some games! If you’re not a member yet, you can sign up quick and be posting and rating games within minutes. Why be a passive observer when you can change the course of history?

Now let’s all get pumped for Super Mario 3D World together!

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The lack of Super Mario Sunshine validates this list. I can't refute it.

Super Mario Sunshine, while fun, is easily the most challenging game for me in terms of being able to go back and play. I like the concept, but I feel the execution doesn't allow it to stand up past a single play thru. I did 100% it though so maybe that caused eternal burnout.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 being the top isn't really surprising. I'm quite pleased to think that we've so recently had the greatest mario game to date (according to NW). Super Mario Galaxy 3 will surely be amazing, if or when it comes.

Super Mario World in the top five makes me happy, though I'd swap it with Super Mario Bros. 3 if I could. I always felt it was a souped up version of SMB3. I love the art. The music. The gameplay. Yoshi. The powerups. The world themes. The amount of content. Just superb.

I can get behind this list, for the most part. I was never one of those who felt Galaxy 2 particularly outclassed the original, but it's pretty much a flip a coin situation. We could almost consider them 2 parts of the same game.

I'm in agreement with most of this list, though Yoshi's Island and Super Mario 64 could have been a bit lower.

I don't know if I could sort out my own list of Mario games, I like a lot of them, and many are quite different from each other. All I can say is that SMB1 and Super Mario 3D Land would not be in my top ten.

I never got to try NSMBWii's battle mode, everyone just wanted to play co-op. It's definitely one of the best multiplayer games on the Wii, and I hope 3D World can recapture that magic.

@anon_mastermind By lower do you mean lower down physically aka a better position in the rankings? Or the reverse?

@Mr_Mustache

But a Yoshi game on a Mario list invalidates it. I think it's cancelled out now and doesn't exist.

Wrong.

@Het_Nkik This man knows the score. If Yoshi's Island counts, then so does Wario Land. (Wario Land doesn't count, no.)

Otherwise this list is not terribly blasphemous, I suppose...

kriswright said:

I can get behind this list, for the most part. I was never one of those who felt Galaxy 2 particularly outclassed the original, but it's pretty much a flip a coin situation. We could almost consider them 2 parts of the same game.

That's how I feel too. I don't know which one to call better... You just need to play them both to get the whole Galaxy experience.

Turned out to be a pretty good list. I would also place SMB2 a couple spots higher. Love that game, very badly want Nintendo to revisit Subcon in a 3D sequel.

@Het_Nkik

..Ugh, I just realized its #6, too.

--HOW IS SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 at #10!? Whats WRONG with you people?!

NW knows what's up! Good list.

I'm in the camp that really liked Sunshine (not more than the other 3D games, but I still thought it was great), but I totally understand why it doesn't get the same amount of love as 64 and Galaxy.

@anon_mastermind

Agree totally. Otherwise, good deal.

Hmm, I honestly didn't realize including Yoshi's Island would be so controversial. I've always considered it a "Mario" game... a strange side Mario game of sorts, but a Mario game nonetheless. And although I never really thought of it as Super Mario World 2, it felt like a part of that world to me, an extension of the Yoshi stuff in Super Mario World, and having that in the name sort of legitimized it as some kind of Mario game in my eyes.

To be honest I might have thought this way about Wario Land aka Super Mario Land 3 but it didn't rank high enough to get into the top 10 anyway so I didn't think about it.

Yeah, YI is sort of a strange one that opens up a slippery slope. Like, would "Super Mario Land 3" count? If so, what about the Wario Land sequels? Master of Disguise? Shake It? What about Yoshi's Island DS? Yoshi's Story? Super Princess Peach? DK '94?

Nice list though! I'm a little surprised to see SMG2 above SMG1 actually. I'd probably put SMG1 slightly higher myself, but SMG2 is certainly an amazing game and one that I can go back to again and again. Nice to see SMB3 as the top 2D one too, although I do fall on the side of wanting SMB in a higher (better) position.

I've never played Yoshi's Island, and I've barely played SMW, although I do own it on Wii VC, I'd say pretty good list. I'd put Galaxy 1 in the #2 spot, and keep Galaxy 2 right where you put it.

@TriforceBun My own arbitrary feelings aside, I just kind of went with Nintendo's call on this one as well. They considered it Super Mario World 2 (in the West anyway), it's Super Mario World 2 (in the West anyway), even if none of us really think of it in those terms. However, I consider Yoshi's Island to also be the start of the Yoshi platformer franchise, and every Yoshi game since is just a Yoshi game. So Yoshi's Island is like the in-betweener that counts as both franchises or something.

In that respect I'd probably think of Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 in the same way... as both a Mario and Wario game, and then the sequels are just Wario games.

Does this make any sense? Heck no it doesn't. Blame Nintendo though for their weird naming conventions, not me!

It's tough to choose which Galaxy game is better. The original SMG had a bigger impact on me since it was the first one, and so it had that element of learning the game and freshness. But, I think SMG2 may have better level design, and there are a few levels in SMG1 that are really annoying, but SMG2 didn't really have anything that was on that same level of annoying. I'd probably still give the nod to the original since it's, well, the original, but both are excellent, easily some of the best games of the generation, and will remain classics throughout the channels of history.

1NB43DW0RLD

I think when it comes to Super Mario Galaxy 2 versus 1, all other things being equal, the "post-game" in 2 was way better... collecting the green stars was actually pretty fun and some if it even felt fresh, whereas in 1 it was basically play the same exact game over again with Luigi.

Of course, I think Super Mario Galaxy 2 had the edge in design as well. Just felt like it took things up a notch.