Ranking The Super Mario Series
Friends,
As promised and delivered on Mario Day 2022, I offer my Nintendo series rankings for Super Mario Brothers (the second-highest rated video game series of all time). This is one of my two favorite video game series of all-time and you can be assured I have obsessed over the relative rankings (and re-rankings) and merits of each title in this series for decades.
As also covered in my Legend of Zelda rankings (https://lnkd.in/dVgxqXCV), let’s set four ground rules as we rank each title in The Super Mario Brothers Series.
First, let’s remember this is a series with absurdly high average Metacritic scores per title (93.4, the second highest all-time after The Legend of Zelda at 96.0). I would argue every single mainline title in this series is exceptional. Thus, please know any scores and rankings I provide are only?relative?to other Super Mario titles and not meant to diminish that fact in any way. Similarly, when I say "average" (as an example) I mean average for a Super Mario game, which is still outstanding.
Second, if any title has a remake, I will consider the most modern version of the game. However, if the title has only a port, I will consider the original version of the game.
Third, I will consider only mainline titles, which total 18.
Fourth, I will score each title from 1-10 across six criteria: Gameplay (30%), Story and Characters (25%), Art (15%), Sound (15%), Unique Mechanics (10%), and Memorability (5%). The games are then presented according to their resulting weighted scores. I apologize that this time around, while I did think it through, I simply ran out of time to provide formal write-ups behind each score.
I will now present each ranked title from lowest to highest scoring. Enjoy and thanks as always for your support of my content.
AWESOME TIER (0-6.6 WEIGHTED SCORE)
18. Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Weighted Score: 5.8)
Gameplay (6)
Story And Characters (5)
Art (7)
Sound (5)
Unique Mechanics (6)
Memorability (6)
17. Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels (Weighted Score: 5.9)
Gameplay (6)
Story And Characters (5)
Art (7)
Sound (6)
Unique Mechanics (6)
Memorability (5)
16. New Super Mario Brothers (Weighted Score: 6.3)
Gameplay (6)
Story And Characters (6)
Art (7)
Sound (6)
Unique Mechanics (7)
Memorability (7)
15. New Super Mario Brothers Wii (Weighted Score: 6.4)
Gameplay (6)
Story And Characters (6)
Art (7)
Sound (7)
Unique Mechanics (7)
Memorability (6)
14. Super Mario Land (Weighted Score: 6.5)
Gameplay (6)
Story And Characters (6)
Art (7)
Sound (7)
Unique Mechanics (7)
Memorability (7)
EXCEPTIONAL TIER (6.6-8.1 WEIGHTED SCORE)
13. New Super Mario Brothers 2 (Weighted Score: 6.6)
Gameplay (7)
Story And Characters (6)
Art (7)
Sound (7)
Unique Mechanics (6)
Memorability (6)
12. New Super Mario Brothers U (Weighted Score: 7.2)
Gameplay (7)
Story And Characters (7)
Art (8)
Sound (8)
Unique Mechanics (6)
Memorability (7)
11. Super Mario Brothers 2 (Weighted Score: 7.8)
Gameplay (7)
Story And Characters (7)
Art (8)
Sound (9)
Unique Mechanics (9)
Memorability (9)
MASTERPIECE TIER (8.1-9.7 WEIGHTED SCORE)
10 (Tie). Super Mario 3D Land (Weighted Score: 8.1)
Gameplay (9)
Story And Characters (6)
Art (9)
Sound (8)
领英推荐
Unique Mechanics (9)
Memorability (9)
10 (Tie). Super Mario Sunshine (Weighted Score: 8.1)
Gameplay (7)
Story And Characters (9)
Art (8)
Sound (9)
Unique Mechanics (8)
Memorability (8)
8. Super Mario Brothers (Weighted Score: 8.4)
Gameplay (7)
Story And Characters (7)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
7. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Weighted Score: 9.0)
Gameplay (9)
Story And Characters (9)
Art (10)
Sound (9)
Unique Mechanics (7)
Memorability (10)
IT'S A ME...MARIO TIER (9.7+ WEIGHTED SCORE) - ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DIFFERENTIATE BUT I DID MY BEST
6. Super Mario 64 (Weighted Score: 9.70)
Gameplay (9)
Story And Characters (10)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
5 (Tie). Super Mario Galaxy (Weighted Score: 9.75)
Gameplay (10)
Story And Characters (9)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
5 (Tie). Super Mario World (Weighted Score: 9.75)
Gameplay (10)
Story And Characters (9)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
5 (Tie). Super Mario Brothers 3 (Weighted Score: 9.75)
Gameplay (10)
Story And Characters (9)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
2. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Weighted Score: 9.85)
Gameplay (10)
Story And Characters (10)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (9)
Memorability (9)
1. Super Mario Odyssey (Weighted Score: 10.0)
Gameplay (10)
Story And Characters (10)
Art (10)
Sound (10)
Unique Mechanics (10)
Memorability (10)
Here is the final summary table of game data. Thanks again everybody for reading!
Community Manager / Video Gaming PR / Consultant for Brazil and LATAM
3 年Happy Mario Day Amir. Great article.The work was worth it.
Software engineer
3 年This is a good list and you've got some neat takes. I just got Bowser's Fury so I'll be playing it for the first time this weekend!
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3 年I do want to respond to a few comments on Mario 64 re: Gerry Sakkas and Julien HOUDAYER :) I do think Mario 64 is revolutionary and groundbreaking. However, I am judging these games today. Also note these games are all ranked 9.7 or higher which, in my mind, is how stacked together they are. The difference between these top 6 is having all 10s and just 1 category that is a 9. In the end, I gave Super Mario 64 just one 9 for gameplay and all 10s otherwise. This is because the original 3D cameras and other aspects of control feel quite outdated by modern standards. Galaxy remains more modern and playable. Super Mario World still has those tight 16-bit era controls and gameplay and Super Mario 3 the same for the 8-bit era. Finally, I believe 3D World and Odyssey are the modernized realizations of what 64 would have been with modern technology and not the lessers in any way. From a purely historical standpoint, Mario 64 is one of my 2-3 best games of all-time. But as a ranking, today, of top Mario Games, it sits right at the very top but just below some of others to me, a testament to Nintendo's legendary quality control over time.
Driving Amazon Video Ads Programmatic adoption - WW - (Prime Video, STV, OLV)
3 年Just realized there was a Super mario galaxy 2... Still think the Super Mario 64 should be a bit higher as so avant-guardist the game was when it went out and how it defined 3D platform game for the whole industry. :)
The #RealityCapture guy
3 年Mario Bros on my hacked Gameboy original (with a 50 in 1 cart bought from a street vendor in Tenerife) will forever be my favourite Mario!! That thing got me through SO many journeys… ??