The game’s gorgeous mix of realistic foliage with Mario’s classic cartoony frame makes it hilarious at every turn, as well, and Odyssey’s jazzy soundtrack and creative 2D segments make it one of the most inventive games in the series yet. The character “Cappy” allows Mario to turn into nearly any object, giving him dozens of new abilities and options for beating levels. Set in a series of large, open environments filled with platforming challenges and secrets, Odyssey is Nintendo platforming at its very best. Nintendo bizarrely chose to ignore the formula established in Super Mario 64 with future Mario games … or at least the company did before creating Super Mario Odyssey. Perhaps most importantly, however, is that it was the first mainline Mario game to star Charles Martinet - a role that has been iconic ever since. Super Mario 64 is one of the few 3D platformers from the 64-bit era that has aged gracefully, and it’s just as playable in 2019 as it was when the Nintendo 64 launched more than two decades earlier, especially now that it was included in the 3D All-Stars pack. Mario’s running, jumping, and flipping translates perfectly to the Nintendo 64’s polygonal visual style, with creative levels encouraging exploration and problem-solving in addition to traditional platforming. Making the jump from side-scrolling 2D to 3D platforming for Super Mario 64 was a risky move for Nintendo and the Mario series, but it succeeded in a way few other games ever had. The most anticipated Nintendo Switch games of 2021.The best Nintendo Switch games for 2021.This is the Super Mario series, ranked from best to worst. 2 as the definitive second game in the series. We also chose to omit The Lost Levels and instead considered Super Mario Bros. None of them are bad, but we did have to name a loser.

This eliminated Super Mario Land 3 and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Secondly, the games have to have Mario himself as the lead character. This eliminates Mario sports games, the Mario Kart series, role-playing games, and all the Mario Parties. First, the games have to be platformers - either 2D or 3D. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Furyįor our list, we had two main criteria.

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