Best Mario games
From Bowser's castles to kart-racing chaos, Mario has starred in some of the greatest games ever made, and fans have been arguing over the best one since the days of the NES. Is it the platforming perfection of a 3D classic, the multiplayer mayhem of a party game, or the nostalgic charm of the original? Cast your vote and help settle the debate once and for all.
What counts: Seeded with approximate figures where shown — the crowd's votes decide the order.
Super Mario 64▲ Rising
The moment Mario stepped off the castle steps into a fully 3D Bob-omb Battlefield, platforming as a genre had to be rewritten from scratch, and Nintendo nailed the landing on the first try. The analog-stick control scheme and camera-conscious level design became the template every 3D game since has borrowed from. Its case for the top spot isn't nostalgia alone — it's that this was the invention of the modern control feel, full stop.
Year: 1996Critic score: 9.4/10
added by IJRin 10 rankings
110
Super Mario Odyssey▲ Rising
Cappy turning every enemy and object into a playable body wasn't just a gimmick, it was a Trojan horse for the most joyfully weird sandbox Mario had ever inhabited, from possessing a T-Rex to sipping tea as a Broodal-adjacent hat. New Donk City's Jump Up, Super Star! sequence became an instant cultural moment, proof that a 2017 platformer could still make the internet lose its mind. It earns its spot by feeling like both a loving retrospective of every Mario era and the freshest 3D outing in two decades.
Year: 2017Critic score: 9.7/10
added by IJRin 8 rankings
67
Super Mario World▼ Falling
Yoshi's debut alone would make this a landmark, but it's the cape feather turning every level into an improvised flight sim that made World feel like a toybox with no bottom. The overworld map's branching secret exits rewarded curiosity in a way that reshaped how platformers structured progression for years afterward. As the game that helped sell the SNES itself, its claim to greatness is baked into gaming history, not just fan memory.
Year: 1990Critic score: 9.6/10
added by IJRin 8 rankings
-3
Super Mario Bros. 3▼ Falling
The Tanooki Suit turning Mario to stone mid-air, the airships raided level by level, the world map itself becoming a game board dotted with secrets — Bros. 3 is the moment the NES-era platformer stopped being simple and became an event, immortalized by kids losing their minds over it inside The Wizard. Every suit, every hidden warp whistle, every Koopaling boss fight felt like generosity nobody expected from a sequel. It belongs on this list as the game that proved 2D Mario could be as inventive and surprising as anything that came after it.
Year: 1988Critic score: 9.7/10
added by IJRin 6 rankings
-104
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Comments (7)
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- GGrace ReyesJul 29, 2026
Exactly the kind of argument the internet was built for.
Voted — and the gap between #1 and #2 should be bigger.
- KKofi JohnsonJul 27, 2026
This order is closer to right than any editor would've gotten.