The Best And Worst Thing In Each Mario Game

Wrapping up this impromptu Mario month of sorts with a list that I threw together about 50% of in a medical waiting room. Somebody needs to do something about these Canada-esque wait times. I don't mind too much as long as I've got something to do, though.

Super Mario Bros

Best: The fire flower. What a simple, basic powerup that adds so much to the game. Going from having to leap over foes to actually being able to blast them head-on is one of the earliest examples of truly rewarding gameplay in videogaming. When I was a kid, getting the Fire Flower for the first few times was basically the coolest thing ever. I used to wonder what would happen if I could get to World 1-4 without losing fireball power. Was it possible to defeat Bowser instead of running past him? Eventually I got to see for myself.

Worst: The slippery controls. While the controls were actually quite good for the time, I always had issues with them. The momentum is a little weird and you stall out sometimes when you don't mean to (especially while jumping). The opposite is also an issue, and when moving fast Mario will slide a little bit. It's enough to make precision gameplay difficult, and is the main reason I've never actually rated this game particularly highly compared to the rest of the series.

Super Mario Bros 2 (US)

Best: Being able to choose between four characters, and by extension, the Princess' hover ability. That hover completely changes the gameplay and makes this a ton of fun to play through with her. There are some levels that I've never even played without the Princess, like the ice world levels, due to how OP the hover is with unstable surfaces. Putting aside the hover, all four characters are fun to play as and the character select gives this a ton of replay value.

Worst: That one level where you have to dig downwards through sand pits while enemies fall on you from above. That level is annoying and one of the few parts of this game that legitimately isn't fun. Unless, of course, you bring Toad, with his super-fast digging ability. Which makes sense: Being a denizen of Hades, he is used to tunneling through the underbelly of the world.

Super Mario Bros 3

Best: This is the toughest call on this entire list. I'm gonna go with "the debut of the Koopalings", the bosses of the various worlds. Each Koopaling has a distinctive look, personality and attack pattern. Each kingdom (world) has its own gimmick, and one can associate those gimmicks with their respective Koopalings. Ludwig seemed to be the Top Koopaling (until Bowser Jr came along and stole all their heat) so of course he gets World 7, the Pipe World.

Worst: The way some of the more interesting powerups only made like, a couple of appearances in the entire game. Kuribo's Shoe is only in one level (which might be why it's so memorable, though). The Hammer Bros Suit, my favorite powerup from the game, is so rare that one could probably miss it entirely the first time through.

Super Mario World

Best: 3-way tie for this one. Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and cheat! One: The cape powerup. Man, the cape is so much fun. Mario really feels "super" for the first time ever here. Being able to take flight, or just glide around, makes for tremendously fun gameplay. Two: This game also introduces YOSHI, who makes everything better, and even changes the level music. They took the "ride a dinosaur ally" concept from Adventure Island and made it actually fun. Three: Adding a save system to this game made it infinitely more playable than the first 3 games, if we're looking at this from a 1991 perspective. Saving wasn't yet something to be taken for granted.

Worst: World 7's levels aren't that good. While Bowser's Castle itself is interesting, with its alternate routes and numbered doors, the rest of World 7 ranges from tedious to frustrating. The slowly autoscrolling underground level is the worst part. So what happened to World 8? I've got a theory that the Sunken Ship was originally supposed to be World 7 (as opposed to just a level), with our World 7 being World 8. Who knows, though.

The Lost Levels (Mario All-Stars)

Best: Being able to save between every level. The rest of the games in the All-Stars pack let you save between worlds, which is great and all, but being able to save between levels is very welcome. Note that this isn't the case in the Famicom version, which instead chooses to murder the player.

Worst: This is the hardest game on this entire list, and that isn't a good thing. There are a ton of highly-frustrating levels in this game and the deck is stacked against the player to an almost unfair degree at times. This one isn't exactly fun. And yet, I beat this game before I ever beat SMB1 due to the save system being what it is.

Super Mario Land

Best: The Superball puts a new spin on the Fire Flower by making it ricochet off of objects and bounce all over the place. HM to the way the game uses mythological elements, like sphinx and rock-throwing moai.

Worst: Unfortunately, being on such a small screen, everything is tiny. The ? blocks are miniscule, Mario himself is a blip, and everything is just kind of hard to see. They'd fix this in the second by inflating everything quite a bit.

Super Mario Land 2

Best: The open world format where you can take on all of the areas in virtually any order. Makes it hard to ever get stuck when you can always just try a different area if one is giving you issues. The sheer variety of levels across said open world is pretty refreshing at this point in the series too. Yep, every time you turned this game on, you had a whole smorgasbord of very distinct levels to choose from.

Worst: The best thing is also the worst, because it has an unfortunate side effect. Since all of the levels are on the same "tier" basically, they can't ascend in difficulty as you go like most games. So instead you get a ton of easy levels, followed by a huge difficulty spike for the final level once it gets unlocked, with nothing climbing towards it or preparing you for it. This means the final level can really blitz an unprepared player. It also means that most of the levels are easy to the point of not being that engaging at times, and I never really felt any need to replay any of them.

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2

Best: Being a contender for best game on this list (it's in the top 5 without a doubt), there are tons of "bests" about this game. It does a lot of things differently from traditional Mario, and that newness went a long way. The art style is what I would give the nod to as best thing here. It's a hand-drawn art style that is incredibly charming and has aged super-well, even as other games from the era have gotten less appealing-looking with the passage of time. This game has a timeless look about it and really was "all that" in 1995.

Worst: The final boss is kinda an asshole, and the fight has an invisible timer on it where at some point you auto-lose if you haven't won yet. That's it, that's the only thing I could think of.

Super Mario 64

Best: Being the first of its kind, setting the tone for 3D games going forward, bringing joy to millions of kids. Best thing in the game itself? The 120 stars, most of which are fun to get and changed up the status quo of the Mario series. They're a lot more interesting than basic "get to the end" levels. Some are quick, some are a process, all are dopamine hits.

Worst: The game dropping a month into the school year in North America. The millions of kids it brought joy to were in the middle of a school semester at that point!

Super Mario Sunshine

Best: How damn shiny and happy everything is. This game was in development during a dark time for everybody (especially New Yorkers), and no doubt the creators of it set out to cheer people up. Unfortunately it didn't make it to North America until months later, specifically the week school started for everyone. Mario 64 all over again!

Worst: The blue coins are probably the single worst thing in any 3D Mario game. There are something like 240 of them in the game, and every ten you find results in a Shine. So that's 24 of the 120 Shines that are bought with blue coins. It really does feel like they exist only to pad the game out and replace a couple of levels that were cut. The worst part is that the game gives you zero clue as to WHICH blue coins you've found or how many remain in each level, so by the end when you're only missing the last 10% or so of them, good luck figuring out where they are. 240 collectibles scattered all throughout a game with no method to keep track of them short of keeping your own list and checking off every blue coin you find as you play. Terrible, and the sole reason I'll never 100% this game a second time.

Super Mario Galaxy

Best: Probably the best out of all the 3D Mario games, it's difficult to pick any one thing that functions the best about this game. I'd say the sheer variety of all of the level types and the way every level manages to be fun, not an easy feat. It takes the Mario 64 formula and kicks it up about 3 notches, like a true sequel should, with lots of very memorable levels. So yeah, the level design is the best thing here.

Worst: Comet stars, in general. Challenge stars that come and go, and are often a pain to deal with. The purple coin stars in particular tend to be real bastards, as well as the timed ones. However the most annoying thing is the way the comets move around, so they can block off a level you want to play at an inopportune time, or a comet you're looking for might not even show up. It's possible to shuffle them around, but it's all pretty annoying regardless.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Best: Having 240 stars. Getting the first 120 unlocks a second set of 120 and it's such a massive surprise that it totally blew me away the first time I played this. While I prefer the previous Galaxy in terms of being perfectly-designed and having no wasted space, this one certainly wins on content. Maybe for the entire series, outside of Odyssey.

Worst: Having to spend 9999 Star Bits to unlock the final level. A game that is perfectly-balanced in most regards decides to throw in a very late farm. Not a great choice here. HM to how the game is inexplicably trapped on the Wii while all the other 3D Marios got ported to modern systems.

New Super Mario Bros (DS)

Best: The giant powerup that lets Mario completely demolish everything in his path. Super fun and probably the only really memorable thing about this game.

Worst: The first new 2D Mario in ages and it just...didn't feel like the old ones. I never liked this one when I was younger for that reason. It almost feels like a completely different series. Maybe it should have just been "Super Mario Bros 4" and been a bit closer to 3, or something.

New Super Mario Bros (Wii)

Best: Probably World 8-7, everyone's favorite level. It's a lot of fun in multiplayer, which this game does well. HM: It's the first new 2D Mario on an actual console in like 15 years! Unless you count Yoshi's Island, in which case it's like...11 years.

Worst: I can't tell this apart from the DS one in most respects. I really wasn't into either game, and found both to be way too easy and way too floaty. They just don't measure up to the classic Marios. As for something more game-specific, I found the level design in this game to be generic and definitely lacking compared to most Marios.

New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U)

Best: Being in HD and finally looking like something different, a cut above the previous NSMBs. This game looks great, no doubt.

Worst: At the end of the day it's still NSMB, something that had LONG since run its course already. Doesn't innovate from the ones before it.

New Super Luigi Bros U (Wii U)

Best: This could have just been a DLC but it ended up being a great game. Follows right after the previous one by continuing to raise the challenge level, ala Lost Levels back in the day. Luigi is super fun to play as. Most of all, they got very creative with these levels and they actually feel fresher than ANYTHING in the rest of the NSMB series.

Worst: This game is rough, and throws the kitchen sink at the player. It isn't the Mario that you reach for if you're just trying to relax. And that's great for folks who want a real challenge, but some of the later levels can legitimately border on frustrating. It's part of what makes this the best of the NSMBs, though; it isn't over in one day.

Super Mario 3-D Land

Best: Playing this in full 3D mode on the 3DS. Normally I'm not that into 3D mode and pretty much always have it turned off. This one particular game, though... playing it in 3D is actually a pretty magical experience. It's too bad most people slept on this game for whatever reason. Yeah, it may go back to "World 1-1" etc rather than named worlds you could roam around, but it does what it does quite well.

Worst: Die five times and the game drops a perma-invincibility powerup so you can, basically, skip the current level. It robs the game of challenge (in a game that isn't exactly hard to begin with) and while in some ways it can be a good thing (there won't ever be an impasse for the player), the negatives outweigh the positives. Namely that success in the game means very little because you can just die your way through it without trying. Makes it harder to care.

What are the most talked-about Mario levels? Crazy things like the sand bird in Mario Sunshine or the airships in Super Mario Bros 3. Challenges breed fond memories, and who doesn't have fond memories of overcoming the great Mario levels of yesteryear? Well, I can't remember a single level from Super Mario 3-D Land and some of that is because not a single level posed any actual threat. And no, "just don't use it" doesn't really work. When you're a busy person, it's logical to just grab whatever advantages the game gives you so you spend less time playing it. And unfortunately my adult brain goes straight for things like this.

Super Mario 3-D World

Best: Cat Mario is a great addition, with his ability to scurry up walls (while being all fuzzy about it). However I have to give the grand prize to the four-player option, which gives this game something none of the others have. The game becomes chaos, but super-fun chaos. Also noteworthy is how we now have an overworld, with character, and stages with names and identities. No more "World 3-1" type levels. Unfortunately the game totally upstages 3D Land in that regard.

Worst: This is also an issue with Super Mario 3D Land. Instead of a smaller number of huge levels like the rest of the 3D Marios, these two go for a more standard approach of lots of small levels. Each level is straightforward, has one route / way to tackle it, and one goal. In that sense, these two games, while good, are sort of a weird halfway point between the traditional 3D Marios and the traditional 2D Marios.

However, the true Worst is that in addition to all of this, they added a timer to every level and it really kills the vibe sometimes. In a 3D Mario game you want to go out and explore, and you can't really do that in these. The timer adds absolutely nothing and should have been left out of the game; I'm actually surprised they didn't realize this during development.

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)

Best: Bringing back the Koopalings. Seriously, the Koopalings don't get enough credit. They're one of the coolest things about the early games in the series, and just sorta disappeared after that. Well, here they are, and they're all brimming with distinct personalities (that have continuity with how they were in the early games, no less).

Worst: The way it goes about using star coins. Every level has 3 of them, and you need 90 (about half the star coins in the game) to unlock the optional special world. Which isn't bad at all and there's a good chance of getting the 90 coins you need via just a normal run-through of the game. However, the game is constantly presenting you with opportunities to spend star coins on frivolous shit, like Toad Houses (where you might get like, a mushroom or something at the low cost of losing 5 star coins permanently). That's right, it uses one-off coins as currency. The vast majority of players will get to the end and not have enough to unlock the special world.

Bowser's Fury

Best: The way the game just has one continuous open world to explore. It's basically a single massive level with lots of stars in it. No other 3D Mario is like this, and it's bold risk-taking that really paid off. Especially considering this game was just a borderline-DLC to hold people over between main games. Bowser's Fury was a pleasant surprise, all around.

Worst: Bowser's actual Fury. Every so often, your exploration of the open world gets interrupted by an attack from Giga-Bowser, who destroys everything in his path and unleashes rains of fire. It's cool the first time it happens, but after that it's just a big high-stress interruption to you trying to just play the game in peace.

Super Mario Odyssey

Best: The city level, particularly the musical number that takes place at the culmination of it. The stage Mario traverses during said musical number might well be the best single level in any 3D Mario. It's just fun and memorable on all levels. Unless you hate musical content, I guess.

Worst: The extremely high number of Moons to collect (800+) actually ends up being a negative. Few of them are memorable and the game spends a lot of time piling them onto the player. Finding 3 at a time hidden under a rock or whatever tends to really take the shine (heh) off of them. It's also so daunting to try and get them all that I never even really tried. Would have been better if they had like half or a third the amount of Moons and made all of them count and mean something.

Super Mario Wonder

Best: The sheer creativity that went into the Wonder Seeds and how each one alters the level in various outlandish ways. This game actually makes you, well, wonder, because you're always looking forward to seeing what crazy gimmick the next level is going to bring you.

Worst: The invisible powerup. With that on, you can't see Mario, and there are a couple of stages where you HAVE to use it for a particular section. Most notably, the final challenge level at the very end of the postgame, which is among the hardest levels in Mario history (maybe even THE hardest). I was able to handle most of it after numerous tries, but what made me never want to replay the game was the section with invisible Mario. Yeah, this one thing tarnishes an almost-perfect Mario game.