The three eras of Mario: The 2D Era (Donkey Kong-SML2): Mario's humble beginnings. Largely defined by powerups and stage-by-stage progression. The early 3D Golden Age (Super Mario 64-Super Mario Strikers): Mario's adventures in a fully 3D world. Home to some of the greatest Mario games, such as Super Mario 64, and some of the most controversial, such as Super Mario Sunshine. Defined moreso by missions than levels. The late 3D Era (NSMB-present): Shantae wearing a fake mustache. Significantly more soulless, although it has some peaks such as the Galaxy games and Odyssey (I'm not a fan of them myself, but other people like them a lot). The games celebrate Mario history, such as the Festival in Odyssey.
Useless buzzword used by people with no actual arguments
Ryder Perry
Soul is a real phenomenon. It's hard to explain, but it exists.
Andrew Collins
This is way too obvious;
Brayden Rogers
Middle row is the best. Top row is fun. Bottom row is shovelware besides NSMBU which is a thoroughly excellent game against all odds
Gavin Hill
Yoshi’s Island is missing. I realize it later became its own series but it was originally a Mario game when first released. It was made by the Mario guys
Jonathan Adams
There were ten years in between Mario 64 and NSMB. Only one Mario game was released
Landon Scott
Mario U and Luigi U mechanically shit on most of the series
Matthew Richardson
bump
Jason Ross
Yeah, late 3D era sucked.
Adam Davis
>It's hard to explain exactly, because you are a sheep who can't articulate himself properly
Christopher Adams
> world bad > yoshi's island bad > neutral on sunshine and 64 > nsmbu perfect It's not often I feel the genuine need to break out this image.
2D era has some gems but spent a lot of time finding its feet. No truly bad games but many are direct downgrades (1/World vs. 3, for instance). Early 3D is the objective best. Late 3D is very hit or miss. NSMBU is shovelware, Mario Maker is great and brought the internet together in a way rarely seen, Odyssey is fun and very solid.
Austin James
2D classic 3>SMW>Yoshi Isl>SMW>SMB>SMB2(us)>SML>SMB2(jp) 2D nu NSBW>NSMB>SMBU>NSMB2 3D Mario 64>Odyssey>SMG2>SMS>SMG>Both 3d worlds
All of 2D Mario is shit, it became irrelevant as soon as DKC hit stores
Adam Ross
That's not true. They still hold up pretty well, and they're still fun to play.
Ethan Peterson
bump
Hudson Edwards
NSMB Wii was actually great with a different theme or gimmick to every stage and introduced actual co-op that a lot of us wanted as kids rather than just taking turns in a 1-player game.
Wii U was decent, more of the same but the mini challenges were difficult and awesome.