The 50 Best Mario Video Games of All Time

With (Super) Mario turning 25, we take a look back at our favorite plumber's 50 greatest adventures. Trust us, it could've been 200.

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Image via Complex Original
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Super Mario Bros.

Note: We have excluded compilation titles, ports, games not released in the US, and remakes...although we did include a couple on a case-by-base basis.

Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix

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Before Dancing With the Stars, Mario & Co. retro-one-upped the TV show with their own rendition: Call it Dancing With the Star Power. Thanks to grooved-out (by Japanese kiddie standards) versins of Mario's best-known soundtrack selections, the only thing that would've made this any better was the inclusion of Cheryl Burke in a two-piece.

Dr. Mario

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Tetris

Wario World

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Mario's cousin, Wario, formally introduced himself to home console gamers in this early-Naughties game which primarily dealt with the fartmonger's greediness for gold coins. Lay some rotten eggs, piledrive a few baddies, and munch on some garlic to maneuver the mustachioed anti-hero toward his ultimate goal: regaining his castle from a mysterious black jewel.

SSX on Tour

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Donkey Kong Jr.

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The lovable plumber showed his nasty streak early in his career in the game that turned the tables on Donkey Kong. Mario is no longer the hero jumping over barrels and climbing treacherous terrain to save the Princess—he's enslaved the furry mammoth and hopes to prevent his savior by whipping bear trap-like SnapJaws and high-flying NitPickers into a bloodthirsty frenzy.

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's IslandSMA 3

Luigi's Mansion

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Mario's brother was rewarded for his 15 years of patience with a starring role in this GameCube launch title, pitting him against a haunted mansion and the ghostly beings that reside in it. The game was over in a flash (it was only a six-hour experience), but finally let the Luigi character stretch his legs a little bit.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time

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Mario & LuigiPartners in Time

Mario Bros.

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Before Mario was Super, he was a humble plumber with nothing better to do than jump around on pipes all day. The story is about two pipe cleaners who are tasked to investigate the critters infesting NYC's sewers. Take it from us: It's probably footlong rats.

Mario Golf

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The success of Super Mario Kart (see #10) seemingly catalyzed Nintendo's brand extension of Mario, eventually spawning a series of golf games that were surprisingly good. Mario and friends competed head-to-head on the links, each with their own specialties and mannerisms that were up to par. UP TO PAR! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Man, we are tired.

Mario Hoops 3-on-3

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Final Fantasy

Mario Power Tennis

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Mario Power Tennis

Mario Strikers Charged

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Mario lent his crazy self once more to the sport of soccer in this sequel to Super Mario Strikers (see #28). An exercise at simplifying the gameplay and expanding the online multiplayer portion, MSC did both while implementing new features like Skillshots and Mega Strikes. (Think six balls hurtling toward your head at the same time, a.k.a. "Saturday Night at Kat Stacks' House.")

Mario Superstar Baseball

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Superstar Baseball

Mario Tennis

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Super Paper Mario

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If you thought a paper version of Mario was psychedelic, then watching 2-D Mario levels from your childhood turn into 3-D spaces must've been a real brain scrambler. When stuck, the Mustachioed One is able to turn the world on its side, literally, and uncover new pathways, MC Escher-style. Duuuuuuuuude.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

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Mario has done some strange things in his time, but probably nothing stranger than exploring the Bowser's innards (II) in this Mario & Luigi series title. Bowser ate some bad ’shrooms and went on a wild rampage, inhaling everyone around him—including the superpowered brothers. Now it's up to them to get to the bottom of who spiked King Koopa's "special" stash. On a side note, there sure are a lot of adult themes going on in Mario Land nowadays...

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

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Haters gonna hate, but in this case, Donkey Kong is going to love...a little too much. Enamored beyond reason of a Mini-Mario toy, Donkey Kong goes to the toy factory, steals all of them, and climbs to the top of the building. Mario, a la Donkey Kong on the NES, must climb his way to the top and save his swag.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis

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Lemmings

NBA Street V3

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Is it the shoes? Nah, it's gotta be the ’stache. Mario laced up for some street hoops action against real NBA players as a playable character in the GameCube version of EA's franchise. Unfortunately, this also led to a spike in the number of fat, hairy guys who thought they had hops. Stan Van Gundy's on the sidelines for a reason, people.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

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Super Mario Strikers

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Super Mario Sunshine

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Super Smash Bros.

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Lacking the polish of its predecessors, SSB was nonetheless successful in carving out a niche in the fighting-game genre, which traditionally tasked players to deplete an opponent's life bar. The 12 available characters were a bit of a drag and led to some repetition, but its originality blazed a trail for sequels.

Yoshi Island DS

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We're not exactly sure why an ugly wizard is interested in kidnapping babies, but Baby Mario and his baby friends have teamed up with the Yoshis once more to save the missing Baby Luigi. As long as we don't have to do any diaper duty while playing, or learn what we can only imagine to be the wizard's filthy motives, we're fine with this plot.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!

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What more can we say (see #31) other than "Again!"?

Donkey Kong

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Mario's pre-Super days were often marked with attempting to flee from a massive gorilla named Donkey Kong. Case in point: this O.G. retro title that pits our (comparably) minuscule plumber against a legion of dangerous barrels with the hope of climbing up and saving his damsel in distress. The best video-game allegory about reliance on foreign oil EVAR.

Mario Party

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Mario Party

Paper Mario

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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

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Paper MarioMario & Luigi: Superstar Sagaboot

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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Mario has taken his share of lumps in his career, but probably none more painful than in this sequel to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Not only are heavy hitters Snake and Sonic included on the roster of fighters, but each are equipped with special "Final Smash" maneuvers that hurt just as much as you'd think they would.

Tetris

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Mario and Tetris have about as much in common as Lindsay Lohan and sobriety, but that didn't stop Nintendo from shoehorning their mascot into the NES port of their Russian-inspired puzzle title, albeit for a very brief cameo appearance.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

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What are friends for, other than beating the living snot out of them? Mario put the hurt on his buddies in Nintendo's reimagination of Gladiator set in the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond. It's also one of the few games where you can get some retribution against the Princess for getting kidnapped all the time.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

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Princess Peach is...take a guess...KIDNAPPED BY BOWSER! This time in the hope of forcibly marrying her to a weirdo with Asperger's. This game marked a distinct fork in the Mario franchise's road, as it began to experiment with genres wildly different than anything before. Role-playing, and its turn-based style of combat, was one of those genres, but Super Mario RPG was a great fit due in large part to Square Enix's experience and involvement with the project.

Punch-Out!!

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Mario Kart DS

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Mario Kart

Super Mario Bros. 2

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There's a reason that Screw Attack once said playing this game was like playing "a lie." It doesn't feel like a regular Mario platformer, yet it's a good game in its own right and introduced a number of innovations—the pick-up-and-throw maneuver, for example—that would become staples in the series.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

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New Super Mario Bros. Wii

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NSMBWSuper Mario Bros.

Super Mario Kart

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Although not as addictive as its fully 3-D sequels (in our opinion, we should add), Super Mario Kart essentially created the genre of kart racing video games with its unique take on the hobby sport, namely the inclusion of weapons like bananas and turtle shells.

Super Mario Land

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We'll admit that this game skews toward the formulaic Mario platformer, but considering this was a mere four years after the original Super Mario Bros. game on the NES, it was on a Game Boy, and it had an addictive soundtrack, it stays in our Top 10 all day, every day. Plus, Mario fights off Sphinxes. Can you do that? Didn't think so.

Mario Kart 64

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This was the game that fractured friendships, estranged family, and caused general disgust for fellow man. Mario Kart 64 was the most addictive racing experience to date, untainted by the rubber-band artificial intelligence that allowed racers to come back from seemingly insurmountable deficits. Fuck you, blue shell. Fuck. You.

New Super Mario Bros.

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Seizing on the popularity of Mario Kart's DS edition, Nintendo released an all-new take on the classic platform series that was engineered specifically to take advantage of the DS' hardware. The dual screens provided both a viewing area and a utility screen to switch off stored mushrooms, enabling Mario to supersize (with the Mega Mushroom) or miniaturize (with the Mini-Mushroom) himself accordingly. Or simply to expand his mind (with the Psilocybin Mushroom). Or maybe that was just our college roommate Mario.

Super Mario 64

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First, Mario jumped. Then he flew. Then, in this game-changing title, he stepped into the third dimension. Along with reintroducing series staples in a new light, Super Mario 64 also paved the way with innovations like free-roaming camera angles and analog control, which is (at least for now) the way all the grown-ass consoles prefer to game.

Super Mario Galaxy

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Super Mario Bros.

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Super Mario Galaxy 2

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Overrated? Hardly. It may be the newest Mario game on the market, but it is also evidence that the minds behind Mario are still hard at work creating new game experiences (in space!) that wow both people who grew up on fireballs and Tanooki suits and younger gamers still getting to know the company's mascot.

Super Mario World

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Super Mario World

Super Mario Bros. 3

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Super Mario Bros. 3

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