The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!
I’m going on a trip to Italy, so no better time to discuss my favorite fictional Italian plumber: Mario!
Let’s discuss the Super Mario series. What is your favorite game in the series? What aspects do you like about it? What doesn’t work for you? Are there other games that gave you similar feelings? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let’s get the conversation going!
If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).
Previous entries: Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Half-Life, Earthbound / Mother, Mass Effect, Metroid, Journey, Resident Evil, Polybius, Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire
Mario being such a big part of my childhood makes it sad that stuff takes like 100 years to enter public domain.
I wish it was 20 years.
Imagine how much easier fan games, modding, and emulation/preservation would be!
Galaxy was amazing!
Does anyone remember the Super Mario Land series for Gameboy? This series was so strange, but I still loved playing them on car rides.
The games felt surreal, it seemed so novel playing a mario game where you pilot a submarine and shoot at enemies, or when giant easter island heads are enemies in the game.
It’s kind of funny how Mario has evolved over the years, it doesn’t sound so out of place anymore. I’m pretty sure there are Moai statue enemies in Mario Odyssey funny enough.
Super Mario Land also gave birth to Wario as an enemy and then eventually his own gameboy Spin-off Warioland (subheaded as ‘Super Mario Land 3’), which went on to have more installments than Super Mario Land itself!
Wario is one of Nintendo’s best characters and deeply underutilized (along with Waluigi).
Yes! I loved Warioland as well, what wonderful strange little games lol. I never got a chance to play Warioland Shake it, but I’ve played all the rest!
I agree I always want more Wario games, we hardly get any! And I can’t believe how little they’ve done with Waluigi. I thought for sure he would get a Smash invite :(
I don’t remember much about Wario Land on the gamecube… but if captain toad can have his own adventure game on the switch that’s actually pretty good, than so can Wario!
I remember my first time finding the ceiling path in the Pyramids in SML1. I just decided to try to see if I could jump up to the ceiling tiles, skip passed the enemies.
It blew my little mind when it worked. I could do that. Where else could I do that‽ The entire game just changed! I lost hours trying to make the stupidest jumps, just to see if I had found another one.
The first game kinda falls flat, but they put out a pretty solid sequel with the second game.
I’m a 2D Mario guy. Everything 8 and 16 bit is awesome, except the crying baby island simulator one.
64 was of course amazing. Sunshine I like only because they tried something different. I never finished it though.
Imma get some hate for this: Galaxy and Odyssey aren’t that good. I did like Galaxy 2 a little though. I did finish Odyssey but man it has to be one of the most gimmick driven games in the series. Crap ton of one use only power ups.
New Super on Wii, and especially newER on Wii are a lot of fun (which is cheating but whatever lol). The WiiU game though? Oof huge fail.
The catsuite 3D land game is interesting to me. It has a ton of really great ideas, and lots of fun sections. But it falls flat overall somehow. I can’t put my finger on it. Good memories with it though.
Honorable mention: Yoshi Story on the 64. That game was great.
Edit. Wonder has been out for awhile. Still haven’t played it. I actually completely forgot about it.
Super Mario is today what Mickey Mouse wishes it still was: a joyful, universally recognizable character deeply entrenched in the childhood of millions.
There is a special place in my heart for the infamously strange Super Mario Bros 2. Many connoisseurs will justly mention that it is merely a reskin of the lesser known Doki Doki Panic. What is often left out is that Doki Doki Panic was created as well by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and that it originally contained references to its previous work on Mario, such as the POW blocks. In the long run, I feel that Nintendo of America’s decision to adapt DDP as SMB2 for the occidental plebs boosted the series with several charming monsters, a more interactive world, as well as multiple playable characters. We owe Bobombs, Shyguys and Ninjis to this very title.
I am a late fan of this series. I used to have a Gameboy color as my first gaming device, but never actually sat down to play a Mario game fully until Super Mario Odyssey on the Switch. I really liked it, but it wasn’t a 10/10 for me like for other people.
For me the unexpected match came in the form of Super Mario 3D World. Something about the simplicity of the level design (short levels with 3 collectibles each) combined with the amazing coop make this an all time favorite game of mine. I also adore the music and general tone and creativity. It really had an almost therapeutic effect on me, I’ve seen more immediate effect on my mood than any of the anti depressants I’ve tried :D.
I have Wonder but it’s a bit to strange at times for my tastes (even though it is incredibly creative it isn’t as relaxing as 3D World was for me)
Long time fans of the 2d games really enjoy Wonder as the movement mechanics moved back to a faster feel from pre-New Super Mario Bros. My favorite will probably always be Super Mario World because the movement is the most responsive in that game and I also like to play ROM hacks for it and that community is wild.
New Super Mario Bros ended up with a sluggish movement by comparison and dominated 2d Mario for decades.
The big draw for many people in Mario is movement mechanics and that’s why Odyssey is so popular as well. The 3d platforming with Cappy just feels right. Like a missing extension that we never new we didn’t have.
3D World is one of my favourites. Really chilled game. Apart from Champions Road. Fuck that level!
