Is There a Bad Mario Game?

February 13, 2009 - Despite the roar of harder edged, more realistic games over the past two console generations, no game character is a bigger, brighter icon for the entire industry than Nintendo's mascot. The Mario franchise has sold over 200 million videogames worldwide, making it the undisputed bestselling game series. It's a record that is likely impossible to beat thanks in no small part to Mario repeatedly being in the right place at the right time. His very first outing in the original Donkey Kong, back when Mario was known simply as Jumpman, is responsible for Nintendo's reversal of fortunes in America. His first NES adventure, Super Mario Bros., is regarded as one of the greatest games of all time and is credited with nailing down the essentials of the platformer genre. Super Mario 64 helped define 3D gaming during an exciting transitional era for videogames.

Why deny it? Mario is videogames.

But put aside sales figures for a moment. Try to keep your personal admiration in check. And ask yourself if every Mario game is a truly great one. Is there a bad Mario game in the bunch? Now, before you start calling out names like Hotel Mario and Mario is Missing, let's just drill down to the main series. It's too easy to get out into the weeds and use those admittedly sub-par games as crutches in such an argument. Starting from the original Mario-starring game, Mario Bros., consider if any primary chapter in the franchise stumbles.

"There is no bad Mario game," says Peer Schneider, Publisher of IGN. "And I honestly doubt there will be one. Nintendo owes its existence to the guy -- and while spin-offs have greatly varied in quality depending on the developer and genre, the main series has always remained strong."

The original Mario Bros. for the arcade is one of the most underrated entries in the canon. This simple, single-screen action game from 1983 is a smart twitch challenge that introduces several characters important to the franchise. Mario's brother Luigi makes his first appearance in Mario Bros. The Koopas show up here, too (although, they are known as Shellcreepers), and they have been troublesome for Mario ever since. But Mario Bros. does more than just roll out some critical denizens of what would later be known as the Mushroom Kingdom. Crucial game mechanics are tried out here for the first time, such as coin collecting and pipes.

Mario Bros. was ported around to non-Nintendo systems like the Atari 2600 and 5200 before the launch of the NES. The success of the Super Mario line of games has obscured this classic to some degree. Nintendo has revisited it a few times, such as including it in the Game Boy Advance remakes of the original Mario games like Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2. But the game was also the inspiration for Mario Clash on the Virtual Boy, which is another underrated action game. Because of the Super Mario franchise's turn toward platforming and adventure, the action legacy of the series has been sadly subverted.


There is no debate over the impact of Super Mario Bros. It remains a landmark game that not only revitalized an entire industry, but was also critical to establishing Nintendo as the dominant player in the videogame industry until the seismic arrival of the PlayStation. But as mentioned, there is a sense of genesis to Super Mario Bros. -- it is a game that so much sprang from. Super Mario Bros. is not a single-screen skill contest. Instead, by scrolling from left to right through defined worlds, it is a true adventure.

"Super Mario Bros. was not a toy like Pong of Pitfall!," says Michael Thomsen of IGN Insider. "The underlying structure of the game created the template for interactive narrative. It made its purpose a dramatic one, and something that was implicit in every second of gameplay from start to finish."

Super Mario Bros.' position as one of the greats -- if not the greatest -- is undisputed. However, its sequel is often contested because of its radical departure from not only the preceding game, but also those that followed it prior to the 3D revolution. Super Mario Bros. 2 is not exactly a "true" Mario game in that it was not built from the ground up specifically for the mascot. Instead, Super Mario Bros. 2 is a re-skin of a Japanese platformer called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo had created a direct sequel to Super Mario Bros. that the American arm of the company did not want to release in the United States. Their reasons are completely understandable: it was incredibly difficult and it explored little new territory.


Super Mario Bros. 2 really bears little resemblance to the first game. There are no warp pipes or secret areas. The enemies are completely different. At the time, fans did not know any better since information about the "real" Super Mario Bros. sequel wasn't open knowledge and there was no Internet to rocket the information across the Pacific in three seconds.