1. Super Mario Bros.: I wanted to put this as an S tier, but I had to put it as an A tier because of how small and limiting the game was. Super Mario Bros. Was a huge game when it first came out on the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) but pretty much every Super Mario game since the first has done so much more than what the first one did. Ultimately, the game is still great but there isn’t much replayability which makes it an A tier in my eyes.
2. Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan): This game has to be a D tier. Let me explain, this game is basically kaizo SMB1. Kaizo if you don’t know, in Japanese means to rebuild or reconstruct. Kaizo is used to denote a set of Super Mario ROM hacks that are extremely challenging unlike how most Super Mario games appeal to casual and slightly more hardcore players. The reason I’m giving the Lost Levels a D tier is because some people love the challenge so I can’t really put it as an F tier, but it did some weird stuff. It looked very similar to SMB1, but it switched around some mechanics that made the game strange like how SMB1 taught you to like Super mushrooms whereas the Lost Level had poisonous mushrooms that killed you.
3. Super Mario Bros. 2 (Originally Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in Japan, Later Super Mario Bros. USA in Japan): I am going to give this game a B tier. This is because it’s very different than any other 2D Super Mario Game because of the characters. I have nothing against the new characters that they added in this game, but it seems as if Nintendo has forgotten about some of them more than others. Nintendo hasn’t forgotten about SMB2 characters like Shyguy, Birdo, and Ninji but has seemed to forget about characters like Mouser and King Wart. I’m putting SMB2 at B tier because it did add a feature that is present in newer 2D Super Mario Games which is the ability to choose from a small list of characters who all control slightly different. Luigi’s defining trait was that he could jump higher, and Peach had a floaty, hover like jump. Besides the cast of playable characters, SMB2 was so different from SMB1 and with that I can’t put it higher than a B tier.
4. Super Mario Bros. 3 (My most favorite Super Mario game and my most favorite video game of all time!): I have to put this game as an S tier, I may sound biased, but I’ll explain why it really does deserve this ranking. SMB3 is better than SMB1 because it took the original formula and added a lot of value to it. SMB3 had more power ups, better graphics, more levels, and better replay ability than SMB1. The graphics of SMB3 still look beautiful today and many 2d Indie game developers have stated this game as one of their many inspirations as to why they wanted to create indie games. SMB3 was super hyped up leading up to its release back in the day and rightfully so.
5. Super Mario Land: I’m going to put this as a C tier because the graphics were super basic and it is a shorter game like SMB1, but I won’t put it at D or F tier because it was the first handheld Super Mario game. There is not much more to say about this game, it suffers from the same stuff as SMB1 from being a short game to the lack of replayability. I think C tier is a perfect ranking for Super Mario Land.
6. Super Mario World: I want to rank Super Mario World higher than a B tier, but I just can’t. I know a lot of people say that World is their favorite of the classic 2D Super Mario games, but I like SMB3 better because of the power ups and the length of each level. I like the power ups better in Super Mario 3, I think there is a better variety of power ups that you can get. In World, Yoshi kind of seems like a gimmick and I just like the graphics and soundtrack better in SMB3. I have nothing against World, but I always kind of thought that SMB3 did a good job at being a direct sequel to SMB1 whereas World felt like didn’t feel like a Super Mario Bros. 4, instead just a next Super Mario game.
7. Super Mario Land 2 – Six Golden Coins: Damn, this is such an upgrade from the original Super Mario Land and definitely shows that the Game Boy can have better graphics. Land 2 is easily 2 tiers higher than the original Land at an A tier. Not only did Land 2 one up (no pun intended lol) the original Land by having better graphics, but it also had way more levels and was the first Nintendo game to feature Wario. Wario is such a good antagonist to Mario because of how his personality is the exact opposite of Mario’s. Mario is a hero who likes to help people and Wario is just some greedy thief who likes to be rich and famous. I also like how Wario directly caused the event of the original Land to try and distract Mario so that he could steal Mario’s castle and rename Mario Land into Wario Land. Going from the first land to land 2 is a big upgrade and definitely deserves an A tier ranking.
8. Super Mario Land 3 – This is basically Super Mario Land 2 but without the Mario part. I will put Land 3 as a B tier because it’s just as fun as Land 2, but it started shifting over to the Wario Land series and no longer Mario Land. The game is fun and has some great mechanics and I love Wario's distinct personality, but Land 3 was starting to become a spin-off and is great at a B tier ranking.
9. Super Mario World 2 – Yoshi's Island: As a video game in general, Yoshi’s Island is an S tier game, but as a mainline Super Mario game this is like Land 3 (precursor to a spin-off series). I love this game and I like how it took the idea of riding a Yoshi from World and created a prequel that looks amazing. This game has to do with Yoshi helping Baby Mario find baby Luigi and Nintendo played into this idea by making the graphics look like they were drawn with crayons. I do think Yoshi’s Island is an S tier game as a Yoshi game but as a mainline Super Mario game, it plays very differently and so I have to give a B tier ranking.
10. Super Mario 64: The very first 3D Super Mario game and was a great game for Nintendo to release as a launch title alongside the Nintendo 64. I have to put Mario 64 as an A tier and not a S tier because of how it has aged. The gameplay has aged well, but the graphics and camera controls have not aged as well. I love all the different worlds that you get to explore, and they don’t overstay their welcome. Mario 64 could have aged better, but it’s still an A tier game in my eyes.
11. Super Mario Sunshine: Super Mario Sunshine is a super controversial Mario game, you either love it or your hate it and I kind of hate it. I really do have to give Sunshine a D tier ranking and that is because of how annoying and frustrating the game is and how bad the camera controls. Also, F.L.U.D.D doesn’t feel like it should have been in a Super Mario game. Nintendo would have been better off making this game less frustrating and making it a new IP and not a Super Mario game. Going from Super Mario 64 which actually felt like a Super Mario game to Super Mario Sunshine which felt like it should have been a new IP. Yeah, I’m happy giving Sunshine a D tier ranking (Sorry Super Mario Sunshine fans).
12. Super Mario 64 DS: Nintendo has a history of taking some of their games that were crafted for a home console and porting them to a handheld later down the line. We’ve seen this on the GBA with Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong Country, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, etc. The thing with these games was that they were all 2D games (or pre rendered 3D as in DK Country), But Super Mario 64 DS was a full-fledged 3D Mario game on a handheld. I’m going to give SM64 DS a B tier ranking. Even though this version added more stars and more playable characters to the game, the DS was lacking an analog stick for 3D movement. With SM64 DS, you could either use the D-pad for movement or change the settings to let you use the touch screen as a “analog stick”. This was a cool idea witch a few other DS ports/remakes took advantage of such as Rayman DS (port of Rayman 2: The great Escape (N64)). The problem was that there wasn’t an analog stick and as much as the touch screen tried to emulate a real analog stick, it just couldn’t quite get the feel of a physical analog stick down. It was cool that Nintendo didn’t just make a lazy port of SM64 for the DS, but actually remade the game for the DS. Sadly, the DS just didn’t have the right input for complete and precise 3D movement, especially for a 3D platformer. I’m ok with giving SM64 DS a B tier ranking because it added a lot to the original game and wasn’t just a lazy attempt at a port, but also had the issue of no true analog stick.
13. New Super Mario Bros. DS: Fans of Super Mario have gotten tired of the New Super Mario Bros. Formula and rightfully so. Since 2006, every 2D Super Mario platformer has been labeled under the “New” moniker because of Mario and Luigi’s return to their classic 2D format but with new gameplay mechanics to try and make it feel fresh. When Nintendo released the first New Super Mario game on the DS, it felt awesome to finally have a 2D Super Mario platformer again. I’m going to put New Super Mario Bros. DS as an S tier ranking because of how at home it felt on the DS. A couple years earlier, Nintendo tried to make a 3D Mario game work on the DS with SM64 DS. This didn’t work as well as Nintendo had hoped because of the lack of a physical analog stick for 3D movement. With only a D-pad, it just made sense to have a 2D Mario platformer on the DS and New Super Mario Bros. DS did not disappoint. I loved how NSMB DS felt like SMB1, but added cool new gameplay mechanics like the ground pound and new power ups. SM64 DS had some mini games as an added bonus, and very similar mini games returned in this game. NSMB DS also had a star mode where Mario and Luigi tried to see who could collect the most stars. Ultimately, the 3D Mario games were great on home consoles because you could sit down for a few hours and grind out some progress, but a 2D Mario game is perfect on a handheld like the DS because it is more bite sized, and you can play for 10 minutes at a time like when you’re on the bus.
14. Super Mario Galaxy: Finally, I get to talk about this masterpiece of a game! The Super Mario game in question is Super Mario Galaxy and I’m going to give it a much-deserved S tier ranking. This is Nintendo's 3rd (technically 4th because of SM64 DS) attempt at a 3D Super Mario platformer and this time they needed to redeem themselves big time. SM64 was pretty fun overall but the camera did not control very well, and Sunshine also had a terrible camera and was also super frustrating in general. With SM Galaxy, the camera didn’t control terribly, and the game wasn’t overly frustrating. Nintendo went a step further and made this the first game in the Super Mario series to have the soundtrack be composed by a symphony orchestra. Mario was finally headed to outer space and the soundtrack felt just as grand as his adventures across these galaxies. I really loved how the gravity felt in Galaxy and I also loved seeing all the planets Mario got to travel to. Ultimately, I had an amazing time playing Galaxy and I think this was the first time that Nintendo had nailed a 3D Super Mario platformer. Oh, and the Gusty Garden Galaxy theme is a banger!
15. New Super Mario Bros. Wii: This was the first Super Mario game to feature co-op. There have been multiplayer Super Mario games, but you had to take turns and it was only two players. There was also the original Mario Bros. Arcade game but that wasn’t co-op but instead PvP (player vs player). I am going to give New Super Mario Bros. Wii an A tier ranking because at this point I kind of started to feel like 2D Super Mario was better for a handheld console and 3D Super Mario was better for a home console. I remember letting my best friend at the time borrow my NSMB DS cartridge and I would borrow his Animal Crossing: Wild World cartridge. NSMB DS had 3 save files and Wild World had 1 save file, but you could have multiple players 1 save file. My friend had a Wii and NSMB Wii at his grandma’s house where we used to hang out a lot in grade school. NSMB Wii also had 3 save files but because of co-op, we had a lot of fun playing together. This was before the “New” Super Mario series got boring but still wasn’t as great as the DS version in my mind.
16. Super Mario Galaxy 2: Honestly, I don’t even know why Nintendo chose to make a sequel to Galaxy instead of a different Super Mario Game. This was basically the 1st Galaxy but with Yoshi and less Rosalina. It’s a fine game at a B tier ranking, but the 1st Galaxy will always be better in my mind.
17. Super Mario 3D Land: When the 3DS was first announced and I saw that it was going to have a feature that somewhat resembled an analog stick, I was super excited. The 3D feature along with the Circle pad meant that the dream of a 3D Super Mario platformer on a handheld might get a chance to redeem itself. 3D Land was a great game and I have really good memories of it, so I have to give it an S tier ranking. One of the reasons I really liked this is because it felt like a spiritual successor to SMB3. This kind of makes sense because of Nintendo's emphasis on the Tanooki power up. The Tanooki power up originated in SMB3 and made its return in 3d land. This was also the main 3DS games that actually took advantage of the 3D feature. Overall, 3D Land was perfect for the 3D because of the Circle pad, you could play it for 10 minutes at a time, and because it was made to be perfect with the 3D feature.
18. New Super Mario Bros. 2: Back in the days of the 3DS, I had birthday money and was trying to decide between Mario Kart 7 and New Super Mario Bros. 2. I ended up buying Mario Kart 7 and I was happy about it because a lot of 2DSs came with Mario Kart 7 as a pack in title, so I spent too many hours playing 8 player Mario kart with my siblings. New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the other hand, is an F tier game. There is nothing inherently wrong with the game, but that’s the problem. The game doesn’t feel fresh, and it didn’t add anything worthwhile. NSMB 2’s main gimmick was collecting gold coins. Along with this gimmick, Nintendo added a new power up that was essentially a coin magnet. Besides this new power up, Nintendo added in the co-op from NSMB Wii but cut it down from 4 players to 2 players. I was happy to see the co-op return or just see multiplayer in general. In the end, NSMB 2 didn’t feel fresh enough and out of all these great Super Mario games, this one was super forgettable.
19. New Super Mario Bros. U: You know how I said that Mario fans have gotten tired of the New Super Mario Bros. Formula, this is the point we have gotten to. I am going to give New Super Mario Bros. U a D tier ranking because I don’t think that it’s as bad as NSMB 2 but it’s still not very fresh of a game. Ultimately, out of all the New Super Mario Bros. Games the 1st two were my favorites and the other two were super forgettable.
20. Super Mario 3D World: Super Mario 3D World felt like a 2D/3D hybrid, and I loved that. I am going to put this game at an S tier ranking because I already loved 3D Land and 3D World just felt like a grander version of that game. One of the new power ups that 3D World added was the cat suit and I didn’t know if I would like it or not, but I actually really liked it. Throughout my whole playthrough of 3D World, I found myself wanting to keep using the cat suit power up. 3D World had a great new power up, fun levels, and was a huge breath of fresh air after NSMB 2 and NSMB U. Also, the Super Bell Hill theme is great!
21. Super Mario Odyssey: For me, Super Mario games should be fun and creative and Super Mario Odyssey was super fun and creative. I am going to give Super Mario Odyssey an S tier ranking because Cappy could have been a huge gimmick, but he wasn’t at all. This game was grand and full of amazing worlds. Super Mario Odyssey felt just as polished to me as Super Mario Galaxy because it didn’t have bad camera controls and it wasn't overly frustrating. I think that this game is perfect for casuals and hardcore gamers alike because you can have fun slowly going through the game or have just as much fun speed running the whole game. I had a lot of fun just exploring all these worlds and ultimately, I loved every second of this game!
I am a huge Super Mario fan and I have been for a very long time. I have never ranked all the mainline Super Mario games before, and I had a lot of fun going back and looking at all these games, the good and the bad. Also one last note, I got the idea to do a Super Mario Tier Maker from Bob and Wood over at the Nintendo podcast on YouTube. Tier Maker rankings pictured below:
2. Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan): This game has to be a D tier. Let me explain, this game is basically kaizo SMB1. Kaizo if you don’t know, in Japanese means to rebuild or reconstruct. Kaizo is used to denote a set of Super Mario ROM hacks that are extremely challenging unlike how most Super Mario games appeal to casual and slightly more hardcore players. The reason I’m giving the Lost Levels a D tier is because some people love the challenge so I can’t really put it as an F tier, but it did some weird stuff. It looked very similar to SMB1, but it switched around some mechanics that made the game strange like how SMB1 taught you to like Super mushrooms whereas the Lost Level had poisonous mushrooms that killed you.
3. Super Mario Bros. 2 (Originally Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in Japan, Later Super Mario Bros. USA in Japan): I am going to give this game a B tier. This is because it’s very different than any other 2D Super Mario Game because of the characters. I have nothing against the new characters that they added in this game, but it seems as if Nintendo has forgotten about some of them more than others. Nintendo hasn’t forgotten about SMB2 characters like Shyguy, Birdo, and Ninji but has seemed to forget about characters like Mouser and King Wart. I’m putting SMB2 at B tier because it did add a feature that is present in newer 2D Super Mario Games which is the ability to choose from a small list of characters who all control slightly different. Luigi’s defining trait was that he could jump higher, and Peach had a floaty, hover like jump. Besides the cast of playable characters, SMB2 was so different from SMB1 and with that I can’t put it higher than a B tier.
4. Super Mario Bros. 3 (My most favorite Super Mario game and my most favorite video game of all time!): I have to put this game as an S tier, I may sound biased, but I’ll explain why it really does deserve this ranking. SMB3 is better than SMB1 because it took the original formula and added a lot of value to it. SMB3 had more power ups, better graphics, more levels, and better replay ability than SMB1. The graphics of SMB3 still look beautiful today and many 2d Indie game developers have stated this game as one of their many inspirations as to why they wanted to create indie games. SMB3 was super hyped up leading up to its release back in the day and rightfully so.
5. Super Mario Land: I’m going to put this as a C tier because the graphics were super basic and it is a shorter game like SMB1, but I won’t put it at D or F tier because it was the first handheld Super Mario game. There is not much more to say about this game, it suffers from the same stuff as SMB1 from being a short game to the lack of replayability. I think C tier is a perfect ranking for Super Mario Land.
6. Super Mario World: I want to rank Super Mario World higher than a B tier, but I just can’t. I know a lot of people say that World is their favorite of the classic 2D Super Mario games, but I like SMB3 better because of the power ups and the length of each level. I like the power ups better in Super Mario 3, I think there is a better variety of power ups that you can get. In World, Yoshi kind of seems like a gimmick and I just like the graphics and soundtrack better in SMB3. I have nothing against World, but I always kind of thought that SMB3 did a good job at being a direct sequel to SMB1 whereas World felt like didn’t feel like a Super Mario Bros. 4, instead just a next Super Mario game.
7. Super Mario Land 2 – Six Golden Coins: Damn, this is such an upgrade from the original Super Mario Land and definitely shows that the Game Boy can have better graphics. Land 2 is easily 2 tiers higher than the original Land at an A tier. Not only did Land 2 one up (no pun intended lol) the original Land by having better graphics, but it also had way more levels and was the first Nintendo game to feature Wario. Wario is such a good antagonist to Mario because of how his personality is the exact opposite of Mario’s. Mario is a hero who likes to help people and Wario is just some greedy thief who likes to be rich and famous. I also like how Wario directly caused the event of the original Land to try and distract Mario so that he could steal Mario’s castle and rename Mario Land into Wario Land. Going from the first land to land 2 is a big upgrade and definitely deserves an A tier ranking.
8. Super Mario Land 3 – This is basically Super Mario Land 2 but without the Mario part. I will put Land 3 as a B tier because it’s just as fun as Land 2, but it started shifting over to the Wario Land series and no longer Mario Land. The game is fun and has some great mechanics and I love Wario's distinct personality, but Land 3 was starting to become a spin-off and is great at a B tier ranking.
9. Super Mario World 2 – Yoshi's Island: As a video game in general, Yoshi’s Island is an S tier game, but as a mainline Super Mario game this is like Land 3 (precursor to a spin-off series). I love this game and I like how it took the idea of riding a Yoshi from World and created a prequel that looks amazing. This game has to do with Yoshi helping Baby Mario find baby Luigi and Nintendo played into this idea by making the graphics look like they were drawn with crayons. I do think Yoshi’s Island is an S tier game as a Yoshi game but as a mainline Super Mario game, it plays very differently and so I have to give a B tier ranking.
10. Super Mario 64: The very first 3D Super Mario game and was a great game for Nintendo to release as a launch title alongside the Nintendo 64. I have to put Mario 64 as an A tier and not a S tier because of how it has aged. The gameplay has aged well, but the graphics and camera controls have not aged as well. I love all the different worlds that you get to explore, and they don’t overstay their welcome. Mario 64 could have aged better, but it’s still an A tier game in my eyes.
11. Super Mario Sunshine: Super Mario Sunshine is a super controversial Mario game, you either love it or your hate it and I kind of hate it. I really do have to give Sunshine a D tier ranking and that is because of how annoying and frustrating the game is and how bad the camera controls. Also, F.L.U.D.D doesn’t feel like it should have been in a Super Mario game. Nintendo would have been better off making this game less frustrating and making it a new IP and not a Super Mario game. Going from Super Mario 64 which actually felt like a Super Mario game to Super Mario Sunshine which felt like it should have been a new IP. Yeah, I’m happy giving Sunshine a D tier ranking (Sorry Super Mario Sunshine fans).
12. Super Mario 64 DS: Nintendo has a history of taking some of their games that were crafted for a home console and porting them to a handheld later down the line. We’ve seen this on the GBA with Super Mario Bros. 3, Donkey Kong Country, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, etc. The thing with these games was that they were all 2D games (or pre rendered 3D as in DK Country), But Super Mario 64 DS was a full-fledged 3D Mario game on a handheld. I’m going to give SM64 DS a B tier ranking. Even though this version added more stars and more playable characters to the game, the DS was lacking an analog stick for 3D movement. With SM64 DS, you could either use the D-pad for movement or change the settings to let you use the touch screen as a “analog stick”. This was a cool idea witch a few other DS ports/remakes took advantage of such as Rayman DS (port of Rayman 2: The great Escape (N64)). The problem was that there wasn’t an analog stick and as much as the touch screen tried to emulate a real analog stick, it just couldn’t quite get the feel of a physical analog stick down. It was cool that Nintendo didn’t just make a lazy port of SM64 for the DS, but actually remade the game for the DS. Sadly, the DS just didn’t have the right input for complete and precise 3D movement, especially for a 3D platformer. I’m ok with giving SM64 DS a B tier ranking because it added a lot to the original game and wasn’t just a lazy attempt at a port, but also had the issue of no true analog stick.
13. New Super Mario Bros. DS: Fans of Super Mario have gotten tired of the New Super Mario Bros. Formula and rightfully so. Since 2006, every 2D Super Mario platformer has been labeled under the “New” moniker because of Mario and Luigi’s return to their classic 2D format but with new gameplay mechanics to try and make it feel fresh. When Nintendo released the first New Super Mario game on the DS, it felt awesome to finally have a 2D Super Mario platformer again. I’m going to put New Super Mario Bros. DS as an S tier ranking because of how at home it felt on the DS. A couple years earlier, Nintendo tried to make a 3D Mario game work on the DS with SM64 DS. This didn’t work as well as Nintendo had hoped because of the lack of a physical analog stick for 3D movement. With only a D-pad, it just made sense to have a 2D Mario platformer on the DS and New Super Mario Bros. DS did not disappoint. I loved how NSMB DS felt like SMB1, but added cool new gameplay mechanics like the ground pound and new power ups. SM64 DS had some mini games as an added bonus, and very similar mini games returned in this game. NSMB DS also had a star mode where Mario and Luigi tried to see who could collect the most stars. Ultimately, the 3D Mario games were great on home consoles because you could sit down for a few hours and grind out some progress, but a 2D Mario game is perfect on a handheld like the DS because it is more bite sized, and you can play for 10 minutes at a time like when you’re on the bus.
14. Super Mario Galaxy: Finally, I get to talk about this masterpiece of a game! The Super Mario game in question is Super Mario Galaxy and I’m going to give it a much-deserved S tier ranking. This is Nintendo's 3rd (technically 4th because of SM64 DS) attempt at a 3D Super Mario platformer and this time they needed to redeem themselves big time. SM64 was pretty fun overall but the camera did not control very well, and Sunshine also had a terrible camera and was also super frustrating in general. With SM Galaxy, the camera didn’t control terribly, and the game wasn’t overly frustrating. Nintendo went a step further and made this the first game in the Super Mario series to have the soundtrack be composed by a symphony orchestra. Mario was finally headed to outer space and the soundtrack felt just as grand as his adventures across these galaxies. I really loved how the gravity felt in Galaxy and I also loved seeing all the planets Mario got to travel to. Ultimately, I had an amazing time playing Galaxy and I think this was the first time that Nintendo had nailed a 3D Super Mario platformer. Oh, and the Gusty Garden Galaxy theme is a banger!
15. New Super Mario Bros. Wii: This was the first Super Mario game to feature co-op. There have been multiplayer Super Mario games, but you had to take turns and it was only two players. There was also the original Mario Bros. Arcade game but that wasn’t co-op but instead PvP (player vs player). I am going to give New Super Mario Bros. Wii an A tier ranking because at this point I kind of started to feel like 2D Super Mario was better for a handheld console and 3D Super Mario was better for a home console. I remember letting my best friend at the time borrow my NSMB DS cartridge and I would borrow his Animal Crossing: Wild World cartridge. NSMB DS had 3 save files and Wild World had 1 save file, but you could have multiple players 1 save file. My friend had a Wii and NSMB Wii at his grandma’s house where we used to hang out a lot in grade school. NSMB Wii also had 3 save files but because of co-op, we had a lot of fun playing together. This was before the “New” Super Mario series got boring but still wasn’t as great as the DS version in my mind.
16. Super Mario Galaxy 2: Honestly, I don’t even know why Nintendo chose to make a sequel to Galaxy instead of a different Super Mario Game. This was basically the 1st Galaxy but with Yoshi and less Rosalina. It’s a fine game at a B tier ranking, but the 1st Galaxy will always be better in my mind.
17. Super Mario 3D Land: When the 3DS was first announced and I saw that it was going to have a feature that somewhat resembled an analog stick, I was super excited. The 3D feature along with the Circle pad meant that the dream of a 3D Super Mario platformer on a handheld might get a chance to redeem itself. 3D Land was a great game and I have really good memories of it, so I have to give it an S tier ranking. One of the reasons I really liked this is because it felt like a spiritual successor to SMB3. This kind of makes sense because of Nintendo's emphasis on the Tanooki power up. The Tanooki power up originated in SMB3 and made its return in 3d land. This was also the main 3DS games that actually took advantage of the 3D feature. Overall, 3D Land was perfect for the 3D because of the Circle pad, you could play it for 10 minutes at a time, and because it was made to be perfect with the 3D feature.
18. New Super Mario Bros. 2: Back in the days of the 3DS, I had birthday money and was trying to decide between Mario Kart 7 and New Super Mario Bros. 2. I ended up buying Mario Kart 7 and I was happy about it because a lot of 2DSs came with Mario Kart 7 as a pack in title, so I spent too many hours playing 8 player Mario kart with my siblings. New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the other hand, is an F tier game. There is nothing inherently wrong with the game, but that’s the problem. The game doesn’t feel fresh, and it didn’t add anything worthwhile. NSMB 2’s main gimmick was collecting gold coins. Along with this gimmick, Nintendo added a new power up that was essentially a coin magnet. Besides this new power up, Nintendo added in the co-op from NSMB Wii but cut it down from 4 players to 2 players. I was happy to see the co-op return or just see multiplayer in general. In the end, NSMB 2 didn’t feel fresh enough and out of all these great Super Mario games, this one was super forgettable.
19. New Super Mario Bros. U: You know how I said that Mario fans have gotten tired of the New Super Mario Bros. Formula, this is the point we have gotten to. I am going to give New Super Mario Bros. U a D tier ranking because I don’t think that it’s as bad as NSMB 2 but it’s still not very fresh of a game. Ultimately, out of all the New Super Mario Bros. Games the 1st two were my favorites and the other two were super forgettable.
20. Super Mario 3D World: Super Mario 3D World felt like a 2D/3D hybrid, and I loved that. I am going to put this game at an S tier ranking because I already loved 3D Land and 3D World just felt like a grander version of that game. One of the new power ups that 3D World added was the cat suit and I didn’t know if I would like it or not, but I actually really liked it. Throughout my whole playthrough of 3D World, I found myself wanting to keep using the cat suit power up. 3D World had a great new power up, fun levels, and was a huge breath of fresh air after NSMB 2 and NSMB U. Also, the Super Bell Hill theme is great!
21. Super Mario Odyssey: For me, Super Mario games should be fun and creative and Super Mario Odyssey was super fun and creative. I am going to give Super Mario Odyssey an S tier ranking because Cappy could have been a huge gimmick, but he wasn’t at all. This game was grand and full of amazing worlds. Super Mario Odyssey felt just as polished to me as Super Mario Galaxy because it didn’t have bad camera controls and it wasn't overly frustrating. I think that this game is perfect for casuals and hardcore gamers alike because you can have fun slowly going through the game or have just as much fun speed running the whole game. I had a lot of fun just exploring all these worlds and ultimately, I loved every second of this game!
I am a huge Super Mario fan and I have been for a very long time. I have never ranked all the mainline Super Mario games before, and I had a lot of fun going back and looking at all these games, the good and the bad. Also one last note, I got the idea to do a Super Mario Tier Maker from Bob and Wood over at the Nintendo podcast on YouTube. Tier Maker rankings pictured below:
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