It’s been a big couple of years for everybody’s favorite Italian plumber—and his brother Mario, too. Last year Mario and Luigi starred in their own big-budget animated movie, and are the centerpiece of the most anticipated new theme park land since Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Let’s not forget where they came from, though. The Mario Bros. will always be two of the most important ambassadors for the medium that birthed them: the videogame. In honor of their storied contributions to this still youthful artform, and in anticipation of the theme park and movie, let’s look back at the last 25 years of their history and rank all of their 3D games. This legacy started with 1996’s Super Mario 64, and has continued up through 2021’s Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury; there might not be any new 3D Mario games that we know about in the pipeline today, but no doubt the mustachioed brothers will be hopping and stomping in multiple dimensions all over our TV screens again soon. Heck, I just might have to load one of these games up tonight.
8. Super Mario 3D Land
Original Platform: 3DS
Release Year: 2011
Quizzically, the Super Mario games that actually have 3D in their name—Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World—don’t partake in the new freedoms afforded by the 3D platformer as much as the other five games on this list. The levels are generally more linear than the open-world areas you’ll find in games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine. Consider it as almost a bridge between the traditional side-scrolling Mario games and the fully-fleshed out, 3D open world games in the vein of Super Mario 64. 3D Land was the first of these two, and remains a fun, well-designed, and impressive game. It’s just not quite as good as the rest of the list.
7. Super Mario 3D World
Original Platform: Wii U
Release Year: 2013
The cat suit might be the most visible addition to Super Mario 3D World, but it’s not the only twist on an old idea. 3D World doles out inventive new wrinkles throughout the course of the game, regularly surprising you with familiar but subtly changed mechanics. It isn’t content to aimlessly rehash Mario’s past—it approaches that history with reverence but also inspiration, spinning new threads out of old cloth
6. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Original Platform: Switch
Release Year: 2021
Speaking of 3D World… Bowser’s Fury is a short 3D Mario adventure that’s bundled with the rerelease of the Wii U game, and it’s a good enough addition that it brings this Switch entry in just ahead of the original. Bowser’s Fury has one glaring game design decision that will keep it from the top of any list of best Mario games—after a certain point the recurring boss battle sequence becomes an absolute drag—but otherwise it’s a fantastically fun 3D platformer that experiments with the classic Mario formula. It almost feels like a rough draft for a future full-scale Mario game, which makes it one of the more intriguing entries in the endless series. Despite being less polished than you’d expect from the usually pristine Mario, though, it’s still a wonderfully conceived game that’s more than worth playing
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