Super Mario Bros. 30th anniversary retrospective

Super Mario Bros. (1985, NES)

Mario pretty much perfected the platforming genre on his first adventure and set the standard for an entire generation of side-scrolling games. Super Mario Bros. is a masterclass in game design, with pinpoint perfect controls, varied levels that are chock-full of secrets (hello, Minus World!), and one of the catchiest musical scores of all time. Gamers of any age can pick up and play SMB and experience a true classic that holds up even 30 years later.

Introduced: The NES to a generation of gamers.

— Aaron Morales

02 of 17

Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988, NES)

If Super Mario Bros. 2 seems like it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the series, it's because it wasn't originally a Mario game at all. The original Mario 2 was released in Japan in 1986 and was a direct sequel that used the exact same style of art and gameplay. It ratcheted up the difficulty so much, however, that Nintendo worried American fans wouldn't take to it. (It was eventually released stateside as The Lost Levels.) So Nintendo took a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic and reskinned the characters with Mario and friends, making Princess Peach and Toad playable for the first time. It's a solid adventure, but it's not classic Mario.

Introduced: Four playable characters with different characteristics; Wart, a bad guy who wasn't Bowser!

— Aaron Morales

03 of 17

Super Mario Land (1989, Game Boy)

Super Mario Land is perhaps remembered more for its place in Nintendo history than it is for being a truly memorable Mario experience. Released as a launch title for the Game Boy, Super Mario Land brought the Mario series to the portable world, and despite its short length and technical limitations, proved the series had a future in homes and on the go.

Introduced: The new world Sarasaland, scrolling and shooting levels, and new enemies.

— Jonathon Dornbush

04 of 17

Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990, NES)

Super Mario Bros. 3's place in the Mario and gaming pantheon is difficult to overstate. The third entry in the original Mario franchise is still one of the series' most eminently playable entries, complete with 2D platforming at one of its peaks that would go on to inform decades of platforming and general game design to come. It's a title integral to the history of gaming, but also one that remains a joy to revisit, whether it's in its game-as-a-stage-play aesthetic, the introduction of powers like the Tanooki suit, or the tricks and secrets that lie in beating the game.

Introduced: The World Map, the Tanooki Suit, sliding, climbing, and many powers that would become staples of the series.

— Jonathon Dornbush

05 of 17

Super Mario World (1991, SNES)

The secrets hidden in Super Mario World make the Super Mario Bros. 3 Warp Whistle look like an amusingly small first step in comparison. World is a deceptively deep Mario game. It's easy to play through level by level, simply completing what is not a particularly challenging game until its end. But to merely finish each level would be to ignore the vast world of hidden levels and secret goals peppered throughout the game. It's another impeccable entry in not just the Mario franchise, but all 2D platforming that informed years of imitators to come.

Introduced: Yoshi, most importantly, in addition to new powerups and an impressive focus on secrets that would become a hallmark of the franchise.

— Jonathon Dornbush

06 of 17

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992, Game Boy)

Mario's second handheld adventure is a considerable leap over its predecessor, with vastly improved graphics and many more levels to explore. It featured an overworld like SMB3 but allowed you to explore its six worlds freely, collecting the titular Golden Coins in any order you chose. It's a solid Mario game that holds up surprisingly well, even if the black and white graphics don't.

Introduced: Wario, Mario's mini-game loving evil doppelganger who antagonizes him to this day.

— Aaron Morales

07 of 17

Super Mario 64 (1996, Nintendo 64)

Mario flawlessly transitioned into 3D with the inventive, game-changing Super Mario 64. Nintendo set the template for how characters and cameras would work in 3D and introduced the analog stick, offering more precision control than ever; simply running and jumping around was an absolute joy. Seeing Mario in 3D added so much character and gave the Mushroom Kingdom so much more depth that it felt like you were entering a whole new, ahem, dimension.

Introduced: Objective-based stages: each level contained seven stars, with different goals for collecting each one.

— Aaron Morales

08 of 17

Super Mario Sunshine (2002, Gamecube)

Super Mario Sunshine gets a bad rap. The first 3D Mario follow-up after the revolutionary Super Mario 64, Sunshine was dealt a bad hand with the expectations mounting before its release. And once it was out in the wild, Sunshine wasn't what everyone expected: Its focus was on a new water mechanic being used to complete levels, while pure platforming was largely sectioned off to side levels. Despite that, Sunshine still has plenty to offer, whether in its Delfino Island locale or the FLUDD water pack, that makes it a unique, if not franchise-best, entry in the series.

Introduced: FLUDD, Shine Sprites, and Petey Piranha, the most attention-grabbing piranha plant to ever exist.

— Jonathon Dornbush

09 of 17

New Super Mario Bros. (2006, DS)

New Super Mario Bros., at the time of release, was such a revolution because it was a throwback to the Mario adventures of old. After a few 3D releases, New Super Mario Bros. returned the plumber to his 2D roots, offering an entertaining if not overly difficult return to original form. The alterations to how the world looked and played allowed the Mushroom Kingdom to take on a new life and reinvigorated a passion for new 2D Mario games, even if Nintendo would go on to release quite a few in the next couple of years.

Introduced: Size-altering mushrooms that allowed Mario to become a giant force of destructive nature or a miniature version of himself to sneak into secluded spaces.

— Jonathon Dornbush

10 of 17

Super Mario Galaxy (2007, Wii)

Even stuck in its standard definition ways, Super Mario Galaxy is as gorgeous to look at as it is a pure joy to play. Introducing gravity to Mario's platforming gameplay, players can use the pull and push of planets, comets, and more to explore a host of inventive, delightfully created galaxies. It was also an important title for Nintendo to release at the time, proving that, even as the Wii took off in the mainstream with its focus on motion control, Nintendo had no intention of abandoning its pure button-pressing roots.

Introduced: A brand new focus on physics that lets Mario hop from one planet to the next, new suits like the Bee and Boo costume, and a new princess, Rosalina.

— Jonathon Dornbush

11 of 17

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009, Wii)

The New Super Mario Bros. franchise saw plenty of releases in a short window of time, and while the changes weren't monumental from one to the next, NSMB for the Wii brought about perhaps the most substantial alteration – four-player gameplay. Levels that once required precise timing and expert technique became frenetic bounce houses of players racing to the finish line, occasionally cooperating but more frequently competing. It may not be a way Mario purists want to spend many of their hours, but for those looking to bring the Mario experience to a group of friends, it's a chaotically entertaining visit to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Introduced: Four-player simultaneous multiplayer, which either became a treat for the whole family or your friend's worst nightmare.

— Jonathon Dornbush

12 of 17

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)

Mario returned to space three years after Galaxy, and the results were still out of this world. Although originally developed as more of an expansion, Nintendo had so many new ideas for the game that it eventually resulted in a full-fledged sequel. Galaxy 2 is overflowing with fresh concepts, and it ramps up the difficulty from the first Galaxy considerably. After collecting all 120 of the game's stars, you unlock 120 additional – and fiendishly difficult – green stars to acquire.

Introduced: A trio of new powerups for Mario's green dinosaur pal Yoshi, who returns in 3D for the first time since Super Mario Sunshine.

— Aaron Morales

13 of 17

Super Mario 3D Land (2011, 3DS)

Super Mario 3D Land felt like a breath of fresh air among all of the New Super Mario Bros. releases. Though presenting a 3D world and characters, the game blended some of the gameplay style of 2D Mario games with a fixed camera that allowed the game's developers to offer twists on expected formulas. The result is a fascinating gem for longtime players and a still-accessible entrypoint for those just stepping into the Mushroom Kingdom.

Introduced: Some new powers and abilities, but most importantly, a pervasive sense of the new as the game subverted expectations in its clever mix of 2D and 3D.

— Jonathon Dornbush

14 of 17

New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012; Nintendo 3DS)

Mario hit the 3DS with a direct sequel to the DS' New Super Mario Bros. that added little more than an emphasis on collecting as many coins as possible. It's a perfectly enjoyable portable romp, but there's very little here that's actually new to the series other than the 3D effect, which doesn't add much. This feels like the safest – and consequently, most disappointing – entry in the series.

Introduced: Coin Rush, a time-attack mode where you race to finish levels as quickly as possible while collecting the most coins.

— Aaron Morales

15 of 17

New Super Mario Bros. U (2012, Wii U)

Nintendo launched the Wii U with yet another New Super Mario Bros., its fourth iteration on the side-scrolling sub-franchise in six years. And though it's far from a bad game, at this point there's just nothing new here, which is disappointing for a franchise that has such a strong history of reinvention and innovation. But it's still a sizeable adventure, and Mario and friends do look great in HD for the first time.

Introduced: Boost Mode, an asynchronous multiplayer mode that lets the player using the Wii U gamepad assist up to four other players by placing platforms and stunning enemies.

-Aaron Morales

16 of 17

Super Mario 3D World (2013, Wii U)

It took a year to get a truly next-gen Mario game on Wii U, but 3D World was worth the wait. The game is a glorious combination of SMB2 and 3D Land, with up to four characters (including Princess Peach, who's playable for the first time since 1988) traversing the 3D world from a fixed perspective. It's a wildly inventive platformer that introduces new twists and powerups at every turn. One of the best Wii U games to date, 3D World offers more variety, secrets and sheer joy in one world than most games manage in their entirety.

Introduced: Captain Toad bonus levels, which were later expanded into a full spinoff in 2014's delightful Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

— Aaron Morales

17 of 17

Super Mario Maker (2015, Wii U)

Mario goes DIY with Maker, and after three years, the Wii U finally has its killer app. Mario Maker is a wonderful celebration of the plumber's storied history, letting gamers create levels from SMB, SMB3, World and New Super Mario, and the only limit is your imagination. It wouldn't be possible without the gamepad, which lets you easily create levels by dragging and dropping items with the stylus and touchscreen. Nintendo has succeeded in making level creation fun, but for those who aren't interested in building blocks, there's an almost limitless number of levels available to play around with. What's most interesting is how creators can subvert our expectations of how the Mario universe functions, forcing players to adapt to decades of training and proving that Mario can still surprise us even 30 years later.

Introduced: Mario Maker finally makes amiibo useful, as tapping a figure to the gamepad unlocks that character's skin in the game. Kids of the '80s will have their minds blowing seeing an 8-bit Sonic running through the Mushroom Kingdom.

— Aaron Morales