It’s time again for one of those made-up video game holidays in which we celebrate a long-running franchise. This time, it’s Mar10 Day, or Mario Day. On March 10, Nintendo celebrates the Super Mario franchise’s long history and even puts some games and merch on sale. But if we’re going to reflect on the plumber’s many adventures, we have to ask: What is your favorite Mario game?
Do you gravitate toward the classic 2D platformers, like the original game or the most recent one, Super Mario Bros. Wonder? Are you more of a 3D platformer person who enjoys the open areas of Super Mario 64 or the hat-facilitated mind control of Super Mario Odyssey? Or perhaps you prefer Mario when he’s not jumping and stomping much at all? Maybe you’d rather he drive around a race track in Mario Kart, or hit a home run in Mario Superstar Baseball? Let’s also not forget the various RPG spin-offs the series has had, like the recently remade Super Mario RPG and the Paper Mario series.
The Mario series has spanned so many different spin-offs and genres that it’s entirely possible one person’s Mario journey could be completely different from another’s. You may play all the games, you may only play the platformers, or maybe you only don the hat and overalls to play the RPGs. I’ve played so many Mario games over the years, but I think my favorite is probably Super Mario Galaxy. Maybe it’s just because I love space, and its use of gravity and planet-jumping activates the part of my brain that would like to leave this planet forever, but the 2007 Wii platformer captured my heart unlike any other.
So what about you? What Mario games made you jump up and go “wahoo!” when you played them? There have been quite a few in the past 39 years. Oh, god. Now that I’ve said that, I’m realizing Super Mario will be 40 next year. Try not to let the neverending passage of time get to you in the comments, alright?