Thread 11925215

Believe it or not, I've never actually played a Mario game. Besides a few minutes of some bootleg browser clones when I was a kid.
I want to seriously get into the franchise, so what games should I play? Which ones are good and which ones suck?

SMB3, SMW, and Mario 64 are all pretty unanimously agreed upon as good
SMB1 as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if it felt kind of lackluster as a first Mario game in 2025 even if its an all-timer for me personally

>>11925215 (OP)
Start from the top.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_featuring_Mario

Fire up Super Mario All Stars, play in order.

>>11925215 (OP)
Dickleg

>>11925215 (OP)
>I want to seriously get into the franchise
Fucking no (you) don't, (you) want to farm (You)s on this shithole website.
>how do I mario
g o b a c k

>>11925320
is this autism

>>11925215 (OP)
1.) Super Mario Bros.: The original game. There is really no other way to play it other than the original. Any redux patch change too much in my opinion.
2.) Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) / Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels: Here is a patch to remove the "play the game eight times in a row to get the last set of levels" requirement: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7954/. Note that the SMAS version gets rid of this requirement if you prefer to play the game that way.
3.) Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) / Super Mario USA: Again, no patches required. The game is good as is. The GBA version is worth playing afterwards, World 5's boss is Robo-Birdo. However, if you do play that version, there are patches to restore the SNES color palette and remove the constant voices.
4.) Super Mario Bros. 3: Apply this patch to get rid of that annoying flicker that you'll see on the NES version's UI: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/7713/. I also like to sometimes play it with Super Mario Bros. 3+ to play as Luigi, Toad, and Peach. These are different hacks, but Mario Adventure, Mario Adventure 3, and Super Mario Bros. 3Mix are great hacks. To play the e-Reader levels, download an e-Shop ROM of Super Mario Advance 4. Palette restoration and voice removal are compatible with this version.
5.) Super Mario World: Also doesn't have a definitive redux hack. I would just play the vanilla SNES version then play the GBA version with the restored SNES palette and SMAS-SMW Luigi sprites and voice removal.
6.) Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: The definitive patch, removes the crying, hidden red coins, and a few annoying sound effects. Ignore purist fags on this one: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3945/. The GBA version has a few new levels.
7.) Super Mario Land 1 & 2: Both have colorization/DX hacks that are worth using.
8.) Super Mario 64: For the original game with QOL improvements, use Super Mario 64 Plus by download SM64Builder2 and downloading it from the launcher.

>>11925412
CONT.
8.) Super Mario 64: The alternative is sm64ex, which has multiplayer, multiple characters, and enables you to play multiple ROM hacks natively on PC unlike Super Mario 64 Plus.
9.) Super Mario Sunshine: Play with Super Mario Sunburn.
10.) Super Mario Galaxy: Not retro, but including this just to help you out anyway. Play with the classic controller mod and with an HD UI texture pack (only changes text and UI obviously, not a single character or level texture is changed): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0evN_8UFGjA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8lkzqYP7eg. The same guy has the same mods for SMG2 as well.
I would reccomend you start out with Super Mario World, then 3. If you like those, see if you like the original. If not, then don't bother with the Lost Levels/2J. 2/USA and the land games are their own beasts. 3D Mario is far more distinct from one another than the 2D games.

>>11925215 (OP)
Just pick one?

>>11925413
CONT. (fucked up and forgot)
The original Super Mario Bros. has multiple "official" sets of levels:
1.) The FDS version. This version doesn't have any additional levels per se, but the minus world glitch is very different from the NTSC-U version. You get a whole glitch world that is not just a repeating water level.
2.) Super Mario Bros. VS: A set of remixed SMB1 and Lost Levels stages smooshed together.
3.) All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros.: See above, but the levels are arranged differently and the game comes with new enemy and powerup sprites.
4.) Super Mario Bros. Special: Do not bother with the original X1 and PC81 versions. This here is the definitive way to experience these levels: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6067/.

mariowiki.com has a guide on the level remixes in VS and All-Night if you care to see.

>>11925215 (OP)
For 2D games try Super Mario World (or SMB3, they're tied for a lot of people).
For 3D try Super Mario 64.

otherwise play whatever you think you'll like, even the newest games. You won't feel lost.

>>11925434

I'd consider Special a completely different game like SMB2J since there's new power ups and enemies in it, unlike the rest of those.

>>11925215 (OP)
Pretty much every main line Mario game is good 2d/3d or otherwise regardless of what others will tell you. They all have pretty good polish thought don't start with Super Mario 2 you'll get the wrong impression regardless of whether you are playing the japense or american version.

>>11925215 (OP)
> Believe it or not, I've never actually played a Mario game
I’ve been on the /v/ board and I’m willing to believe it. In fact, I’d bet on it.

Honestly don't. Most of them are pretty boring. Every stage is designed for toddlers and most of the time you die because your brain became bored and start drifting away.

SM64 is still worth playing today, though.

>>11925215 (OP)
I'd recommend 1 and 3 on NES but I just know you'd be coming back filtered, crying after less than 5 minutes of gameplay, spamming threads about how the games are actually "objectively bad design" and "artificial difficulty" and all that zoomer nonsense

So don't, and stick to /v/

>>11925215 (OP)
Just remember SMB2 causes Mario Madness, and the only cure is more SMB2

>>11925956
What if I really find them boring? I hate the pacing too, instead of getting a "packed" game with interesting challenges the game is too fixed on his philosophy of introducing multiple permutations of lame scenarios before getting 1 interesting scenario. Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania/Megaman are objectively better games.

>>11925982
>I hate the pacing too, instead of getting a "packed" game with interesting challenges the game is too fixed on his philosophy of introducing multiple permutations of lame scenarios before getting 1 interesting scenario.

SMB1/2/3 are the contrary of this, especially 1 but I'd argue 2 and 3 as well. I don't know where you got this idea from for Mario games, maybe the modern ones, I haven't played any Mario game after 64 (and even that one I never went far because I hate it every time I try it)

>Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania/Megaman are objectively better games.

Meanwhile Mega Man is all about constantly introducing new mechanics in almost every level; so is Ninja Gaiden 2

This faggot is/was the most famous video game reviewer in my country. In the 90's he worked for magazine but he really started to have glory when he did TV shows about video games (especially on the TV channel Game One, the first TV channel solely dedicated to video games in the world which launched in 1998)

anyway the guy is a complete clueless casual, he sucks at games and always makes comments and comparison that shows how little he knows (except when the TV show is about him reading off someone else's script).

The point I'm getting at is that sometime during the 2010's, after more than 15 years of being a pro video game reviewer, he admitted to have never played a Mario game. So I think OP would make a fine video game reviewer, he should consider it.

>>11926037
It's not about "new mechanics". It's about pacing of the level design itself. I don't care about how many mechanics a game introduce. I want interesting scenarios to work with. I simply think Mario is a boring game to play today. But with the level of incompetence shown by zoomers these days, I wouldn't be surprised if people find it challenging. Hell even today zoomers say Mario is the game that aged perfectly because they can beat it, and games like Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania is just artificial difficulty or glitchy movement because the devs were incompetent.

>>11926082
I don't think this has anything to do with difficulty per se, and I wouldn't trust these retards' opinions on the difficulty of old Mario games since most of them probably use rewind/savestates; but rather what they're used. Basically all the modern 2D platformers, Mario or not, use Mario style controls and physics (little has changed in that regard since SMB3), and that's all they know, so if Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania don't use similar physics they're going to called it "dated" and whatnot

I'd consider SMB1 just as challenging as CV1 myself if not more

Super Mario World is peak Mario IMO. Super Mario Bros.1, SMB3 and Super Mario Land 2 are also great. SMB2 is different but still a solid game.

>>11925215 (OP)
Try Mario 1 for the NES. If it takes you more than 1 hour to finish the game, don't bother with the rest.
Mario is supposed to be played very fast, if you're going to have a slow play style you're not going to enjoy the remaining games.

Play Super Mario Brothers 3 you dumb asshole

>>11925215 (OP)
i cant unsee his leg coming out of his groin

>>11925215 (OP)
Play Mario 3, World, 64 and Sunshine
For the RPGs play Mario RPG, Paper Mario 64 and TTYD
All the other games suck ass and don't matter

>>11925412
>Super Mario Bros.: The original game. There is really no other way to play it

Once I get used to the fucked aspect ratio I love deluxe

>>11926098
>most of them probably use rewind/savestates; but rather what they're used.
You shouldn't use semicolons if you don't know how to use them.wkdww

>>11926082
>Hell even today zoomers say Mario is the game that aged perfectly because they can beat it, and games like Ninja Gaiden/Castlevania is just artificial difficult
SMB1 warpless, Lost Levels FDS and the Japanese version of SMB3 are all harder than CV1 and any Ninja Gaiden game on the NES except the US version of NG3

>>11927494
I have beaten all of them and Mario by far is weakest of them all. The real challenge is not falling as sleep during a run and do a mistake.

>>11928492
>all of them
I understand the other ones but there's no way you've beaten SMB2J and think that it's easier than literally any Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden game, NES or not

>>11928509
You mean the lost levels?

>>11928531
Yeah, the OG version. The SNES one checkpoints you after every level which makes the game way easier and also actually makes the springs work. The original version is just balls to the wall hard but yeah it's the exception, the rest of the series doesn't even come close