What are the most worthwhile Mario games on the Switch?

[Edmond Dantes]

So here's an oddity.... despite having a switch with like, 70 games on it now... I only own two Mario games.

Those two are Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, and.... Arcade Archives Donkey Kong.

Yeah that's right I don't have Oddysey, Party, Kart, Maker, the Great Quest to Rescue Peach, or the ability to go to hell before I die.

I don't count the SNES or NES Classic, since that's basically a rental service and I'm only considering games you can buy to own.

The game I'm most considering is Mario Maker 2, since I tend to prefer the classic side-scrollers. Growing up I loved Mario 64 but last time I tried to play it I got bored after only collecting fifty stars, but this might be a mood thing. My niece and nephew have Mario Party 4 and I enjoy that in social situations but in that case, I'd rather just stick to the one we know (and I don't know if I want to deal with the Switch installment's gimmicks).

I love the original Super Mario Kart and I remember enjoying Karty 64 and Double Dash, but not enough to actually buy them (I do own original SNES Kart), so for that I may end up going with Crash Team Racing.

Basically Mario is a weird franchise for me in that I like a lot of the classics but after 64 the series started being kinda like Scooby Doo for me, something I'm vaguely aware of but not actually interested in, and it just keeps feeling too safe and familiar, though generally competent. Maybe I'm an elitist, but I tend to prefer things with more of a unique identity. I do generally like the games when I play them but not "would pay sixty dollars for" enjoy (this is one reason I own the Rabbids one, it was on sale for twenty bucks at one point).

But I'm also wondering if I might enjoy New SMB Ultimate Edition since its a side-scroller style? All the reviews though indicate its just kinda "there" as a game though.

Also my favorite mario game is Legend of the Seven Stars, just throwing that out there.

So ummm.... recommends?

[Aussie2B]

I like Super Mario Kart better as a single-player game and Mario Kart 64 more as a multi-player game, but Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still a lot of fun. Super Mario Party is okay but gets boring to me, especially when it feels like you have no chance of winning (or when so many bonus stars are given out at the end that everything done before that feels pointless). Had some fun with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games too, which is kind of a weird game now that the Olympics didn't actually happen this summer.

[kupomogli]

Is Super Mario 3D World on the Switch yet? Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World really give off a Super Mario Bros 3 vibe, just in 3D. Imo these are the best Mario games I've played in a long time.

[ArcadePerfect]

My personal favorite right now is Yoshi's Crafted World but I highly recommend the New Super Mario Bros. collection, loved the games on the Wii-U. Super Mario 3D World is not on the Switch but of course there's Super Mario Odyssey.

[kupomogli]

My personal favorite right now is Yoshi's Crafted World but I highly recommend the New Super Mario Bros. collection, loved the games on the Wii-U. Super Mario 3D World is not on the Switch but of course there's Super Mario Odyssey.

It wasn't but it is now. *Strikes a line through yet another Wii U game.* God I hate Nintendo. An entire generation, fu**ing waste of money. Wii U is by far the most disappointed I've ever been with a console purchase in my life.

[YoshiM]

It wasn't but it is now. *Strikes a line through yet another Wii U game.* God I hate Nintendo. An entire generation, fu**ing waste of money. Wii U is by far the most disappointed I've ever been with a console purchase in my life.

That system does kinda feel like it was half baked\half experimental.

Talking about Mario Odyssey-does it have a "Sonic Adventure 2" vibe at all? My kids were watching a playthrough of that game and from what I saw and how Mario moved about with Cappy, I got whiffs of Sonic's "zooming" ability, only Mario would zip to where Cappy was thrown rather than to an enemy.

[Aussie2B]

The Wii U was definitely not a huge success, but it's hardly a waste. The people who bought it and the games that were later ported to Switch got to enjoy those games for years before they appeared on Switch. For those of us who play retro games and have huge backlogs, that might not mean much, but for the general gaming public, not having to twiddle your thumbs waiting years for a port is a big plus. Besides, it's selfish to want games locked behind any one specific platform. The more accessible a game is, the better. A game you bought isn't taken away from you just because it gets ported to another platform. If you want to play a multiplatform game, you have to pick some platform to get it on.

[Tron 2.0]

Well nintendo had there direct recently with a bunch of mario announcements but i don't get why the 3D collection is being sold for a limited time :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UcjEq2Dgk

[YoshiM]

Well nintendo had there direct recently with a bunch of mario announcements but i don't get why the 3D collection is being sold for a limited time :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UcjEq2Dgk

I wonder if they are trying to pull a Disney here and have the "Nintendo Vault".

[Gameguy]

Well nintendo had there direct recently with a bunch of mario announcements but i don't get why the 3D collection is being sold for a limited time :p
My guess is they want to push people into buying the Switch now rather than let them wait until later. If there's no time limit or apparent scarcity then there's no reason to rush into buying a console right now, just put it off until a better time financially.

[Aussie2B]

I don't know if a collection of old games would be a system-seller to most people. Not only that, but there's been shortages of the Switch itself (whether legitimate or artificially created, but it's supposedly due to the pandemic disrupting the supply chain of all the parts needed), so there's already tons of people ready and eager to buy a Switch as soon as they can get one at MSRP.

[Edmond Dantes]

Honestly, since I never got to play Mario Sunshine or Galaxy, I might grab it... since I never owned a Wii or a Wii U this is in fact the only way I could play Galaxy without getting another console.

But wait... a digital purchase is on a time limit?

[Tupin]

Whatever you do, don't buy Paper Mario: The Origami King. It's an incredibly frustrating and boring experience that I am assuming based on your preferences that you would dislike as well. It's really unfortunate that you like SMRPG the best, considering that Paper Mario is no longer an RPG and the Mario and Luigi series is dead. Also yes, it's a digital purchase on a time limit, to encourage sales. Though honestly since I've played the three games on it to death and they're functionally the same without any upgrades at all (and $60) I think I'm skipping it.

Honestly? I've become more and more disillusioned with Mario, I think it was the disappointments in the Paper Mario series and reading about how Nintendo mandates the games be completely without any sense of charm for merchandising purposes that really made me stop being a fan. They don't want Mario to be a video game character, they want him to be a generic kid's franchise.

[Gameguy]

But wait... a digital purchase is on a time limit?
Yes, it's a manufactured scarcity which is how Nintendo markets almost everything they produce. Jim Sterling made a video talking about it.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N2OUVNO3ToY


They don't want Mario to be a video game character, they want him to be a generic kid's franchise.
It's been this way since the 1980's, looking at all the merchandising, TV shows, breakfast cereal, and everything else that came out related to Mario. It's just like every character that gets popular, except for Calvin and Hobbes as his creator had integrity. Large companies aren't your friend, they just want to find ways of extracting your money.

[Edmond Dantes]

It's really unfortunate that you like SMRPG the best, considering that Paper Mario is no longer an RPG and the Mario and Luigi series is dead.

And everything I've ever seen and heard about both makes me think that neither was the successor I would like them to be. Though I'll admit I do want to play The Thousand Year Door and possibly Bowser's Inside Story at some point.

EDIT: Watching that Sterling vid now, and one thing I'm wondering is "how do you turn SMB into a battle royale game?" I mean with Tetris it kinda made sense (and Tetris 99 is pretty awesome, I'm not sure whether I like it or Puyo Tetris more... by the way apparently a sequel to Puyo Tetris has been announced), but Super Mario Bros? I'm not even sure how one manages that.

[Aussie2B]

I still like the Mario cast of characters, but I do get some feeling of uniformity/blandness from them these days. Starting with the GameCube, the 3D models got a little too realistic for my tastes, making the characters less cute, and then starting with the Wii, it seemed like they were almost always portrayed in the same kinds of ways. I don't really care about those things if the games are still fun to play, since it's not like I'm playing Mario games for the characters and stories, not even the RPGs, really, but it does put me off of related stuff. For example, for the last couple years, when the new year starts, I look into video game calendars, and most of the options seem to come from Nintendo. There's always a Mario calendar, but the designs are so samey and dull that I always scrap the idea and just get a calendar of wildlife or something instead. I still have a Nintendo calendar from the late 80s that's full of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid art, and the designs there are so weird, in a good way, and varied. I kinda wish Nintendo would commission fan artists to do a Mario calendar and have every month in a totally different style.

[Tupin]

Nintendo has an "IP team" that keeps the Mario franchise from going too off the rails, this was confirmed. It was likely done in response to Super Mario Strikers Charged and Super Paper Mario, both of which were very un-Mario. I can understand them wanting to not confuse people, but modern Mario is just so darn sterile.

[Edmond Dantes]

Love how a recommendations topic turned into "let's discuss why we don't like Mario anymore." But I probably already own the two best Mario games available on the platform...

Ya know what else I miss? Mario having a Brooklyn accent. Honestly while the stereotype Italian didn't ruin him for me, it was one of the waypoints marking the transition from "actually worthwhile" to "just another empty franchise."

To be honest one reason I put off getting a Switch for so long is because it isn't just Mario, Nintendo in general is kinda like this. Zelda for years was this bog-standard paint-by-numbers franchise where the only thing that differentiated each game was its gimmick (which the titles were often an allusion to), and Pokemon was never really that good to begin with. It seems Nintendo's best franchises are the stuff they tend to put on the backburner, like Earthbound and Metroid (though I honestly feel like Metroid itself got a little fractured... unlike most people I didn't even like Prime, though I do recall enjoying Fusion).

Nintendo is basically the Disney of gaming... I guess that explains why they're trying their own version of the "Vault" concept.

EDIT: And at the risk of sounding slightly trolley, right now the most fun I'm having with my Switch is Puyo Puyo Tetris... which, of course, is developed by Sega. Hot hits today, hot hits on the way indeed.... (I'm probably the only one who remembers that particular Sega slogan).

[Gameguy]

Love how a recommendations topic turned into "let's discuss why we don't like Mario anymore." But I probably already own the two best Mario games available on the platform...
Well you limited suggestions to the Switch so it's only natural....

Honestly I didn't mind Super Mario Sunshine from what I've played of it so that's something, I do own it for the Gamecube though so it's not a Switch recommendation. Just about every other 3D Mario game once Super Mario 64 came out I've just disliked, mostly I disliked the way the games control and would rather go back to the older 2D titles.

Metroid was never really a frequent series, sequels usually only popped up once every several years until the mid 2000's when it somehow became popular and tons of games came out. Most of the popular games with Metroid were portable entries. Then Metroid: Other M came out and soured the series so Nintendo packed it up for awhile, but they're apparently working on Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch so maybe it'll get popular again. I never got into the 3D games either so I again tend to prefer the older entries. It's weird how Metroid started this style of gameplay but most people are wanting new Castlevania games to get this type of game, I haven't heard the same demand for new Metroid games.

I'm not that desperate for the Switch because it seems to use rechargeable batteries for the controllers. It just feels like a console that has a shelf life of under 10 years like with any cell phone or tablet. Maybe I'm wrong about the batteries and they're both easy to replace and easy to buy replacements, but I don't think they are. I don't have space for another console either so I didn't see the point to start buying more stuff, though there are various Switch games that actually interest me like the Shantae games as an example. There are more games on the Switch that interest me than both the Wii and Wii U have combined.

[Aussie2B]

This is the Modern Gaming section, so it's only natural that the topic wouldn't cover Mario games from the 80s and 90s.

My Game Boy Advance SP is from 2005, and it still charges just fine and holds its charge for what feels like indefinitely (as in, I can leave it untouched for several months and it still has its charge). Rechargeable batteries have been an industry norm for a long time, and they generally last longer than 10 years and aren't hard to replace when necessary. It is possible to replace a Switch battery, but obviously very few people need to at this point. It doesn't seem quite as easy as popping a new battery in an SP or PSP but still perfectly doable, and I'm sure there will be even more tutorials and more third-party options by the time Switch battery replacement becomes more common. While the batteries may not last forever, it's not really any different than older systems having capacitors, laser units, lubricants, etc. that give out and need replacement. No hardware lasts forever, and having to possibly replace a rechargeable battery eventually is worth not having a controller tethered to a system, a handheld tethered to an outlet, or having to buy separate AA batteries, either standard or rechargeable, add extra weight to the system/controller, and repeatedly replace those when they die. For that matter, I've had AC adapters for older systems die on me too.

[Tupin]

Super Mario Sunshine always felt a bit rushed to me. It is one of the reasons I was hoping for a full remake, so some of its issues could be fixed. But we're never getting that now.

[Gameguy]

This is the Modern Gaming section, so it's only natural that the topic wouldn't cover Mario games from the 80s and 90s.
That was a joke on how modern games mostly suck compared to older ones, that's why it's hard to recommend good games on a modern console.

So far my GBA SP systems and DS/3DS systems still have working batteries, but I've come across some used SPs with swollen batteries and have heard of plenty of people needing to replace them already. At least these are designed to be user replaceable. And I have to hope that these proprietary batteries will still be manufactured in the future, good luck buying replacement batteries for a 20 year old laptop today. Which actually reminds me that I should try to find my old Win 95 laptop and see if the battery is still good as I probably haven't used it in close to a decade.

Here's a guide on changing a Switch battery.
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+Switch+Battery+Replacement/112995

The Switch battery is glued in, and just to get to it you need to remove shielding and thermal compound which will have to be replaced when reassembling. That's not easy, and replacing adhesive along with thermal paste is an additional expense on top of a new battery. A PS3 controller battery is much easier to replace than this. Intentionally designing modern systems this way after video games have been established as long term collectibles is just insulting. They're not intended to be disposable anymore the way cell phones are. I don't get why controllers need to be wireless anyway, were people tripping over the cords? Obviously a portable system needs to be cordless but does the PS3 or PS4 need controllers to be wireless?

Capacitors are standard off the shelf parts, they'll always be available. I can't say that about all proprietary batteries. And most likely if I needed capacitors replaced I'll have to pay someone to do the work for me. I shouldn't need to do the same thing with replacing a rechargeable battery when it could have easily been designed differently, even like the SP which is user replaceable. So far I've never had an AC adapter die on me, but at least these are easily replaceable.


Super Mario Sunshine always felt a bit rushed to me. It is one of the reasons I was hoping for a full remake, so some of its issues could be fixed. But we're never getting that now.
I've played it for about a half hour so my experience isn't all too great with it, I just didn't completely hate it so I liked it far more than other 3D Mario games I've played. Well I guess I like Luigi's Mansion too but it's kind of a spinoff rather than a Mario game to me, I'm just thinking about main Mario games.


I really need to look into these Puyo Tetris games as I've never seen them before. I meant to comment earlier on this but forgot.

[Tron 2.0]

Super Mario Sunshine always felt a bit rushed to me. It is one of the reasons I was hoping for a full remake, so some of its issues could be fixed. But we're never getting that now.
I've completed sunshine on gc but really i never liked it's camera which is one flaw that needs a fix.Still this collection seems to be a straight up port nothing more.

[ArcadePerfect]

Talking about Mario Odyssey-does it have a "Sonic Adventure 2" vibe at all?

It doesn't resemble Sonic Adventure 2 much at all in gameplay, atmosphere, or overall design imo. Sonic Generations 'SA' Sonic remix levels are like the classic Adventure games if you're looking for that though. 'Speed Highway' in Sonic Generations is amazing, just like the original. Go back to it every month or so just for that level.

[YoshiM]

It doesn't resemble Sonic Adventure 2 much at all in gameplay, atmosphere, or overall design imo. Sonic Generations 'SA' Sonic remix levels are like the classic Adventure games if you're looking for that though. 'Speed Highway' in Sonic Generations is amazing, just like the original. Go back to it every month or so just for that level.

That's good to know. As I said, I just watched a bit of a video and got that general feeling but it must have been that particular segment.

[Tupin]

Mario Odyssey is basically the best Banjo-Kazooie game ever made.