by majormitch
Over the years, I have written a number of lists ranking the entries in various video game franchises I have played a lot of. With the addition of tier lists to Giant Bomb, I am going to slowly but surely redo those lists in tier form! This is for a few reasons. First, I always wanted these lists to be tier lists anyway: my rankings regularly have to split incredibly thin hairs, and the ability to group games that are essentially equal into the same tier feels more accurate. Second, it makes it easier to include more games from each series, including ones I haven't played in their own tier. Third, it gives me a chance to re-evaluate and update these lists, some of which are quite old. One last important note about these tier lists: since I can't comment on games individually in this format, I will simply make some notes on any games that need it here in the intro section.
Next up in my tier list revisions is Super Mario. This is specifically about the platformers where you play as Mario; no Wario Land, no Yoshi's Island, and none of the countless spinoffs. As always, I will add new entries over time as needed, and this list is based on my personal, subjective preferences alone.
List Notes:
This list was last updated on April 1, 2026. (Not an April Fool's joke, I promise.)
I'm excluding remakes or re-releases. My reasoning is twofold: there are a ton of them, and I haven't played many of them. So even though I am including remakes in some of my other lists, for Super Mario specifically, I have chosen to omit them as it would clutter the list with items I don't have much opinion on.
If Bowser's Fury had its own wiki page (I feel like it should), I would place it near the top of B tier. I enjoyed it more than the base 3D World, but maybe just shy of making A tier.
Super Mario is a strange one for me to rank. My favorite Super Mario games, the ones in S tier, are all time favorites, and foundational to my enjoyment of video games at large. Yet the vast majority of Super Mario games, B tier and below, I'm mostly indifferent about. At worst, most of these games I find boring, rather than actively off-putting (Lost Levels perhaps being the exception).
Two Super Mario games in particular that I think I diverge from popular sentiment the most are Odyssey and 3D World. Both I recognize as perfectly good games, yet they both also had plenty of things I didn't like, and I occasionally got a little bored with them. Still, I wouldn't put them any lower than they are, and Odyssey in particular has fun enough movement to barely scrape into A tier.
I don't have much respect for the "New" Super Mario Bros. sub-series. Something about the controls never clicked with me, and they felt more and more lazy as they went on. If I ever hear the "wah wah" again it will be too soon.
To end on a more positive note, my top four Super Mario games truly are wonderful, and represent the kind of fun and whimsy I love about this medium.
