To tie in with a dubious Mario movie, we select 35 of the best moments featuring Nintendo’s iconic platformer hero. Thanks to Liam Richardson for the edits, and to you for your support!
This week’s music is from the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack by Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo.
Image credit: Naeslyn
Best Mario Moments
- Super Mario Bros - Grabbing a Fire Flower in Super Mario Bros
- Super Mario Bros - caning it to the top of a level and realising you can access Warp Zones into other levels
- Mario Is Missing - Fucking a Koopa up in Marrakech or some bullshit
- Super Mario Bros 2 - going to clouds and decking Birdo
- Super Mario Bros 3 - airships were cool, but I like the special coin ship (the idea of rare surprises feels long gone)
- Super Mario Bros 3 - fighting the sun, this ongoing duel with darting orb
- Super Mario Bros. 3 - Kuribos Shoe/ Goombas Shoe - the power up with no love. World 5-3 only. But I love the nod to it in the ice skate in 3D World
- Super Mario World - Donut Secret House - the great vibe of ghost house, and it has a big motherfuckin’ boo
- Super Mario Bros Deluxe - getting a fuckton of points and unlocking the Lost Level
- Super Mario 64 - butt stomping whomp king (bonus shout out to remade version in Galaxy 2)
- Super Mario 64 - Tick Tock Clock. Great platforming gauntlet with cool trick of speed change based on when you enter.
- Super Mario 64 - Big Boo’s Haunt is legit stressful and scary. Piano with teeth - Resi never did anything that fucked up.
- Super Mario Sunshine - the reflective solar panels + shout-out to following wiggler fight - knocking him over with sand is ace.
- Super Mario Sunshine - the elasticity of Bloopers tentacle tugs or yanking tails of the chain chomp dog things.
- Super Mario Sunshine - losing the backpack. Navigating gooey inferno in Pianta Village is almost immersive sim-y - people using the water from river to clear a path.
- Super Mario Galaxy - the Gusty Garden music and that YouTube video
- Super Mario Galaxy - walloping bouldergeist with the boo bombs
- Super Mario Galaxy - the Rolling Green Galaxy
- Super Mario Galaxy - ice skating on the ice donut at the start of Freeze Flame Galaxy. It’s just an animation triumph and a lovely time waster. - Better use of of it in Shiverburn Galaxy in Galaxy 2.
- Super Mario Galaxy - the gravity flipping of Bowser’s Dark Matter Plant (I also dig the bowser fights in this - predicting his trajectory to whack him will always be good).
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Yoshi is quite good in this one. Grappling over gaps, running up vertical surfaces. A power up with power ups.
- Super Mario galaxy 2 - Cloud Mario
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Flip Out Galaxy - alternating platform pieces controlled by spin jump - lots of wall jump which is always good. Vertical version of Flip Swap Galaxy.
- Super Mario 3D Land - realising they built a game where the camera truly gets the most out of the 3DS’ 3D feature
- Super Mario 3D Land - being chased by cosmic clones so you can never catch a breath
- Super Mario 3D Land - there’s twice as much game here than I realised
- Super Mario 3D World - exploring a 3D Mario level with another person
- Super Mario 3D World - trying to control Plessie the dinosaur simultaneously
- Super Mario 3D World - Beep Block Skyway - blocks changing on the beat
- Super Mario 3D World - the Bowser Express is a fuckin’ great boss fight
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury - Plessie is now an open world vehicle
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury - Crisp Climb castle with the Propellor Box powerup - good showcase for it
- Super Mario Odyssey - the retro 2d levels are all great, but 2D Secret Treasure in Mushroom Kingdom has proper galaxy gravity. Sublime.
- Super Mario Odyssey - Koopa Freerunning - where you realise just how capable Odyssey mario is.
- Any Mario level where it’s just some cake