It's Mario Day
Mario Day (Mar10) is a fake holiday for a corporate franchise, much like May 4th is for Star Wars. I sometimes feel bad for shilling for a corporation, celebrating an IP that is designed first and foremost as a way to make money, but I'd be lying if I said that Mario games didn't bring me immense joy. There's something about the way Mario games feel that grabs me more than most other platformers. Not to mention that I'm that perfect age for the franchise (the NES came out when I was in elementary school) that means I grew up with it and now I get to share it with my own kids. In celebration, below are a few of my favorite Mario games.
Mario Golf (GBC and GBA specifically)
This first game doesn't even have you play as Mario! There's something magical about the game studio Camelot. They made the Shining series on the Genesis and also the Golden Sun series on GBA and DS, so of course it's the type of studio that would bring their RPG sensibilities to a golf game, and boy did they nail it. The game features a full story, stats to build up, and different bosses to defeat, including Mario at the end. There are challenges scattered throughout and a robust training mode too. Plus, if you had the transfer pak for the N64 you could move your player over to that version and play there. I think some of the later entries in the series don't hold up as well, but they each have their own charm. If you enjoy golf games at all, you should check this entry out.
Super Mario 3
What else is there to say about this game that hasn't already been written? When people argue about the perfect Mario platformer it's usually between this and Super Mario World on the SNES. I'd argue that this takes the crown. One of the things that's most impressive about the game is the sense of exploration that it offered as a Mario game. The overworld map allowed players to skip levels entirely or find areas that unlocked new levels. The number of powerups was increased significantly and while some of them don't appear often enough (tanooki and hammer, especially), they were all fun. The music was also top notch, as were the vibrant colors. There was also no shortage of levels to play through as the game featured 90 of them. I think it's the perfect NES platformer, and was more fun than many in that genre on later systems.
Mario 64
I didn't really play through this game until recently. I had an N64 for a while, but I had to sell it to help pay for college so my time with the system was limited. Because of that, I didn't really revisit it until I picked up the Analogue 3d. What a world I missed out on. The controls aren't great, and the camera is worse. Because of these two things there are some levels that are frustratingly difficult and some stars may take 15+ tries to collect. Even though, the game is special. The sense of exploration is even better than in SMB3. Replacing the overworld with a castle was brilliant as it allowed the player to get familiar with the controls even before starting the first level (very similarly to the design choices in SMB 1-1). Again, while it can be a difficult game to 100%, Mario 64 is not a hard game to beat. The player only needs 70 of the 120 power stars to finish the game, making it much more accessible. Don't want to spend 45 minutes trying to finish Wing Mario over the Rainbow, don't worry about it. The love for this game online is strong, but it's well deserved.