It should be no surprise that the latest Super Mario movie is smashing box office records – despite the, let’s say mixed, reviews. Nintendo’s iconic plumber has been a pop culture staple for 45 years, starring in some of the bestselling video games ever made, from the original Donkey Kong through to the joyous Super Mario Bros Wonder and the chaotic Mario Kart World.
But as with any storied showbiz career, there have been some lesser works. Who can forget – or actually remember – Hotel Mario, a door-shutting puzzle game for the doomed Philips CD-i console? Or what about Mario Teaches Typing, a 1992 educational game for the PC in which players navigate the Mushroom Kingdom by … correctly inputting words. Yet there have also been genuine treasures lost along the way. Here, then, are seven of our favourite much-overlooked Mario odysseys.
Wrecking Crew (1984)
Originally released in arcades and later on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), this early title, produced by GameBoy creator Gunpei Yokoi, had Mario and Luigi briefly abandoning their plumbing careers to become demolition experts. Players must smash down the walls of 100 fiendishly designed buildings, avoiding enemies and unlocking bonuses by demolishing things in the right order. It’s an interesting puzzle game and the home console version came with an excellent map editor allowing you to make your own levels. It’s available on the Nintendo Classics service if you want a bash.
Super Mario Bros Special (1986)
Developed by Hudson Soft for the Japanese PC-8800 series of computers, this looked like a remake of Super Mario Bros, but has completely different levels and some extra features including the hammer from Donkey Kong and a wing item that lets Mario fly in certain levels. Also, due to the hardware limitations of the platform, the visuals are weirdly garish and jagged, and the physics very floaty, so it feels like playing a sort of Super Mario hallucination.
Dr Mario 64 (2001)
A tile-sorting game clearly inspired by Tetris, the original Dr Mario was a hit on the NES and Game Boy, but this update for the N64 was a little lost due to its arrival at the end of the console’s lifespan. The aim is to drop dual-coloured vitamin capsules on to viruses to make them disappear, thereby clearing the screen, but the N64 version adds a challenging story mode and an anarchic four-player mode where you had to compete with friends to clear screens the fastest. It has also been revived on Nintendo Classics.
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003)
The third Super Mario role-playing adventure game (after Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario) tends to get overlooked now because it was released on the Game Boy Advance handheld rather than a console. But this gorgeous, funny escapade is worth rediscovering on Nintendo Classics for its clever dual-control system – you play as Mario and Luigi simultaneously – and its imaginative and surreal landscapes.
Mario Slam Basketball (2006)
Mario’s only dedicated basketball game attracted mediocre reviews when it arrived on the Nintendo DS, which I think is unfair (our games editor Keza MacDonald gave it 6/10 for Eurogamer, but I’ll let her off). Developed by Square Enix, the game gets you dribbling around a mini court, hitting question blocks on the floor to multiply your shot scores, eating mushrooms to add speed and avoiding the dreaded blue homing shells. It’s basically every Mario mechanic crammed into a tiny sports sim. What’s not to like?
Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (2009)
A second follow-up to the Game Boy Advance title Mario vs Donkey Kong (itself rather forgotten in the Mario timeline), this acclaimed Nintendo DSi puzzle platformer involves using the stylus and touchscreen to direct little wind-up Mario toys around each stage, avoiding hazards and tapping objects to open up new routes. Basically, Mario meets Lemmings. It was only available via the download service DSiWare or the 3DS eShop, which have both been shut down. Boo.
Super Mario 3D World (2013)
Despite its comparative commercial failure, the Wii-U sure did have a lot of great Mario games, including Super Mario Maker, New Super Mario Bros U and this masterpiece. Super Mario 3D World has Mario teaming up with Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach to explore a series of imaginative and colourful realms, all absolutely crammed with gameplay ideas, many making use of that innovative touchscreen display. Thankfully, its brilliance was later recognised via an updated Switch version, which came with an extra Bowser’s Fury mode. If you only play one game from our strange list, make it this one.