Super Mario Odyssey Turns Seven! - Ranking the 3D Mario Games - Article
by Mark Nielsen , posted on 27 October 2024 / 10,257 Views
With the Switch getting on in years and the prospect of a new Nintendo console growing closer, now seems like an excellent time to take a look back at one of its mascot’s two big evolutionary lines, particularly since we now find ourselves in the longest wait ever between 3D Mario games. Today marks the seven year anniversary for the release of Super Mario Odyssey, and with no full new entry in sight, it comfortably beats the roughly six year wait between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, which should also be good news to anybody who broke a mirror that day.
3D Mario has delighted fans since 1996, maintaining an astonishing level of quality and bringing innovations not just to the 3D platformer genre, but gaming as a whole. Needless to say, it’s a hard task to rank a series where every entry is beloved, but I shall nevertheless undertake this risky venture with my head held high. Wish me luck.
7. Super Mario Sunshine
You know you’re dealing with a good series when the black sheep of it is still a pretty fun title and that is indeed the case with Super Mario Sunshine. It might be one of the clearest examples of Nintendo’s unpredictable nature, following up the massively successful Mario 64 by giving Mario a water jetpack and making him the one-man clean-up crew of a muddy island paradise. But however strange it is, there's something quite satisfying about the F.L.U.D.D.; even if it takes a bit away from the platforming controls and focus, it’s unique, but not necessarily good or bad on the whole. The game itself still has many fun elements to offer, with only a slight lack of polish (by 3D Mario standards) and some annoying secret levels being minor dark clouds on an otherwise enjoyable tropical platformer.
6. Super Mario 3D Land
Being a 3DS title, Super Mario 3D Land never shines too brightly in screenshots. Indeed, as the only purely handheld 3D entry and with a fairly vanilla setting, it doesn’t earn many points in terms of style on the whole. Fortunately, 3D Land makes up for this when it comes to level design, where it's certainly no slouch. Together with Super Mario 3D World, it comes closest to being a 2D Mario title translated to 3D; whether or you’re a fan of that concept or not, the developers managed to execute it quite well, with a long list of fun, short levels and some nice bonus collectibles in the form of Star Medals.
Other than being the first time you could take 3D Mario with you in your pocket, 3D Land was also one of the few games that made excellent use of the 3D effect on the 3DS, and really made it add something to the experience. Overall it might find itself in the lower ranks of Mario platformers, but as a showcase for its system Super Mario 3D Land is among the best there is.
5. Super Mario 3D World
If you thought Super Mario 3D World was just 3D Land but bigger and better then, well, you wouldn’t be too far off the mark, but with the praise already given to the latter that’s certainly not a bad thing. While 3D World brings new ideas to the table and bigger areas, its main focus is quite simply on being a fun, colorful 3D experience… with cats! It’s also the first 3D Mario in HD, which it makes beautiful use of, and the first to have four player multiplayer and multiple characters to choose from, which certainly doesn’t hurt either.
One point of criticism that it shares with 3D Land, but which feels more prominent here, is that the White Tanooki Suit (basically encouraging you to cheat after losing a few lives) can feel rather demotivating regardless of whether you use it or not. That does however speak to the fact that the game offers a greater level of challenge (at least towards the end) than some other entries in the series. All in all, while it isn’t the biggest standout, it’s still a greatly enjoyable game, though it is a bit of a shame that Nintendo’s most struggling home console was the one to get the most by-the-book 3D Mario.
4. Super Mario 64
Let me be very clear: if we were ranking these games based on historical significance then there’s no doubt that Super Mario 64 would be king of the hill. The game started not only 3D Mario but in many ways 3D as we know it and yes it was also a damn good title that holds up even today. However apparent its age might be, the levels, structure, and gameplay that Super Mario 64 brought to the table shine as brightly as the stars you collect. It’s also impressive how much of Mario’s move set has remained the same since this first entry, but as for the controls, particularly those of the camera, they do admittedly leave a bit to be desired compared to later titles. Still, those who are used to this or are willing to get used to its quirks, Super Mario 64 remains an excellent time, with solid levels and a loveable feel to it.
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Wii and DS era was a good time for the red plumber by many measures, and it was also doing this time that we got the only (explicitly) direct sequel in the 3D Mario series. Super Mario Galaxy 2 gave us more Galaxy and what’s not to love about that? The levels are once again expertly crafted, the gravity shenanigans are a blast, and this time Yoshi even makes an appearance (along with new power-ups for both Mario and his green-nosed friend). While perhaps just a little charm is lost with the smaller, less memorable hub world and the switch to a more traditional level selection system, Galaxy 2 still has charms aplenty and remains one of the most finely crafted 3D platformers of all-time.
2.5. Bowser’s Fury
I won’t deny the possibility of recency bias, as Bowser’s Fury was the game that I played most recently and actually inspired this list, but since it’s a bonus entry we don’t worry too much about that (do we?). This compact little not-quite-game not-quite-DLC is certainly some of the most enjoyable and charming 3D platforming experiences you can find. The beauty of it is that it takes the building blocks of 3D World and does the exact opposite with them, offering not a list of levels but a fully free experience with no boundaries. The cute cat-themed island paradise turns heavy metal when Fury Bowser makes an appearance, and while his increasingly frequent appearances can get a little frustrating if the timing clashes with whatever you’re doing at the time, it’s also a very unique element that forces you to think and act quickly.
Most importantly Bowser’s Fury is simply pleasant (surprisingly so given the title), and while it might actually be the easiest of all the 3D Mario games (despite the kaiju shooting lasers at you), that’s okay because it’s not really a game about challenge - it’s about fun, and it offers one of the densest little packets of that you can find.
2. Super Mario Odyssey
Mario’s latest full adventure was a roaring success, both among critics and fans, and it’s not hard to see why. While 3D World was a great game, it arguably made the mistake of playing things too safe; Super Mario Odyssey turned that upside down completely, not only giving us huge levels to explore as we pleased, and adding new innovative tricks to Mario’s classic move set, but also letting him possess enemies and damn near everything else you could imagine, gaining their unique powers and adding so much more spice to the classic platforming gameplay in the process. It’s damn near 3D Mario perfection, which makes it all the sadder that we didn’t get a (timely) sequel this time around.
1. Super Mario Galaxy
While Super Mario Odyssey might be near perfect, Super Mario Galaxy is truly special. In the same way that Super Mario 64 started the series, Galaxy was the game that matured it. It was the first truly modern-feeling and modern-looking 3D Mario, and so much more on top. The planetary gravity mechanic was mind-blowing at the time and so much more than a gimmick, allowing for some of the most unique levels, where the extra dimensionality of 3D games came more to life than ever before, and exploration wasn’t just done on a flat plane but from every angle. The game’s tone and presentation captured this new adventure into the stars beautifully, from little touches like lighting and special effects to the exceptional soundtrack. Even the storytelling, however minimalistic, was heartwarming.
You can’t blame anyone for preferring the levels in Super Mario Galaxy 2, nor the gameplay and openness of Super Mario Odyssey - that all comes down to taste - but looking at the games as whole I will always consider Super Mario Galaxy to be the game that managed to bring delight into its every element and which carved out the strongest identity and most memorable experience. That’s why it takes the top spot here.
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Great list! I actually agree with your rankings almost entirely; especially Super Mario Galaxy. The space ambience, planetary level structure, and little touches of backstory (to say nothing of introducing Rosalina as a character) on offer just add up to the overall most brilliantly inventive, unique, and even oddly emotional 3D Super Mario experience in my personal opinion.
I have just one point of real disagreement with your ranking choices: I don't think Super Mario 3D World is getting the credit it deserves here for including a proper multiplayer experience and a number of characters to play as who are not Mario and have specialized abilities that make a difference. For being an ostensibly conventional experience, it's also notably the only 3D Mario game on a home console that was done in the older, more linear Mario format from the 2D games and that actually holds some inherent merit to me just for existing, especially since that older design philosophy has a way of refocusing the experience around actual platforming challenges more. And this is without mentioning its deployment of what IMO is just one of the cutest and most fun and useful power-ups in the whole franchise! :D While it's not quite my favorite 3D Mario game, I'm certainly glad it exists and definitely enjoy revisiting it more than Super Mario 64 today for sure.
Thanks for your thoughts! I actually had 3D World above 64 in my first draft, so it's definitely a close call between those two. Funnily enough the reason I switched them is actually just yours but reversed, with 64 being more enjoyable to revisit in my book even if I'd probably consider 3D World a better game in many ways.
Interesting! Is it the nostalgia factor for you? I wonder because I get that way around certain Super NES titles. Final Fantasy 6 is probably always going to be my favorite installment in the franchise even though it's pretty easy to make a case that it's not the most meritorious entry, for instance. Having certain formative life experiences tied to a specific game can make a huge difference in one's personal calculations!
Or is more just that you simply find the somewhat freer, more heavily mission-structured game play of Super Mario 64 more enjoyable than a more old-fashioned platforming challenge with perhaps friends or family?
For me, Super Mario 3D World is a lot more like what I expected a 3D Mario game to be back in 1996 and Super Mario 64 kinda threw me off at first with its diversity of objectives, comparative lack of platforming focus, and lack of multiplayer options. The yes genuinely revolutionary genre change was definitely enjoyable once I figured out how it worked, but I am really glad that Nintendo eventually got around to giving me the experience that I'd first been expecting in Super Mario 3D World. I'm glad there's one 3D Super Mario game that's like that.
Yeah 3D World is what 2D Mario would been translated into on N64 if they hadn't decided on a new formula for Mario 64. I mean I think they absolutely made the right choice with M64 to go to an area-style rather than stage-style as it really emphasizes the 3D gameplay. But I agree I'm very glad they finally did a 3D Mario in the stage-style because I think it blows away any of the 21st century 2D Mario games and honestly might even be better than SMW and SMB3.
3D World is one of the best 3D Mario's, while also being one of the best 2D-style Mario's.
Also, FF6 and Chrono Trigger will forever be my two favorite RPGs I think, and will forever probably be in my top 5 games of all time. Square was at the height of it's power in the SNES and PS1 days when it was by far the best RPG maker in the world (been a long time now since that was the case) and I think it is a perfectly fine argument to say that FF6 may not have ever been topped.
I think it might be a combination of finding the game a bit more charming and the differences in the format like you say. The 2D games don't have as much draw on me either when it comes to replaying, so there's probably a connection there, though I agree it's great those 2D inspired entries exist, they definitely fill a certain niche that was otherwise missing from the 3D series.
3D World is an amazing game! I was honestly shocked at how incredible it was when I finally got around to playing it on Switch. It's really hard to rank it against the other top 3D Mario games, but it easily holds it own against the best. I'd put it about right on par with Galaxy, ahead of 64, and a bit behind Odyssey and Galaxy 2.
After beating 3D World and realizing you have to 100% every level to get all the bonus worlds I would normally be annoyed at that kind of thing, but 3D World was so good I absolutely delighted in going back through a majority of the levels to 100% them and then the difficulty really ramped up in the bonus worlds which made the post-game even better! One of my biggest wishes for next gen is to get two 3D Mario games on the system and for the second one to be a sequel to 3D World.
Sunshine deserves better than last spot. I'd take it over 3D Land and 3D World at least.
Super Mario Odyssey is my favorite for the variety of gameplay thanks to the captures and the ending is beautiful.
Honestly hard to rank the games. Though definitely surprised to see Galaxy as #1 and Galaxy2 as the fourth ranked game. Galaxy 2 was definitely better than Galaxy. I very clearly remember thinking back in the Wii days, after playing through Galaxy 2, that somehow Nintendo had undeniably made an even better game than Galaxy. It's like they were getting their feet wet with that planetoid level design in Galaxy, and then with a game worth of experience they came back with Galaxy 2 and just blew it out of the park. I get that for nostalgia some people might think about Galaxy more fondly simply because it was the first Galaxy experience, but it really is just a lesser game than the sequel.
Interesting to see 3D Land below 3D World, as I usually see people state that 3D Land is the better game. I haven't played 3D Land, but looooved 3D World. For a couple years on Switch I held off on 3D World, thinking why would I want to play a 2D Mario like experience as a 3D Mario game, I thought that was Nintendo just phoning it in for the WiiU Mario entry. When I finally bought it and played it I realized how wrong my assumption had been. 3D World might be the best 2D-style Mario game (it is right up there with SMB3 and SMW), and definitely is on par with 64, SMG, SMG2, and Odyssey as the top 3D Mario games.
I consider Bowser's Fury just as part of the 3D World package, never thought about it as a standalone game to rank. It was really good but I don't think I could rank it as it is a smaller game and just felt like a continuation of the stellar 3D World but switched to an open world setting. Wouldn't at all mind if the launch day next gen 3D Mario is that formula expanded to a full game experience.
I'd say Galaxy 2 and Odyssey are definitely the two best, though not sure which order I'd put them in, but I might give the nod to Galaxy 2 for the top spot. Then it's Galaxy, 64, and 3D World+Bowser's Fury, though again not sure which order I'd put those three in, though probably when removing nostalgia I think M64 would likely be fifth overall. And then Sunshine at the bottom. While Sunshine is a great game, the rest of the Mario games are just on an even greater level. Sunshine is A-tier, but the rest are all S-tier.
So pretty good list with some tough calls, outside of the fact that Galaxy 2 and Galaxy should be switched.
I think Galaxy 2 beats Galaxy 1 gameplay and the individual level-experiences are (to this day) perhaps the best in any level-based game, but the overall experience of Galaxy 1 is a more enjoyable, cohesive, and satisfying than Galaxy 2. Now... imagine a merger of the two games where Galaxy 1's best elements are mixed with the levels of Galaxy 2... It'll never happen, but if Nintendo makes Galaxy 3, then I'd say make the game resembles that.
3D World is better than 3D Land, IMO; but, I think Land is still an excellent game that's often overlooked. For me, during the 3DS era, it was a highlight. And, while an unpopular opinion, I enjoyed both 3D games more than Mario 64 and perhaps more than Odyssey. I'll need to play Odyssey again though, because the first time I played it I was expecting a step up from the Galaxy games... but I didn't get that. And so I might have a bias against it that I don't have with 3D Land/World.
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Super Mario Galaxy was a truly magical experience. It reminded me of being a kid and getting my hands on the hotly anticipated Super Mario Bros 3. If you're a devout Christian person, think of the anticipation levels of the second coming of Jesus, or if you're Islamic (like the Mahdi), that's what it was like for Nintendo fans waiting on Super Mario Bros 3 ~35 years ago. We were that crazy about it.
1 Super Mario 64
2 Super Mario Galaxy
3 Super Mario Galaxy 2
4 Super Mario 3D Land
5 Super Mario Odyssey
6 Super Mario 3D World
7 Super Mario Sunshine
I won't count Bowser's Fury. One because I never played it, and two because it was basically an expansion.
Sunshine was not good. I guess it was fine if it were any random game, but it wasn't as a 3D Mario mainline flagship game. The parts where there was no FLUDD were the best parts, defeating the purpose of the game. 64 and Galaxy are absolute brilliance. Timeless masterpieces. Galaxy 2 is excellent as well, but less than those other two, it suffers from being 'nr. 2'. 3D Land, Odyssey and 3D World are similar in quality. Obviously Odyssey was very ambitious and much bigger and more elaborate that both '3D' games, 3D Land had the 'advantage' that it was only on 3DS, but used the 3DS's main hardware feature in an excellent way. That game was just loads of fun, and better at being a 3DS game, than the other two were at being a console game, so to speak.
For some reason only the Galaxy games got me hooked on 3D Mario. Both Mario 64 and Sunshine was to technically demanding for me, I never got the hang of the controls in either of those games. I guess I would enjoy the heck out of Mario odyssey if I ever got around to playing it. But simple fun is seldom enough anymore.
Sunshine sucks. Mario 64 is still my favorite.
Odyssey robbed! Sunshine robbed! 3D Land & World way too high! >:(
I quite like this list, but I expect it'll be controversial. Of the ones I've played, I'd definitely place SMG1 at the top too. I didn't like Bowser's Fury as much as you; the open world was nice but the periodic Bowser interruptions quickly became irritating.
