Many wonderful Mario games have been released since, but I’m not sure anything will ever top Super Mario Bros. Consider that this game was made on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and consider its contemporaries. Seriously, if you haven’t played Mario 3 in a while, go back to it. Its sheer creativity is on display everywhere, all the way down to how it squirrels away its secrets on its world maps (another element introduced in Mario 3). This is the Mario where you navigate a boat floating on a lake of fire. This is the Mario game where you can swap between giant and regular-sized versions of enemies. 3 is one of the richest, most varied, and most ambitious Mario games ever made. Despite the limited technical resources at Nintendo’s disposal at the time, Super Mario Bros.
