- 6. Sticker Star. One of the two PM games I never bothered to beat. Really, it's all Drybake Stadium's fault - I don't like crawling all over the same level looking for the one thing I need to progress. I never made it past World 2 of this one.
- 5. PM64. Hot take alert, but I didn't really feel compelled to beat this one either. I found the story a little lacking. Not because it's a typical Mario plot gussied up, I'm fine with Bowser being the bad guy. What really gets me about it is that things just sorta... happen. Most chapters feel like you're travelling through places until you eventually reach a boss, without any real connective tissue tying the chapter together. Like, for instance, you only find out who most bosses are right before you fight them, having a grand total of one conversation with them. Notable exceptions are the Koopa Bros and Tubba Blubba, and they just so happen to be the best villains in the game. Oh, speaking of bosses, I really didn't like the boss fights in this one. They're easy to figure out a strategy for, and at that point you're following a flowchart for the rest of the fight. Tubba Blubba's Heart is just a Hyper Goomba with way too much HP. Lava Piranha never even did anything to me because I just happened to get Tidal Wave beforehand.
- 4. Color Splash. Tough choice between this one and the one above it. Unlike Sticker Star, I actually liked Color Splash. It was well put together and had a couple of fun levels. However, the individual levels in the game are somewhat disconnected, and other than a few standouts (Dark Bloo Inn, Tangerino Grill) most of them feel a bit forgettable. In any case, I have to praise the boss fights. Or rather, everything about the boss fights except for the parts where you have to use the correct Thing. I played this one right before PM64, so going from the bosses in this one, with a variety of attacks and being unable to use the same attacks repeatedly due to the card system, and then going to PM64's where I was doing the same attacks over and over for the entire fight... Night and day, really. I think the Thing puzzles are dumb, though - but the final boss doesn't have one, and it's my favorite final boss in the series because of it. In terms of story, there was potential here, but I think it was a little wasted.
- 3. Super. I like this one, but I feel like it has pretty significant problems that prevent me from putting it any higher. I just feel like the game's at odds with itself about what exactly it wants to be, is the problem. The elements original to it stand out so much from the Mario elements that sometimes I wonder if the game would be better if it wasn't a Mario game, and was just an original IP where you play as Tippi or something. Not to mention that I really don't think combat in this game works too well compared to the turn-based systems. And let's not forget that the game can just get obnoxious sometimes, with a maze of identical wormholes in space, the hell of a heaven that is Overthere Stair, and the fact you have to do the Flopside Pit twice. Still, it's solid and memorable.
- 2. The Origami King. I actually really liked the battles in this game, because it managed to completely get rid of what I disliked about boss fights in PM64, I never felt like I was doing the same thing over and over again because the battle system managed to constantly provide a puzzle-solving element similar to what I liked about enemy fights in the classic games. Except now that's even in boss fights. In terms of story, it's nothing mindblowing, but I find it much more tightly-written and interesting than PM64's. It still has the problem of you only finding out who the bosses are right before you fight them, but most chapters are still oriented around a particular problem, like uncovering the secrets of an ancient civilization, or putting Bowser Jr. back together. Even in the absence of that, your goal of the streamer is always in sight. Also, the music is bumpin'.
- 1. TTYD. I feel like this is well-trodden ground at this point.
