Admit it, Mario’s RPGs are better than his platformers

Mario is the undisputed face of video games. He’s easily the most recognizable character in the world, and it’s easy to see why. His platformers were pivotal in Nintendo’s success in the early NES days, and he remains one of the company’s most marketable IPs over 30 years later. He set the standard for how 2D platformers should look and feel, and somehow did it again in 3D on the first try when nearly every other developer floundered. Whenever a new Nintendo system launches, everyone is looking for that new Mario game to show us what tricks Nintendo has up its sleeve on the new hardware.