Now approaching his forties with a resurgent acting career at hand and nary a hint of a midlife crisis, the moustachioed plumber Mario remains gaming’s most iconic character. Having sold more than 600 million copies across his many adventures in three-and-a-half decades, Nintendo's mascot has a back catalogue to rival The Beatles – and it's been fuelled by just as many magic mushrooms. So it's been no surprise to see the red-capped icon make himself at home on the Switch since 2017.
With the release and wild success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, now is the time to reacquaint yourself with portable console's menagerie of Mario magic both old and new. Not least to play through with the source material Jack Black drew upon for an Oscar-worthy turn as Bowser. From platformers to kart racers to build-your-own-fun creation kits, Jumpman's résumé extends well beyond old-fashioned Goomba-stomping these days. Wondering where to dive right in? We've ranked Mario's best Nintendo Switch games, from those deserving of a Luigi death stare to the all-star classics.
14. Mario Golf: Super Rush
The Mario Golf games have always made strong additions to his sporting repertoire, melding a fun take on a real dad sport with interesting arcade mechanics. Much like Mario Tennis Aces, you don’t need to know anything about the technicalities of the real-world sport to be able to tee off in style here. Still, Super Rush is by no means the strongest entry in its lineage – how we long for a Toadstool Tour remake – with a paltry selection of individual golf courses, and precious little of the replay factor that made previous entries so moreish. £38. At amazon.co.uk
13. Super Mario Party
In fairness to Princess Peach's number one admirer, Super Mario Party is a respectable eleventh console entry in a series that's taken the edge off family gatherings for over two decades now. As much as this mini-games bonanza still has its moments, we'd rather be annihilating our in-laws in Smash Bros. With just four boards to be getting on with, there's not much in the way of replay value to be had here either. £38. At amazon.co.uk
12. Mario Strikers: Battle League Football
Now that EA Sport's FIFA/FC series owns the football sim genre to itself, it's easy to forget just how many weird, wonderful and frankly ridiculous rivals it enjoyed in the early noughties. If you ever find yourself pining for the days of RedCard, David Beckham Soccer and even FIFA Street, you'll no doubt get a kick out of the cartoon mayhem of Mario Strikers. Not least because this game's complexity is only matched by its thirst for bombastic (but family-friendly) violence. £37. At amazon.co.uk
11. Paper Mario: The Origami King
You have to go back all the way to the GameCube’s Thousand-Year Door to find a truly great Paper Mario title, but The Origami King at least ranks as a mini-revival for the series, one with some joyously terrible puns, a surprisingly affecting cast of oddball sidekicks and some dizzyingly creative boss fights. While its innovative puzzle-based Battle Ring System is an initially entertaining spin on RPG combat, its repetitious nature does ultimately prove a drag on this 30-hour adventure. £60. At amazon.co.uk
10. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
A turn-based tactics game featuring Mario and some of Ubisoft’s most recognisable weirdos (the Rabbids) might have been met with scepticism when it was first announced, but the X-Com-lite foundations that Kingdom Battle is built upon are sturdy as any mainline Mario. This is a fun, tense adventure that ratchets up the challenge as you progress through, adding new mechanics while always delivering a healthy dose of humour. The only catch? Its 2022 sequel, Spark of Hope, is an even better take on the formula. £43. At amazon.co.uk
9. Mario Tennis Aces
What happened to good tennis games? They literally don’t exist anymore. That’s save for Mario Tennis Aces, which is a colourful cartoon arcade twist on a precise, serious sport. It’s super balanced and fun to play, while offering a surprising level of difficulty when you notch up the challenge. And it’s worth a look-in purely for the novelty of a game that appreciates the thrill of being centre court. £50. At amazon.co.uk
8. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
Formerly a Wii U launch game way back in 2012, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe is a traditional 2D side-scroller for better and worse. Your classic ice, desert and lava kingdoms are all present and correct alongside a whole host of vintage power-ups and (praise be) Yoshi. As an exercise in platforming precision, there’s a lot to like here but those hoping for a more expansive take on the Mario formula are best off looking elsewhere. £38. At amazon.co.uk
7. Super Mario Maker 2
The Mario game that never ends, Super Mario Maker 2 offers not just a story mode for you to play, but an entire suite of creation tools that lets you create your own Mario stages and play those that other players have made by heading onto the online bubble. It’s a treasure trove of every player’s own ideas and there’s something suitable for everyone too – children and adults alike, novices and pros. £37. At amazon.co.uk
6. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
A smart, satisfying evolution on the weird synergy between Nintendo’s Mario characters and Ubisoft’s Minion-like Rabbids creatures, Sparks of Hope adds more depth and dynamism to the tactical battling we first saw in Kingdom Battle back in 2017. It makes big leaps forward in terms of the flexibility of combat, adding new layers of customisation and creativity, while only strengthening the sense of character that the animation team manages to pack into its heroes. No soft touch, challenges even seasoned strategy players to carefully consider their moves as they master the vividly colourful battlefield. £34. At amazon.co.uk
5. Luigi’s Mansion 3
Although he's relegated to a supporting cast member in Luigi’s Mansion 3, this is not just one of Mario's finest turns on the Nintendo Switch, but one of its best games full stop. Its adventure through a haunted house, complete with themed floors and packed with secrets and discoveries, is a gorgeously crafted puzzle adventure that earns its surprisingly long run-time. Fans of Luigi’s Mansion and its Nintendo 3DS sequel might be slightly disappointed by the lack of major refinements for this third iteration, but the lavishly detailed environments and beautiful graphics make for one of the most atmospheric games either brother has been involved in. £40. At amazon.co.uk
4. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
The Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection is trio of older Mario gems that were brought together in 2020 for a limited edition release. While Super Mario 64 and Sunshine are beginning to feel a little long in the tooth, Galaxy still holds up as the newest game of the bunch. Chock full of colour and personality, it plays with gravity and space with a sense of wonder and scale that few Mario games have captured. The game was so good that it spurred Nintendo on to do something it has rarely done in Mario’s history: create a sequel, Mario Galaxy 2. £135. amazon.co.uk
3. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Originally released in 2013 with zero fanfare on Nintendo's titanic Wii U console, Super Mario 3D World was finally given its time to shine on Switch. It's a joyous toy box of design ideas that Nintendo doles out like a conveyer belt of creativity, often delivering entirely new mechanics for one-shot hits of joy, some of which were even expanded into their own titles à la the excellent Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. New to Switch this time around is the separate Bowser’s Fury curio, which is Mario at its most experimental and least refined. Taking cues from the open-ended nature of 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey, it places you in a big open level and lets you run wild, exploring at your whim and unlocking areas by completing platforming trials and puzzles. £38. amazon.co.uk
2. Super Mario Odyssey
With Odyssey, Nintendo took the original vision of a more open and exploratory Super Mario and made it a modern reality. Odyssey is all about finding stuff by heading off the beaten track in any one of its many biomes. You can quickly smash through its relatively short main campaign, which takes you through its myriad gorgeous worlds, but then you’re set free and the game starts proper. With 900 hidden moons to discover, Odyssey is absolutely brimming with a whole variety of challenges and puzzles and secrets, from moons you spot on first run to cleverly disguised ones for which you’ll be searching for hours. £37. At amazon.co.uk
1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
It’s hard to imagine how Nintendo could better the Mario Kart formula after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch. Another Mario game that was initially released on the Wii U, this one back in 2014, MK8 Deluxe is an almost perfect refinement of the familiar Kart franchise. The courses are impeccable, the range of styles, settings, ideas and colours is enormous and there’s more than enough content and challenge to keep players busy for hours as they tackle each CC championship and try to unlock everything there is to offer. £38. At amazon.co.uk
For reasons of sheer brevity, we're kept our ranking to those Mario games that have been released specifically for the Nintendo Switch. That means those games outside of the ever-expanding Nintendo Switch Online catalogue, which now encompasses the majority of the Chris Pratt impersonator's back catalogue. Want to know where to start with Mario's endeavours on the subscription service? Look no further…
- Super Mario Bros 3: Bros 3 changed the world of video games way back in 1988. With more colour, more creativity and most importantly more variety than either of its two predecessors, even though it was made by just eleven people – the lead designer being Nintendo’s Mario maestro, Shigeru Miyamoto. Whether you’re revisiting it for nostalgia’s sake or taking a first trip to one of the most important games ever created, this is still a stone cold classic.
- Super Mario World: Unlike many of Mario's early years outings, Super Mario World still holds up remarkably well. Aside from introducing Yoshi to the world, this launch game for 1990's Super Nintendo Entertainment System benefits from that console's 16-bit graphical effervescence. Rarely has that moustache looked so resplendent, especially when it's paired with a bright yellow cape.
- Super Mario Bros: The game that started it all is still available on Nintendo Switch. Pioneering precise platforming controls and vivid 2D side-scrolling better than any game before it, it’s dated a lot in its presentation prowess since 1985, but has lost little of the magic that made it such a hit almost 40 years ago.
