yes.

I would say about umm 343 of them but the rest is just great.

mario is strait bad@dd and no matter wut game he presents himself in it just makes it awesome.
hes a living legend and i wish one day we'll see his marvelous acts in 1080p 60 or 30fps.

there is no reason to go easy on you when you out touch man. what si mario 64 was bad causs you could stick banjo kazooie and every other 3d game character there? your argument makes no sense at all. did you feel disoriented playing super mario bros3 cause you could fly? did it feel like a bird game to you?

i have to disagree with you again. your argument makes more sense it was referring to sunshine or mario 64. since there is more to do in galaxy then mario64 and since sunshine is more different. so i fell to see your point? mario galaxy is ,
mario3 and 64 together. whats different?

Forget it. Why don't you just kick me in the balls already?

Also, I didn't say I didn't like Mario 64, as it happens I thought that was the definitive Mario. I also gave Sunshine a wide berth, due to not ever having a Cube.

Mario = Nintendo beating a dead horse....

It's quite a good article. I would have rather asked 'Are there games that do what Mario does better?' My answer would have been yes.

Mario may have practically been the first platform game hero but, living in England, by the time NES came out here, it was not that strong a seller as it was prehistoric compared to the Commodore Amiga. Pre-Amiga, the British generally, wisely, decided to pay £2.99 for games by the likes of Codemasters than £40 for cartridges that had little better graphics.

Although the SNES was a bigger seller, and that console sold more than the Megadrive worldwide, in the UK the Megadrive sold more. I can think of many cute 2D platform games on the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga and Megadrive that had very distinct ideas from the Mario games, that more frequently referenced other types of entertainment and pop culture and tried to be diverse in their ideas whilst the 2D Mario games were content to inhabit exactly the same kinds of worlds until Super Mario 64 came along, although Super Mario World was also distinct in its visuals from Super Mario Bros 3.

Super Mario World was good but, unlike Sega, it didn't say anything about its times. I think that Nintendo actually deserved to sell less than Sega in the UK in the 16 bit age because Sega could always combine a sense of some depth to their games whilst also being very cool.

Shigeru Miyamoto turned his nose up at Rare's Donkey Kong Country (mainly because Nintendo wanted him to make Yoshi's Island in the same graphical style) but also because he basically thought that it was all graphics and no game but he was wrong! Rare had been making games for about as long as he had and DKC had diverse, beautiful looking levels that required some quick reactions in parts. On the N64 Rare, as far as I'm concerned, bettered him by making Banjo Kazooie much more accessible, easy to control and diverse in its ideas than Mario 64 AND Rare had the time to give the N64 Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Like many people, I initially found Super Mario Sunshine fun, looking around the hub world of Isle Delfino. Then I realised that only the hub world, Noki Bay and the bonus levels were really any fun. Many of the other levels have the appearance of unfinished construction projects, bits of scenery put together but lacking heart. But Mario 64, with much more of Miyamoto's input, lacked any heart or humour- it's as accidentailly isolating a game to play as the great Metroid Prime (which we must give Miyamoto credit for helping to make the great game that it is- Metroid Prime is arguably his finest achievement in that way).

I don't know how much imnput Miyamoto had in Luigi's Mansion but I loved that game- it was small scale and more polished than Super Mario Sunshine. Super Mario Galaxy does look fun- it seems to have learned the lessons of Super Mario Sunshine.

Paper Mario on the Gamecube was a great game when I got in to it although its humour isn't exactly Monkey Island quality.

Lastly, Mario Kart- it may have been the first karting series of its kind but it isn't the best. The PS1's Crash Team Racing is easily the best karting game ever made. It's a proper adventure which, oddly, Miyamoto, with his reputation for making adventures like the Zelda series, has never tried to extend the Mario Kart series in to being.

So overall I've got to say: Mario. Nobody does it better? I'm afraid that they sometimes/often do.

the question should be: "Is there ANY good Mario games?"

Or is it just an over hyped/rated, children franchise, that haven't been anything but milked like crazy over the years.

The whole thing your saying about all the other games from the Spectrum and C64 is dead on, and I have to say, my previous comments may have jumped the gun slightly. I didn't look far back enough to think of all those other games, although while the similarity of these in comparison to the console's offerings are quite obvious I think the reason the NES and Master system took off was because of the simplicity and speed they (the games) were accessed.

Having said that, in the days of 8bit, the abiltiy to be drasticly different in graphics and appearence was quite difficult due to limitations of the technology at the time. As a result I think a lot of games after the first few Mario games seemed to imitate them, yet surely this was just a case of Mario being so well known?

So, I think you're right about there being games that do what Mario do but better,but isn't the reason these games are compared to Mario because of simple poularity?

I only have one I didn't enjoy and that was Super Mario Sunshine.

My favorite Mario games are
1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Super Mario 64
3. Super Mario Galaxy

ya there is there are 3 to my knowledge

!. NES Mario is missing....the point of this game well Mario has gone missing and its up to Luigi to find him. you go all over the world to find him. and in this game you can not die at all.

2.CD-I Mario's hotel well hes a link to the avgn to explain this one.. www.gametrailers.com/player/42 566.html

3, Mario's Time Machine. I never played this but just the title says it crap.

apparently, IGN has not seen this lost yet...

http://www.gametrailers.com...

There are many good mario games out there, but no series is without its setbacks that are easily forgotten for such an acclaimed series as Mario.

The question is

is there is a good mario game?

Super Mario Bros. 3 is my #1 all-time game. There is no "bad" Mario game (not including spin offs like Party).

I enjoy controller throwing hard mario, so I enjoyed Sunshine greatly and New Super Mario DS not so much.

for Mario is King!

I just simply outgrew caring about Mario and Nintendo all together years ago. Does not appeal to me anymore. Mario 64 was the end for me.
There are much more interesting things to play for a person that has been playing for 22 years.

The series is plain milked to death. It really needs to die out.

i hate mario.