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The Mario franchise is one of the largest Nintendo franchises, as it has multiple spin-off series like Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion. But which of these Mario series do you like most?
For some advice, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat are part of the “Donkey Kong” option, but Super Mario RPG goes under “other”.
aghhh its hard to choose between mario & luigi and paper mario, but spm is one of my favorites (that might be an unpopular opinion)... i still cherish dteam fondly though!!
As of this post, my favorite Mario series would probably either have to be Luigi's Mansion or Mario Party.
I really love the original Luigi's Mansion; it's a short, snappy game with a fun, creepy atmosphere that is fun to go through in October (though in recent years I never have the time to do so) and I think the more humanoid ghosts in the game are cool. I played a little bit of and didn't enjoy Dark Moon since I didn't really like the gameplay changes and how all of the ghosts were seemingly just boring colored blobs. I got Luigi's Mansion 3 on sale a while back and haven't gotten to it yet, but at least some bosses seem to have the old humanoid look, so that's a plus.
Mario Party is a mixed bag because of the series quality fluctuation through the years, but they're fun to play with friends or even against the CPU.
If I had to choose one? My heart wants to say Luigi's Mansion because at least the first game is my sort of thing, and maybe 3 is as well but I still need to play it. Mario Party has more than one installment that I like, so I feel like it's probably the better answer for favorite "series".
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As for the others:
2D Mario/3D Mario
I am, frankly, not good at platforming games. As such, I'm not good at the actual mainline Mario games. The only one I've ever beaten was Super Mario Sunshine and that's because it doesn't play like the others.
Donkey Kong
I've played some of the original Donkey Kong and some of the first Donkey Kong Country. They're fine. My poor platforming skills don't help in Donkey Kong Country. Maybe I'd like some more of the DK games but I'm not in a rush to find out.
Mario Sports Games (Baseball/Golf/Soccer/Tennis)
The various Mario sports games are fun. I know that I at least enjoy Mario Tennis and Mario Strikers (soccer). I've never yet played Mario Baseball. I am terrible at Mario Golf and sold World Tour after I couldn't even escape the first section. Speaking of which, the main campaigns of the sports games expect you to be really good to beat them and some of the tasks are really annoying to try to do.
Mario & Luigi
Never played any of them. Don't know if I ever will.
Mario Kart
I'm not really a racing game person. It's kind of fun, but practically everyone else on the site is better at it than I am so that's kind of not great. It's so-so for me.
Paper Mario
Never played a single one of these games, but I got some of them before the closure of the Wii U eShop earlier this year, so I'll experience them sooner or later.
Wario
I haven't played any of his stuff, but I like his character and wish he and Waluigi could feature more in the mainline stuff instead of multicolor Toads and whatnot. At least he has Wario World I guess? I will say that I have no interest in WarioWare though.
Yoshi
Only played Yoshi's Story, but that's fun.
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As you can see, Mario and co. aren't really a draw for me generally as Nintendo franchises go.
My favorite Mario Series? Whatever had the courses Tick Tock Clock, Shifting Sand Land, Sirena Beach, Noki Bay, Buoy Base Galaxy, Freezeflame Galaxy, Sand Kingdom, and Wooded Kingdom. They may be from four different games, but they’re all from the same series.
Donkey Kong, I already mentioned DK64 and DKR, as well as DKJB, which are the games I liked best.
The other series had at least one game that I liked a lot. Luigi’s Mansion, I played the original game on the GameCube (though I didn’t play it until 2016). Paper Mario, I played and beaten Paper Mario 64 (first time was also in 2016, before the TBT Fair). 2D Mario, my favorite was Super Mario World for the SNES. And my most played Mario Kart game was Mario Kart 8/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
i’ve only ever played mario party, specifically mario party superstars, so my vote went to mp by default. i was never really interested in any mario series prior to playing mario party superstars, but i’ve had a lot of fun with it, and i would be interested in trying out some of the other mario games now.
of the more recent games, i’m most interested in super mario bros. wonder and mario kart 8, but i’d also like to give paper mario: the thousand-year door, super mario galaxy 2, any of the luigi’s mansion games, and a couple of others a try as well.
voted for Mario Party as it's the series I've played the most since I was young and have a lot of good memories playing with family and friends, though I do also love Odyssey and have a massive soft spot for Sunshine and of course you can never beat Mario Kart, maybe I just love anything Mario related
ooooh this is hard, but i'm gonna go with what my mind initially wanted to answer after reading the question LOL it'd have to be a tie between the mario & luigi and paper mario. i've always been a big fan of have games in both series lines are written and loved the dialogue. i've always been charmed by the art style of paper mario and i also like the style used in the mario & luigi games! the characters all looked really cute in both game series. a big part of me loves the luigi's mansion games as well! they all hold a lot of dear memories
Definitely Luigi's Mansion, even if it may be an overall unpopular opinion.
I do love 2D, 3D, Mario Party, Mario Kart and Paper Mario games as well. I also love the original Donkey Kong Country games, but the newer ones, not so much.
My favorites are Mario 64, Sunshine, Odyssey, and of course the beloved child, Super Mario Maker. Outstanding game.
The Galaxies were a lot less immersive and interesting, very limiting and plain-feeling. Linearity is necessary, but it doesn't entail non-open worlds: You can have many linear stages and spots within a single world, and these should change around like Hogwarts. Every single quest you do in Banjo-Tooie for example my favorite game, was a linear quest, it just involved more exploring than is typical, changing angles and deciding what quest you want to do first.
That's how Animal Crossing or any adventure game is, it ties together a single small open world. The problem naturally occurs when the world is too big, like in Tears of the Kingdom or Mario Galaxy, the worlds don't develop with revisiting and evolving a complex history and layered solving to places, like with Mario 64 or any good adventure game. Instead ToTK is just extra empty scapes that often have no content, a giant wasteland that doesn't become a learned home that develops into new stages and layers.
So definitely these ToTK / Galaxy games are my least favorite. There's no meaning or iconicism to a big world progression, that is why 'open world' means something specific in the first place, that developers have gotten all wrong this whole time. Why, say, in The Witcher or Elder Scrolls, you might revisit a person and something entirely else is going on with them, and maybe that changes depending on what you did before. That's meaning to a rich world.
100% Mario Kart. It’s the only Mario I knew growing up as a kid and I still love it today. I have since tried out a few other games like 2D, 3D Mario, Luigi’s Mansion, Yoshi and Donkey Kong. Most of those aren’t really my thing though. Only a couple 3D games I didn’t mind like Galaxy and Odyssey. I’ve been meaning to try out Paper Mario though as it sounds like more my thing. Mario Kart is still my fave though.
there is so much detail and so much to do i absolutely love the game and ive re played it many times to completion, i do hope there is a follow up to the series
My favorites would have to be Mario & Luigi and Luigi's Mansion. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga is among my favorite games of all time and I've lost count of how many times I've played through it over the years. I also really loved Bowser's Inside Story, though not quite as much as Superstar Saga. I have Partners in Time, but I've only played it a couple times and didn't make much progress. Not because I didn't enjoy the game, it's just I haven't really been able to find the motivation to play the game for whatever reason.
As for Luigi's Mansion, I absolutely loved the original, and I loved Dark Moon just as much. I liked how much extra content there was in Dark Moon when compared to the original which kept me busy for quite a while, and the scarescraper multiplayer mode was a blast as well. I haven't played Luigi's Mansion 3 all that much, but I did enjoy what little I have played of it. Maybe one day I might be able to work up the motivation to get back into that game.
An honorable mention goes to Mario Kart, I've definitely gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of most of the series over the years.
