The gaming site Polygon recently released a list of how they rank the 18 (!) core Mario Bros. titles (i.e., games with just “Mario” in the title) released over the many years since Super Mario Bros. debuted with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Obviously one of the most venerable series in video game history, the Super Mario Bros. games have also not been afraid to innovate on the classic platformer formula.  Sometimes it falls a little flat, but far more often than not it results in a fantastic, well-polished, purely top-rate gaming experience.  Personally, I became a Playstation boy after being burned by the underpowered, sparsely-populated GameCube, but the Super Mario games more than any other have often made me reconsider my “one console per generation” stance.

The Tl;dr list is as follows:

18. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels
17. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
16. Super Mario Sunshine
15. Super Mario Land 1
14. New Super Mario Bros. 2
13. Super Mario Bros. 2 USA
12. Super Mario Land 2
11. Super Mario 64
10. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
9. Super Mario 3D Land
8. Super Mario Bros. 1
7. Super Mario Galaxy 1
6. Super Mario World
5. Super Mario 3D World
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2
3. Super Mario Odyssey
2. Super Mario Bros. 3
1. New Super Mario Bros. U

I don’t necessarily agree with this particular ranking (particularly leaving the absolutely brilliant Super Mario World out of the top 3), but it’s an interesting look at how more recent entries can hold their own quite well against the classics.

(I do wonder why Nintendo can’t seem to find a marketing team that can come up with better names, though. )