Favorite Era of Mario?

[GalacticPetey]

As a franchise that's been around for 30 or so years, Mario has evolved a lot over the gaming generations. Naturally there are are hardware and graphical improvements over time but a lot of the various eras have similar overall themes and styles that pertain to that generation. As such, the family of Mario games on the N64 feels different from those of the Wii, and those of the SNES, etc. This doesn't just pertain to the main series games, but also spin-offs like Kart, the sports games, and RPGs.

I've always been a fan of the GameCube generation. Thematically, this generation took a lot from it's mainline title, Sunshine. A lot of the games of this generation incorporated characters and locations from Sunshine. Shine Sprites sneaked their way into everything from Double Dash to The Thousand Year Door and characters like Bowser Jr, Petey Piranha, and Toadsworth started popping up all over the place as well.
A lot of the Sunshine influence was evident in the sports titles, which is an aspect where this gen shines. We had Kart, Tennis, Golf, and for the first time, Baseball and Soccer. The other spin-offs like Luigi's Mansion and TTYD were also highlights.

Let's not forget the GBA which gave us the Super Mario Advance line of remakes as well as Superstar Saga which kickstarted the Mario and Luigi series.

It's kind of a weird question, but what generation of Mario games did you like the best when looking at them cohesively? I like to think of these generations as seperate not just by hardware differences, but by how each generation feels thematically overall. I tried matching up the handhelds as best I could win the console generations.

 

[LeftyGreenMario]

Gamecube Generation was a Mario spin-off golden era, but we also had Wario being playable in a mainstream game for once (Super Mario 64 DS) and Princess Peach and Luigi getting starring roles.

Luigi's Mansion
Wario Land 4
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Popularization of Baby Luigi
(for some people) Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door
Mario Party 4, 5, 6, 7, Advance
Start of Mario & Luigi
Start of Mario Baseball
Start of Mario Strikers
Start of WarioWare
Start of Mario vs. Donkey Kong (debatable)
Mario Hoops 3 on 3
Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
Mario Golf
Mario Power Tennis
Yakuman DS
Guest appearances on SSX on Tour and NBA Street V3
Tons of new artwork for characters that eventually get reused very frequently, even up to this day. To add on to that, it's a mark of the time when silicon-style graphics was abandoned in favor of today's look. Mario's current look is from Luigi's Mansion, and most characters had a noticeable appearance change from Mario Party 3 to Mario Party 4.

 

[Zae]

i wanted to pick both nes and snes but uh idk i just picked randomly between the two

smb3 and smw are among my favorite mario games of all time, both are impressive in many categories which i just cant get over.

they're fun, easy to pickup, and i can always go back to them.

 

[Starlight24]

Nintendo 64 , i hold it dearly

Super Mario 64 plus MK64 and the Best Mario Parties , Mario Golf and Mario Tennis ♥

so many good Mario games.

 

[DragonFreak]

Gamecube era ONLY BECAUSE it has all the port on GBA for the two first eras with the nice bonus of Superstar Saga and Double Dash.

I don't like anything else tho.

 

[freakworld]

either snes or wii era. i voted for snes on the poll.

 

[Xandalf]

Gamecube/GBA because extreme nostalgic bias.

 

[Weasel]

I honestly feel like the GCN era was the best era for Nintendo in general.

 

[Cirdec]

I love N64, Gamecube and Wii. They all have great Mario games.

Mario Party
Mario Kart 64
Super Mario 64
Mario Golf
Paper Mario
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Mario Party 7
New Super Mario Bros. U
Super Mario Galaxy 1-2
Mario Kart Wii
Mario Party 9

While Wii U has no memorable Mario game for me.

 

[Kerrigan]

It would have to be between N64 and GameCube, definitely.

 

[Ray Trace]

voted for gcn

baby luigi's playable debut, baby luigi's appearance in mario superstar baseball, baby luigi's appearance in partners in time, the time period where mario party's were at their best, the introduction of mario strikers, dance dance revolution: mario mix, and it's just great for spin-offs in general

 

[Shyghoul]

the one I grew up with

 

[Mister Wu]

I'm glad that the Koopalings were in Superstar Saga so I can vote for GCN/GBA with no remorse.

 

[Kokoro]

The Wii and DS era, mainly for Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. But New Super Mario Bros. (both DS and Wii), Mario Kart Wii, Mario Party 8 and Mario Super Sluggers are pretty enjoyable too.

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

I would say the N64 era. Simply because Super Mario 64 ranks as one of my Top 5 all-time favorite video games and I loved the spin-offs that were assoicated with it like the three Mario Party games, Mario Golf, and of course Mario Kart 64. Mario used to be my favorite character when I was a child simply because of how much I enjoyed the games in the franchise.