There are a lot of Mario games that have come out over the years. We're not sure if people are fully aware of just how many, but the Italian plumber has been in over 200+ games and that's just by our rough count.
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The guy has been a painter, a plumber, a street cleaner, a referee, a death fight combatant, a racer, and just about any other occupation you can imagine. So, why don't we narrow this down a bit and specifically talk about the good old days of Mario specifically on the GameCube?
Updated on January 18th, 2020 by Patrick Mocella: Although the Nintendo GameCube was far from the Japanese juggernaut's most successful console financially speaking, the console is still looked on upon fondly for its roster of stellar games. In just five or so years the console was active, Nintendo pumped out no less than 14 games either starring the mustached red-capped plumber and/or his cast of characters. While none are truly awful by any means, there are certainly some that stand above the pack and some who got outclassed. There were about fourteen of them but we'll be talking about all of them classifying them into the best and worst categories. Super Smash Bros. Melee will not be included due to the game focusing on Nintendo as a whole and not just Mario's cast of characters.
13 Best: Luigi's Mansion
Given a lot of flak in its day for not being Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion was released as a launch title for the Gamecube and while it isn't the most ambitious Mario game on the console, it is extremely unique and a refreshing change of pace.
From the title starring Luigi to taking on a campy horror aesthetic, Luigi's Mansion surprises gamers at every corner with something different. Its mechanics and gameplay while simple are still quite enjoyable to play and the graphics hold up very nicely for a launch title in 2001. This is a game that deserves more respect.
12 Worst: Mario Party 7
With such a long lineup of Mario Party titles for the Gamecube, it's hard to truly pin them into either a best or worst category. However, with being the fourth Mario Party title on the system, it's clear that Mario Party 7 was a sign of the franchise running out of steam a bit.
The boards in Mario Party 7 tend to be more gimmick-based than previous titles in the series and unless you have the packed-in microphone with the game, landing on a Microphone space will do absolutely for you. The game deserves some credit for bringing 8 player Mario Party to the Gamecube, but it's not enough to save this from mediocrity.
11 Best: Super Mario Sunshine
First and foremost is the premiere Super Mario game on the Gamecube, Super Mario Sunshine. This game was pretty polarizing with fans back in the day simply because of how different it was in style, gameplay mechanics, and tone than Mario 64. Mario isn't simply running around and hopping into paintings willy-nilly now, he's got a job to do and that job is cleaning up Isle Delfino. Whether you're a fan of the F.L.U.D.D or not, Super Mario Sunshine still has a lot to offer and is irrevocably one of the Gamecube's best.
10 Worst: Mario Kart: Double Dash
Here's the thing, personally, we like Mario Kart: Double Dash. It was a pretty fun Mario Kart game and felt just as joyfully unfair as all the rest of them do. And while Double Dash introduces a lot of unique cast members with fun dynamics, it has some glaring flaws that make it hard to rank it anywhere near as high as Mario Kart 8 or Mario Kart Wii. The character-duo specific items were a cool idea that fell flat on its face and the pure shortage of new tracks caused many people to permanently label this game as "one of the bad ones." And while that isn't necessarily fair, all it takes is one look at the Baby Park track to understand where they're coming from.
9 Best: Super Mario Strikers
This soccer game feels like one of the bigger risks Nintendo took in terms of style and overall tone. It's not often that a Mario game takes any sort of big risks, but this and Super Mario Sunshine are the two best examples we can think of. Mario Strikers is over-the-top bombastic soccer action at a level almost reaching the classic film Shaolin Soccer.
The art style they used is great, the Captains each having their own cronies made every team feel unique, and the game just played fantastically! The sequel game Mario Strikers: Charged fell a tad in quality but overall this is one of the Mario Sports-games we wish we had more of.
8 Worst: Mario Golf Toadstool Tour
Quite frankly, it's difficult to justify calling any one of the games on this list "bad" but Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour comes pretty close. The game itself isn't of poor quality, it just doesn't really build upon the cult classic that was Mario Golf on the N64. Maybe they were worried that it would be like reinventing the wheel, but Nintendo took very few risks with this sequel in a way that felt much too safe. The game itself had a good difficulty curve, plenty of content, and a great cast of golfers. But we just can't look past how it feels like Mario Golf again rather than a sequel that evolves on the original.
7 Best: Paper Mario And The Thousand-Year Door
The Paper Mario franchise has had a long and tragic career that all started with the OG Paper Mario on the N64. That game was amazing in its own right but it really wasn't until the Gamecube sequel Paper Mario And The Thousand-Year Door that people really took notice of how unique this spin-off series was, especially considering how fun and challenging the gameplay itself was.
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To date, TTYD is still most fans' favorite entry into the series and that probably won't change anytime soon. That might be because each new entry into the series has only strayed further and further from what made it great in the first place, but it's also because TTYD is just a fantastic game in of itself. People could even mark this as the beginning of Nintendo's "Craft World" genre that eventually birthed games like Kirby's Epic Yarn and Yoshi's Wooly World.
6 Worst: Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix
We really did try to make a list of ten games that feature Mario and his crew primarily, so that meant Super Smash Bros Melee was out. What we're left with is a pretty good catalog of innovative and fun Mario titles that we have to throw shade at half of. And, shockingly, Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix is fantastic as well, it's just not as good as any of the other full-length Mario games on this list. That isn't to say that DDR: MM isn't well-made or that it doesn't innovate on the DDR mechanics, because it does. It's just hard to compare something like Mario Sunshine and a Mario-based DDR game or put them anywhere on the same level of "quality."
5 Best: Mario Party 5
Since Nintendo had their feet set on the GameCube after Mario Party 4 introduced the classic board game series to the system, Mario Party 5 is where Hudson Soft really showed off what can be done on the purple lunchbox console.
Unlike other Mario Party games, players must pay to use items that can be polarizing but it does make you think about which items are actually worth using. The boards are more imaginative than others on the system without resorting to cheap gimmicks. There's quite a few great minigames as well like "Dodge Bomb" and the extremely tense "Night Light Fright".
4 Best: Mario Power Tennis
Once again, the Gamecube era seemed to be the time Nintendo chose to really try out the whole "Mario Sports" thing, and luckily for us fans, it worked out. We already talked about kart racing, golf, and soccer games, but what others were there? Well, Mario Power Tennis is the first thing that comes to mind, as we can see with Mario Tennis Aces that this particular sport seemed to do well with fans. Something about the sport of tennis just translates so well with Mario characters, and the variety of tournament types, character types, and game modes made for one of the best quality sports games on the entirety of the Gamecube.
3 Worst: Mario Superstar Baseball
It's so difficult to call any Mario game "bad." Because Mario is Nintendo's golden goose, they always make sure to put the time and money into his games so they're all of a certain level of quality. And while Mario Power Tennis is fantastic, Mario Superstar Baseball is just "good." It's not amazing, it's not mind-blowing, it's simply a pretty good baseball game with Mario characters.
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This is made especially clear by how much more beloved its sequel Mario Super Sluggers was on the Nintendo Wii, a game that innovated the blend of Mario and baseball mechanics much more masterfully than this still-quite-good Gamecube gem.
2 Best: Mario Party 6
As the third Mario Party released on the system, one might think that this title would be phoning it in but that would be selling the game short.
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With a unique day and night cycle for its boards that alter them depending on the "time of day" and some great times in its mini-game collection, Mario Party 6 is the best time you're going to have with Mario and his party on the Gamecube.
1 Worst: Mario Party 4
Graphically speaking, the first Mario Party game on the Gamecube was a massive leap forward for the franchise. But everything else about the game will just leave you wanting to play the sequels on the system.
Mario Party 4's boards tend to drag on and on with no loop around in sight which can become tiring. The minigames tend to all blur together with none being awful but at the same time none standing out from the crowd. With Mario Party 5 & 6 around, no reason to pick up 4.
