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The announcement that Nintendo Switch Online’s Game Boy Advance range is to receive RPGs Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age is incredibly welcome news. But there are still some absolutely colossal gaps, some all-time great GBA games that we’d love to play on our Switches. Nintendo! Hear our pleas!
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John Walker
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A new month is nearly here, as well as a new year, and that means updates to the PlayStation Plus catalog. January kicks off 2024 with three new games available for Premium, Extra, and Essential members to download starting on January 2, as well as some goodies if you happen to be a space ninja. – Claire Jackson Read More
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Kotaku Staff
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I love the idea of annual top 10 lists until it comes time to actually make one. Then my perpetually indecisive brain freaks out about whether the game I spent 100 hours playing was actually any good, the tension between an interesting game and a fun one, and the cries of all the games I never finished or even got around to starting, still begging for my attention.
I spent 2023 tracking some of the best new games that came out every month, attempting to at least try as many of them as I could while also measuring how my feelings changed about them as the year went on. And I ended up playing a bunch of them while still not getting around to what no doubt would have been strong personal GOTY contenders.
With a not-so-short short list assembled by early December, the task then becomes figuring out which games I actually thought were the best. I’ve worked hard to convince myself over the years that the process is more art than science. Inevitably I tally up the perceived merits and flaws of a game and then try to compare the vague calculations, an exercise that always ends in a mix of conflicted self-doubt and second-guessing.
Eventually I silence the internal dissent and retreat into a more abstract sense of what feels right. Recently this has meant giving in more to my personal tastes and subjectivity, championing the games I love rather than the ones I feel I ought to like, and praising them for the one or two things they do very well instead of letting all the smaller things they don’t do so well hold them back. This doesn’t impose any more order on the chaos of comparing a roguelite loot shooter to a visual novel adventure, but it does give me fewer pangs of guilt when I eventually settle on rating one above the other.
Here, in alphabetical order, are the top 10 games that moved me the most in 2023.
I’ve always understood and appreciated the Soulsborne formula and its many flavors on an intellectual level, but Armored Core VI was the game that finally made me feel and love the initial hopelessness and eventual satisfaction that comes from mastering a FromSoftware game. The mech shooter is razor sharp and ultra polished when it comes to zipping around environments and engaging in moment-to-moment combat. You actually feel yourself becoming more in-sync with the custom robot’s strengths and limitations the more you play, each successive boss fight pushing you to come to a deeper understanding of what’s important and what’s just noise. I spent several nights trying to beat Balteus. I don’t regret any of them. And I remain blown away by Armored Core VI’s vibes-based storytelling and branching new game plus mode. Its economical arcade design rewards you for every additional minute you put into it and doesn’t waste time on anything superfluous.
Sometimes superfluous is good, though. In fact, sometimes it can be transcendent. The promise of a dozen roads not taken in a video game pays off in making the one you did walk feel unique, unlikely, and unmistakably yours. I love that Baldur’s Gate 3 contains entire games’ worth of conversations, interactions, and outcomes I will never experience. It makes the small journey I have been on feel that much more intimate and personal. None of this would matter, of course, if Baldur’s Gate 3 was not well written, painstakingly choreographed, and expertly voice acted. It’s a dense RPG full of gear and skills to manage alongside quests and boss fights to navigate, and all of it, no matter how it plays out, feels like it was meant to happen that way. It’s the new gold standard for role-playing video games.
I don’t normally like language-based games. (Ironic considering I’m a writer.) I despise crossword puzzles. The inherent fluidity and ambiguousness of language mashed up with the rigid constraints of a game almost always leave me feeling underwhelmed and frustrated. I was shocked, then, to find out just how much I enjoyed Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle adventure about deciphering unknown languages between various factions in a Tower of Babel that oozes highly saturated yellows, blues, and reds. What I appreciated most was how quickly context and intuition helped whittle down possible solutions to problems, making limited communication gratifyingly achievable even when there was no foundation to begin building on. Rather than punish you for the shifty and slippery nature of language, Chants of Sennaar allows those elements to color your overall experience and interpretation of the game without blocking your moment-to-moment progress.
Cocoon feels like it was chiseled from a rock over thousands of years. Everything unessential has been methodically removed. All that’s left is a seamless sequence of puzzles gently nudging you toward new discoveries and brain-twisting realizations. Remnants of conventional game design like screen icons and boss fight deaths have been elegantly eradicated. Evocative musical queues punctuate each new milestone on your journey. And the rules governing its world are supremely simple but always manage to combine into solutions that feel just outside the realm of possibility. Cocoon is probably one of the best puzzle adventures ever made.
I finished Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time last year. Despite some fantastic missions and an overwhelmingly intricate open world, it left little impression on me. That seemed a symptom of the underlying structure of the game rather than anything that could be patched out with new abilities or a more impressive sci-fi open world simulation. Night City felt fundamentally alienating to me, and none of the individual characters, story arcs, or RPG progressions managed to pull me out of that feeling of malaise. That is, until Phantom Liberty and the game’s 2.0 update in 2023. The culmination of every new addition, from takedown animations and parrying bullets with katanas to jacked-up car chases and an entire subway system, is an open-world RPG that passes some imaginary threshold from feeling static and paper-thin to one that’s lively and responsive. It helps that Phantom Liberty is a streamlined campaign in a specific part of the map that, dispensing with the MacGuffins of the main plot, can instead weave an interesting and nuanced tale of political intrigue, betrayal, and necessary consequences. Taken together, it’s the game I was hoping Cyberpunk 2077 could be ever since I finished The Witcher 3’s amazing Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions.
It only took one caravan ride in Red Hook Studios sequel to convince me it was something special. Darkest Dungeon II takes everything I loved about the first game and puts it in motion, propelling its brutal emergent storytelling and grim probability-based combat over all of the divots and ditches that occasionally ensnared its predecessor. Playing Darkest Dungeon II late at night with the lights turned off made me feel like I was racing through the gothic fall of humankind to save my soul. While it loses some of the managerial depth of the first game, it more than makes up for it with its more cinematic presentation and economical focus. I wish every game could create such an unmistakable sense of place, atmosphere, and engaging stakes with similar efficiency, and made failure feel so rewarding and profound.
This is the problematic fave on this list. Final Fantasy XVI disappointed me in so many ways. From its shallow RPG systems to its dreary and cumbersome second half, the latest game in the Square Enix series felt like it left so much untapped potential on the table. It makes me dream of what the team might accomplish if given the time and resources to mount Cyberpunk 2077’s three-year turn around from Early Access to 2.0 victory lap. Instead of droning on about all the things I disliked about this game, I’ll simply say that it’s highs were higher than almost anything else I played this year and kept me coming back through a new game plus run which has reminded me why I love it, from the incredibly sleek and satisfying action to the magnificent cinematic boss fights. When the writing isn’t falling down flat on its face and the sky isn’t overcast with an impenetrable gloom, there is more than one flicker of the return to form Final Fantasy fans like me have been waiting more than a decade for.
I almost left this one off the list. It feels like a cheating. Every stage in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is juiced to the max, carefully engineered to delight, entertain, and continually surprise you, all while maintaining the series’ tightly calibrated platforming feel and bespoke attention to detail. Super Mario Bros. Wonder doesn’t catapult the formula forward or feel as inventive as recent puzzle boxes like Super Mario 3D World and Bowser’s Fury. Its most remarkable moments don’t quite measure up to the peaks in Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World. But it’s exquisitely crafted, and every level is packed to the brim with new quirks and fun ideas. No game brought me more unburdened joy this year.
Obtuse, slow, and occasionally clumsy, The Banished Vault nevertheless takes spreadsheet navigation and adds an irresistible sense of existential dread to the proceedings. You play religious outcasts scavenging solar systems for resources to survive until the next cryo-sleep-induced hyper-light jump. The greatest terrors I felt in any game this year came from the prospect of miscalculating fuel reserves and how long I have until the next supernova. The Banished Vault can feel straightforward once you unravel its economy, but that process of demystification is complex and enthralling, and richly infused with meaning thanks to the austere presentation and haunting soundtrack. It made contemplating certain doom not just thrilling but spiritually soothing.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a slam dunk. It surpassed my wildest expectations, taking what impressed me about Breath of the Wild and finding even more ways to surprise, delight, and gently lead me through its whimsical, dangerous, beautiful world. Game critics love to reward novelty, ambition, and bold experimentation. The nature of playing so many things and being exposed to so much naturally places a premium on the new and unexpected. Tears of the Kingdom has plenty of that, but more than anything it shows masters of their craft assessing, refining, and iterating on a formula they’ve spent decades on, like Chevy working on a new Corvette or Porsche making the latest 911. I’m still stunned that there’s a Zelda game where you can make your own rocket ship and somehow it doesn’t feel like a gimmick but rather like the most obvious and natural thing you could do in an open world fantasy adventure.
Honorable mentions: Season: A Letter to the Future, Humanity, Jusant, Planet of Lana, Saltsea Chronicles, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew.
Needed more time with: Alan Wake 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Remnant II, Lies of P, Laika: Aged Through Blood, Dredge.
Didn’t get to: Terra Nil, Against the Storm, Fading Afternoon, A Space for the Unbound, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, The Talos Principle 2, Slay the Princess, Void Stranger, and many more.
Liked but didn’t love: Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Diablo IV, Sea of Stars, Hi-Fi Rush, Moonring, Thirsty Suitors.
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Ethan Gach
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It shouldn’t be surprising in 2023 that a lot of people watch porn involving video game characters, but exactly who tops the list and why might indeed be unexpected.
It’s the end of the year, which means companies and websites around the internet are releasing tons of data on what people played, read, listened to, and more. These yearly wrap-ups have become one of my favorite parts of December as I love looking through all the data they reveal. And perhaps there’s no data more interesting than what human beings around the world are getting off on. According to at least one popular porn site, a lot of you were into Chun-Li—but not the version from Street Fighter.
Earlier this month, Pornhub released its annual (and very detailed) round-up of what kind of content was the most popular and most sought after on its massively successful site. In all this data, as has been the case for the last few years, is a large section dedicated to video games. Like last year, Fortnite was at the top of the list with Overwatch in second. This time around though, Genshin Impact slipped out of the top three and was replaced by Minecraft.
Further data provided by Pornhub revealed which specific video game characters people were searching for the most in 2023. Chun-Li topped the list, overtaking names like Tifa from Final Fantasy and Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. But weirdly, according to Pornhub’s data, most people were looking for Chun-Li from Fortnite, not Street Fighter, the series she first appeared in. Though Ryu and Chun-Li were added to Epic’s popular battle royale in 2021, it’s still kind of weird.
To get this data, Pornhub says it collected searches that included a character name and a video game title. This was done “to avoid counting searches for pornstars who may have similar names.”
Anyway, here’s the top ten list of most searched characters on Pornhub.
Try not to think too much about Sonic ranking so high or slip into a daydream where you’re in a room of Nintendo execs when they see that Mario cracked the top of the list.
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Zack Zwiezen
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In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players didn’t just play through another story set in Hyrule. The sequel to Breath of the Wild took the previous game’s sandbox elements several steps further, allowing players to use a new set of powers to construct machines, weapons, and tools using items in the world. By introducing this, Tears of the Kingdom encouraged players to be truly creative and push the limits of building in the game.
Fans responded to this new level of freedom by devising awe-inspiring creations and sharing them online. In the time since Nintendo released the game, fans have made nifty items like skateboards to intricate machines like a mechanized kaiju that looks like Godzilla. Given the game’s emphasis on creativity, Polygon asked Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma and game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi about the possibility that fans would ever get a Zelda game that purely focused on building their own creations, like Super Mario Maker. From the sounds of their answers, it seems unlikely Nintendo will release a Zelda game that’s purely about creating levels or dungeons.
“When we’re creating games like Tears of the Kingdom, I think it’s important that we don’t make creativity a requirement. Instead, we put things into the game that encourage people to be creative, and give them the opportunity to be creative, without forcing them to,” Aonuma told Polygon through an interpreter in an in-person interview.
Image: Nintendo/Nintendo EDP
In Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2, players can design their own Mario levels from scratch using an in-game editor. This has allowed players to create custom levels of all sorts in Mario. Players can make ultra-difficult levels that challenge the most seasoned Mario players or zany creations where a Mario level becomes an homage to Splatoon. No matter the approach, a huge aspect of the Super Mario Maker games is that they rely on player creativity.
Now, it’s no secret that the developers of Tears of the Kingdom were inspired by fan responses to Breath of the Wild. Developers saw players stretch the creative limits of Breath of the Wild, and they later created a game that doubled down on these sandbox elements. Given this, Zelda fans have long wondered if a version of Zelda that works like Mario Maker — where players could create or design dungeons or worlds — could ever come out. But when asked directly about a Mario Maker-style game for Zelda, Aonuma had an interesting answer about the nature of Zelda games and what they offer to players.
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Image: Nintendo
“There are people who want the ability to create from scratch, but that’s not everyone,” Aonuma said. “I think everyone delights in the discovery of finding your own way through a game, and that is something we tried to make sure was included in Tears of the Kingdom; there isn’t one right way to play. If you are a creative person, you have the ability to go down that path. But that’s not what you have to do; you’re also able to proceed to the game in many other different ways. And so I don’t think that it would be a good fit for The Legend of Zelda to necessarily require people to build things from scratch and force them to be creative.”
Given Aonuma’s response, it seems unlikely that Zelda will ever get its Mario Maker equivalent. If we did get more creative elements, it seems they would have to be nestled into a larger game where players could proceed in multiple ways. So those holding out hope for a Zelda builder might be better off finding other games that currently offer similar options — which, luckily for us, already exist.
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Ana Diaz
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It was a big week for the scantily clad at Kotaku this week, with both GTA 6 and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth giving players plenty of skin. We’re also feeling very excited about the new Fallout show, but decidedly less enthusiastic about the minimal focus on the actual awards at this week’s Game Awards.
These are the week’s most interesting perspectives on the wild, wonderful, and sometimes weird world of video game news.
Grand Theft Auto 6 looks gorgeous. Unless its debut trailer this week was faked, it might end up being one of the best-looking games of this console generation when it comes out in 2025. By that time, my Xbox Series S will be five years old. I shudder to think of that sleek little white box trying to play Rockstar Games’ latest open-world blockbuster. – Ethan Gach Read More
I’ve played about six hours of Ubisoft’s new Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora and my big takeaway is that Avatar sickos will love this game, Far Cry Primal fans will get a kick out of Ubisoft returning to this formula, and everyone else, well… uh…dang, the game sure is pretty, huh? – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Good news, everyone! Unless you’ve been living in a monastery, you’re likely aware that 2023 is the year that video games got horny again. And no, I don’t mean tastefully Hades frisky, I mean Leisure Suit Larry and Night Trap levels of unhinged lust, the likes of which “mainstream” gaming (whatever that means) hasn’t seen since the 1990s. – Jen Glennon Read More
Historically, TV and film adaptations of video games don’t have the greatest track record. The last few years, however, have started turning that around. Pikachu, Sonic, and Mario have all starred in successful movies, and earlier this year The Last of Us got a proper prestige adaptation that certainly left a mark on fans. – Claire Jackson Read More
And so that’s that. The Game Awards 2023 are over. 32 awards were handed out over three and a half hours. You might think, with that much time to spare, the show took its time and truly celebrated all the creators and games nominated for what the show calls “Gaming’s Biggest Night.” Nope. Instead, more so than before, the show sped through them at a rapid pace, making me wonder why it still pretends to be an award show at all. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the best games Square Enix ever produced, and it’s not available anywhere on modern consoles or PC. A remaster is an obvious way to fix that problem, and it seemed like all signs were pointing to one getting announced any day now. So it’s an especially cruel twist of fate that the original game’s director, Yasumi Matsuno, keeps toying with fans’ emotions about whether a remaster is actually happening or not. – Ethan Gach Read More
Cyberpunk 2077 is in a pretty good spot these days. After a dumpster fire of a launch, the next-gen update, 2.0 patch, and Phantom Liberty expansion have gotten CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG to a respectable state. The 2.1 patch that launched this week adds a nice little bow to the game as its “last big update.” It has long-requested features like a working subway you can take across Night City, and it also lets V, its mercenary protagonist, spend a little time with their lover in their apartment. The results are an adorable stay-at-home date with your paramour, but for as sweet as it is, these hangouts underline something that felt left out of the Cyberpunk 2077 redemption arc: the romance. – Kenneth Shepard Read More
The first trailer for Rockstar’s next Grand Theft Auto game, likely to be named GTA VI, comes out December 5. What can we expect the trailer to reveal? Well, based on Rockstar’s past GTA trailers, which are fantastic, there’s a pattern that can help us predict what we might see during GTA VI’s official debut. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
Earlier this week, we asked you all to give us your choice for the best video game sequel. Any sequel would count and everyone was free to suggest any game they wanted, no matter how old, obscure, or divisive. And we tallied up all the answers, crunched the numbers, and figured out your top ten sequels. – Zack Zwiezen Read More
The secret is out: the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has great minigames. Whether you enjoy playing retro arcade brawlers like Virtua Fighter, dumping dozens of hours into becoming a real-estate tycoon, or chatting up bodacious babes at the hostess club, Sega’s goofy action series has plenty of pleasant timesinks to wile away the hours. Though it’s still several weeks away, it’s already clear that the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is no exception to that rule. – Jen Glennon Read More
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Mario gave a healthy injection of life to the gaming industry in 1985 with the first Super Mario Bros. on the Famicom (NES) in Japan. Since then, Mario has introduced many new consoles and has pushed tech-forward into the 3D space and even jumped into space itself.
There’s hardly a more rich and historically significant legacy than Mario in gaming, so collectors have naturally held great interest in the storied franchise. Here are 10 of the rarest and most expensive Mario games that will empty your pockets.
Like our previous lists, PriceCharting is the source used for new and used game values. We’re ranking these Mario gems using the New Price listings, from lowest to highest. We include the average used price as well based on the “Loose Price” from PriceCharting. Console bundles are not included since they typically top these lists and skew individual game values.
Nintendo’s follow-up to Super Mario World didn’t come until the Super Nintendo was four years old. The game is titled Super Mario World 2 despite not starring Mario as the main character. This title was contentious to players since Yoshi’s Island is a prequel to existing Mario games and only featured Mario as a baby. regardless, Nintendo considers it as Super Mario World 2, and its quality certainly reflects that.
The title is not the only thing that put some players off of Yoshi’s Island. The Super Nintendo was nearing the end of its life cycle when Super Mario World 2 was released. Some players were already fixated on Nintendo’s leap to 3D with the upcoming Nintendo 64, and as a result, Yoshi’s Island became one of a handful of games to become somewhat rare and underrated.
Despite the name confusion and release so close to Nintendo’s new 3D console, Yoshi’s Island remains one of the most beloved Mario games. Yoshi’s Island’s quality can be attributed to Nintendo EAD spending a full 4 years to develop the game, an unprecedented development cycle back then. Now, sealed copies of this Super Nintendo classic fetch a premium with recent sales eclipsing $1,000.
Releasing at the dawn of 1997 in America, Mario Kart 64 realized Nintendo’s push for 3D in high-octane kart racing form. The Nintendo 64’s emphasis on multiplayer games introduced four controller slots to consoles for the first time. Every 90s kid remembers just how fun get-togethers were with all the four-player party games the Nintendo 64 had in its lineup.
As such, the console capable of rendering 3D environments and four simultaneous players sold remarkably well. Mario Kart 64 would go on to hold the number two position in terms of Nintendo 64 game sales with a whopping 10 million units sold as of November 2023. But there’s one edition of the game that became a bit less common.
Player’s Choice was a label Nintendo used to advertise games that sold the most copies on the console. As such, these copies often came later in the console’s life cycle after the initial fervor of the game died down. The relative scarcity of Mario Kart 64 Player’s Choice Edition help make it one of the most expensive Mario games with a recent example being sold for $2,500 in April 2023.
The West didn’t get Super Mario Bros. 3 until early 1990, a full year and a half after the initial Japanese release of the game. Despite being released close to the new Super Nintendo console, Super Mario Bros. 3 proved to be one of the all-time greats in terms of quality and sales.
Super Mario Bros. 3 marked the moment the series came into its own. It firmly takes everything that came before and does a masterclass with it. Levels no longer followed each other in a locked linear pattern. Mario 3 instead gave players a lively overworld dotted with branching paths and hidden secrets. The explorative nature of Super Mario Bros. 3 became a definitive carryover for the games that followed, including the wildly popular Super Mario World.
Because of its reputation as one of the all-time greats in the series and its progressive popularity in the West, North American sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 fetch the highest price of them all.
Releasing just four months before the Nintendo 64 console was the new Mario RPG co-developed by SquareSoft on the Super Nintendo. Everything about this game was bizarre and amazing in equal measure. This would mark the first time Nintendo collaborated with RPG giant Square while they were at the height of their craft.
Because of the late release and the unconventional genre coming from Nintendo, Super Mario RPG became a very rare and hot item on the collecting scene. This is one of those games that even sells well used. If you have a beat-up old copy of this game for Super Nintendo lying in a closet like I do, you could easily get $100 for it.
The new Super Mario RPG Remake of the same game has since boosted awareness of the old Super Nintendo classic. Now, sales for the game are projected to increase even more than they were before. A new copy of the SNES game sold for $1,532 the same month the Remake was released.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was actually based on a prototype tech demo for the Family Computer Disk System. Presented at the Yume Kōjō ’87 media technology expo, Doki Doki Panic used festival theming for the characters and environments. Super Mario Bros. 2 would develop from this prototype, eschewing the difficulty of Lost Levels and creating a much more polished and unique game.
Like most video games released before the year 2000, the true sequel to the first Super Mario Bros. came to the West after its initial Japanese launch. Today, English versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 sell for over $2,000, granted it’s a sealed copy of the game. Out of all the games on this list, Super Mario Bros. 2 has been one of the most consistent sellers with continuous sales at the thousand-dollar mark month after month.
Long considered one of the most revolutionary games of all time, Super Mario 64 launched with the forward-thinking Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 rendered complex platforming stages in full 3D and yet somehow still retained that Nintendo quality we’ve come to rely on.
Well, collectors love it just as much as we gamers do, as the English edition has become one of the most valuable Mario games. A bit part of the reason for its high value can be attributed to the simple fact that Mario’s first foray into 3D generated much hype and popularity. Super Mario 64 is the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64 console, and finding a sealed copy is like running into a gold mine today.
The original Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600 wasn’t the revolutionary hit that Super Mario Bros. would go on to be, but it was still popular. Mario Bros. wasn’t a platformer at all, but rather a bout of combat in a vertical arena. Versions of Mario Bros. would be included in many Nintendo games to come such as the Mario All Stars version of Super Mario. Bros 3.
While the original Atari Mario Bros. is worth a pretty penny averaging around $800 for a new copy, its NES sibling version would go on to be truly valuable. The Nintendo Entertainment System released a series of classic arcade games with touched-up visuals and controls titled the Arcade Classic Series. Mario Bros. was one such game to grace the lineup and has since rocketed in value becoming the fourth highest-selling Mario game on the market.
This one’s wild. Most gamers today know Game & Watch from Smash Bros. The odd character’s stilted movements echo the hardware it was based on. Game & Watch was a portable machine used to play first-party arcade games with a watch built in to tell time and set alarms to. It became a hot seller in Japan due to the nature of commuting and the need for handheld devices.
Game & Watch was usually packed with just one or two games installed, which entailed many many versions tailored for specific games. One particularly popular Game & Watch title was Super Mario Bros. No, not that Super Mario Bros., a completely unique Game & Watch version with all the stilted animation and quirkiness that comes with it. It’s a completely different game from the classic we’ve come to know, as can be seen in this playthrough of the game:
Super Mario Bros. for the Game & Watch still retained that eight world platforming structure the original had, but everything from platforms to Mario himself was designed in the Game & Watch style. The YM-901 release of Super Mario Bros. had a unique yellow “Mr. Famicom” game case with googly eyes on the front. Only 10,000 of these limited edition Game & Watch copies were printed, and could only be obtained by winning Nintendo’s Japanese raffles from 1987.
The game that legitimized video gaming as a thing, Super Mario. Bros single-handedly saved the gaming crash of the 80s. It was one of the first platforming games to connect dozens of unique levels across a single campaign. Most games up to that point were known for their brevity and short-term playability from the arcade format. Super Mario Bros. gave players a lengthy game with unique design from start to finish right from the comfort of their home.
This popularity would continue on into the 2000s when the earliest sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. was sold for a whopping $2 million on the Pawn Stars show. While that $2 million price was in fact an anomaly based on the first edition grading of the cartridge, sealed copies of the game still sell well over $3,000. As of 2023, NES copies of English versions of Super Mario Bros. sell for $3,500 new.
Super Mario World introduced the world to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1991 as a launch title. The game would outsell every video game at the time. Not only has Super Mario World stood the test of time on the resell market, but it’s held up as one of the best platforming games of all time.
Whether it’s because of its popularity on the Super Nintendo, or because Super Mario World is still highly regarded as the best Mario game today, copies sell for insanely high amounts new. Super Mario World is a very rare game to find unopened because it was such a darn fun game that demanded to be played. Because of this, the discrepancy between new and used prices is laughably wide. Used copies of Super Mario World can be found in every retro game store imaginable fetching prices as low as $15, yet sealed copies remain a distant dream for collectors demanding $4,000 and up.
That sums up the top 10 rarest and most expensive Mario games we’ll never get our hands on. What are some valuable games you own? Check out our other rare games lists here on Twinfinite.
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Matthew Carmosino
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From mergers to memes, the landscape of interactive entertainment is always in motion. Here’s your cheat sheet for the week’s most important stories in gaming.
Following some intense controversy surrounding her new snack brand, popular Twitch streamer Pokimane has apologized for an insensitive comment she made to a “rude chatter” during a November 18 livestream. Read More
When you think of Nintendo, you tend to think of family-friendly gaming. You think of Link and Mario and sunshine and smiley stars. The word “adult” doesn’t likely come up when you ponder games on Switch, but that’s seemingly about to change. The company is adding a new 18+ app to its subscription service, Nintendo Switch Online, although only in Japan. Read More
As Cyberpunk 2077 approaches its third anniversary, the beleaguered blockbuster is getting a send-0ff to immortalize its unlikely turnaround. CD Projekt Red announced an Ultimate Edition for the sci-fi RPG on November 21 that includes this year’s Phantom Liberty expansion and the massive 2.0 overhaul patch. There will even be a physical copy for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S owners. Read More
A lawsuit filed last year accused Sony of using its walled-garden video game platform to charge players too much in the PlayStation Store. The London Tribunal has now allowed that lawsuit to move forward, against the PS5 maker’s objections, which could result in payments to players in the UK of up to $7.9 billion if it is ultimately successful. Read More
Buying super special “collector’s editions” of video games can be like heading into treacherous waters. These often-expensive boxes full of goodies (and also a video game) tend to sell out pretty quickly, and then you’re more likely to find them for double the price on reseller sites like eBay or Facebook’s marketplace. But if you’re eyeing the Baldur’s Gate 3 Deluxe Edition set to ship next year, Larian Studios is telling fans not to worry about it selling out, because the team isn’t making it a limited item. Read More
Slow news day? You betcha. But look, it’s Thanksgiving, and there’s a good chance people are cooking and eating just about anything they can find right now. Please, if we can save just one person from trying to cook their Steam Deck, then it will have been worth it. Read More
The white wolf is coming to Destiny 2 by way of some new cosmetics. Bungie teased a crossover with CD Projekt Red’s beloved RPG The Witcher 3 that will add three new armor sets to make players look like protagonist Geralt of Rivia, at least if they’re willing to shell out $20 or more for a single set. The new skins look great, but also arrive at Destiny 2’s lowest point in years. Read More
Valve’s annual autumn sale. Some of the best and biggest PC games, including action-RPG Diablo IV, the fantastic Star Wars game Jedi: Survivor, and Bethesda’s latest, Starfield, are all on sale right now. Read More
Kotaku went hands-on with the groundbreaking and immersive Body of Mine at the Games for Change festival
To avoid what many consider aggressive monetization, Mortal Kombat 1 players are doing everything they can to avoid buying cosmetics in NetherRealms’ latest 2D fighter. The latest exploit involves them utilizing a console date change hack to acquire once-free character skins that are now only available if you buy them. Read More
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Kotaku Staff
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Super Mario RPG will test your music knowledge via the Tadpole Pond music puzzle in Melody Bay.
After arriving in Melody Bay, if you head right and step on the stone, you’ll be greeted by tadpoles that swim on a musical chart. Jumping on the tadpole stops it from moving, so you can draft a melody. You’ll earn rewards by composing specific melodies, so you’ll want to make sure to come back to Melody Bay every now and then to play a new song for the local composer.
If you miss the timing to jump on the tadpole, don’t worry, as it’ll swim back and forth between the lines.
For each song you play, you’ll unlock better healing items to buy from The Juice Bar in Tadpole Pond.
Below, we show you the Tadpole Pond puzzle solutions in Super Mario RPG and what rewards you get for playing these songs.
A nearby tadpole in the water will actually tell you what notes the tadpoles need to be, but if you’re not good at translating notes to a chart, we’ve got your back.
Arrange the tadpoles like so to get an Alto Card, which grants you one tier of membership to The Juice Bar in Tadpole Pond:
Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
With the Alto Card, you can buy Frogleg Cola, a healing item that recovers 80 HP for the whole party, for 42 coins each.
After you save the two mole children and get the third star, you can return to Melody Bay to play a new song, the Mole Mountain Blues. Set up the tadpoles like so, to get the Tenor Card:
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Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
With the Tenor Card, you can buy Finless Cola, a healing item that recovers 150 HP for the whole party, for 90 coins each.
After visiting Monstro Town, talking to the mayor, and listening to the Pink Starfish upstairs in his home, you can come back to Melody Bay to play the third and final song.
Set up the tadpoles like so to get the Soprano Card:
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Image: ArtePiazza/Nintendo via Polygon
The Soprano Card allows you to buy Croaka Cola for 200 coins from The Juice Bar. Croaka Cola fully restores your party, so it’s a useful and powerful item to keep around.
For more Super Mario RPG guides, check out our party member unlock guide, beginner’s guide, or our list of all the hidden treasure locations.
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Julia Lee
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At the start of the 1980s, video games were mostly relegated to coin-gobbling arcade machines, but their surging popularity prompted a Time Magazine cover story in January 1982 with a cringeworthy warning: “GRONK! FLASH! ZAP! Video Games are Blitzing the World!”
If this sounds like Big Boomer Energy, that’s because Baby Boomers were between 20 and 40 years old at the time and represented the dominant group of consumers. Media panic about gaming addiction depicted arcades as depraved places for lowlifes. Meanwhile, an oversaturation of at-home consoles and a parade of middling games led the entire American game industry to crash in 1983.
Nintendo pretty much single-handedly saved gaming with the NES (see on Amazon) back in 1985, and pop culture has never the same. Originally released in Japan as the Famicom (“Family Computer”), the NES is a redesign specifically tailored to western markets. Instead of a video game console, it was branded as an “Entertainment System” with a “Control Deck” that used “Game Paks.”
“It started with a phone call in 1981,” NES creator Masayuki Uemura told author and reporter Matt Alt in 2019, “President Yamauchi told me to make a video game system, one that could play games on cartridges. He always liked to call me after he’d had a few drinks, so I didn’t think much of it. I just said, ‘Sure thing, boss,’ and hung up. It wasn’t until the next morning when he came up to me, sober, and said, ‘That thing we talked about—you’re on it?’ that it hit me: He was serious.”
Uemura, who had originally been poached from Sharp to develop light-gun technology for toys at Nintendo, then spent six months deconstructing and reverse-engineering rival consoles like the Atari 2600 and Magnavox to study the circuitry. The 8-bit Famicom he designed proved more powerful than its competitors, and the toy-like color scheme was hand-picked by a scarf that Nintendo President Yamauchi liked (the same red and white Mario wears on the cover of Super Mario Bros.). It helps that in 1984, Japanese legislators modified an act regulating entry to places like bars and casinos to include arcades out of concern that it impacted “public morals.” Younger Japanese had to resort to home consoles instead, so the Famicom came at the perfect time for it to boom.
To capitalize on the American market, however, required a totally different approach—one that would pay off big-time.
In a lecture at New York University in 2015, Uemura said the front-loading design of the NES was inspired by VCRs, a booming form of at-home entertainment in America at the time. The Game Pak cartridges are 5.25 x 4.75 x 0.75 inches, with a considerable amount of heft to them, and the simple, boxy grey design is nothing short of iconic. They slide into the front of the system, and then the user has to press the cartridge down so its brass-plated nickel connectors hit the cartridge slot’s connector pins. Frequent use actually wears down the pins, which can lead to a flawed connection.
For years, gamers propagated the myth that blowing in the Game Paks to clear out dust would solve this problem, which instead exacerbated it due to the moisture in their breath. Still, sliding the paks in, pressing them down, pressing them again, pulling them out, blowing in them, and repeating the process felt like a game unto itself.
The console’s most memorable and successful accessories was the NES Zapper, a light gun that launched alongside the console in America. “America loves guns,” Uemura said when talking about how Nintendo marketed the NES in the west. Most of us had the Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt dual cartridge and delighted in blasting ducks while that gleeful dog retrieved their bodies. For your typical millennial gamer, the Nintendo Entertainment System served as the primary gateway into a lifelong hobby that never let up. I have fond memories playing The Legend of Zelda with my grandmother. She would’ve loved Tears of the Kingdom.
Take one look at Nintendo’s biggest releases in the last couple years, and you can trace many of them all back to the NES: Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Fire Emblem.
By 1990, Nintendo had seized more than 90 percent of the U.S. video game market, thanks in no small part to a rigid third-party licensing agreement that still serves as a major industry precedent. Game developers that wanted to publish games for the NES had to agree to an exclusive licensing deal that restricted them from porting games to other consoles. Nintendo also directly approved each game to ensure a certain standard of quality.
Konami, Capcom, Taito, and Namco all participated in this and remain prominent developers even today. Castlevania fan? Thank Nintendo and the NES for that. Even Square and Enix saw great success putting Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest on the NES. Now, 20 years after the companies merged into Square Enix, both franchises are still going strong.
Despite all its success and rapid sales over a few short years, the NES doesn’t even break the top 10 best-selling video game consoles of all time at roughly 62 million units to date — even the widely panned PlayStation Portable sold more over time — but Nintendo’s breakthrough home console remains arguably one of the most important pieces of tech ever created.
“When console games were popularized and presented to everyone, it felt like we were all exploring a new frontier of dreams together,” Masayuki Uemura told Used Games magazine in 2000. “Although some people may occasionally have wasted their money on a bad game here or there, both creators and players were obsessed with games then. I believe there’s still wonder to be found in that older generation of games.”
He was right. The NES Classic Edition — a dedicated emulator featuring 30 NES classics — rolled out from late 2016 into 2017 with many of the 2.3 million units selling out immediately. The 2018 relaunch saw similar demand.
The lasting legacy of the NES, however, lies with the Nintendo Switch which has sold more than 129 million units to date. With patents for what could be the successor to the Nintendo Switch, now’s as good a time as any to remember and appreciate what the Nintendo Entertainment System did for gaming 38 years ago.
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Corey Plante
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Good parenting is a lot like being a solid player two. You want to be supportive, curious, and competent. You’re there to have a good time, and understand going with the flow is key to harmony. This can be a challenge with kids and video games when you’re actually, literally, player two, especially if you’re a gamer and struggle to turn off those killer instincts. Enter Super Mario Bros. Wonder (see on Amazon). It is without question the year’s best family game (and in the running for GOTY) but it can be a challenge for any parent to share the sticks, regardless of skill level.
And let’s take a moment to acknowledge the mercurial nature of young children. You’re not playing a game with a like-minded adult who shares your sense of purpose or your temperament. One minute you’re co-opping with a volatile, rage-quitting narcissist then a condescending, proficient genius the next. Whether this is your first time playing Mario in years or you’re a lifelong devotee, these tips are designed to help you facilitate a fun session for everyone. And for parents of little ones, we’ve got some extra tips for you, too.
You can’t help being an adult. It’s hard work, and conditions you to approach life a certain way. No judgment: Being a productive, task-oriented person is what our entire education system is based on. Once you’ve gone through school and spent a few years working you have a compulsion to get shit done the right way. Kids are different.
If you’re playing alongside them and find yourself saying you’re “supposed” to do something—i.e. “you’re supposed to get those big purple coins!”—switch gears. SMBW is a great playground, so slow down and have fun. Seeing the game through a child’s eyes will give you a new appreciation for its incredible level design.
Sometimes a level is just a lot of fun and you can’t wait to do it again. So don’t! If your kid thinks the Hoppos are hysterical, then play the Hoppo level as long as they want. If they’re really good at the Parachute Hat Badge Challenge, let them do it again and again. The difficulty curve in SMBW will sneak up on you and can hit kids pretty hard. Nothing takes the fun out of a night of gaming faster than running into a level no one can beat. So avoid frustration at all costs. You can always come back and play more once the kids go to bed. There’s multiple save files for a reason.
While it’s admirable that the Switch comes with two built-in controllers, using a single Joy-Con to play games means having to touch the smallest buttons known to man. This is especially true for parents who aren’t gaming much, or who spend their time on PC or other consoles with keyboards or adult-sized controllers. If this sounds like you, then consider investing in a Switch Pro Controller (like this one) to make life easier. Odds are you’ll like it so much, you’ll end up getting more than one.
On paper, the mechanic of having the player who gets the best score earn a little crown to wear seems cute and harmless. A silly little thing that has no bearing on the game and is essentially meaningless. Unless you are a small child. Then, suddenly and without warning, the crown will become the most important thing in your life. You will wail and despair if someone else has the crown, even if they get it by accident. So, parents, a word of warning. Let your kid get the crown. If you’re navigating siblings you may need to institute some hard rules on sharing, or wear the crown yourself in a “if you can’t play nicely you can’t play at all” situation. In the meantime let’s pray Nintendo lets us disable this feature in a future update.
One of the things that sets Nintendo apart from Sony and Microsoft is their dedication to family-friendly gaming. This comes through in a lot of places in SMBW, but the addition of the Yoshis and Nabbit is probably the biggest accommodation they’ve made in franchise history. These characters can’t take damage, so young players (or adults) can still go through levels without feeling like they’re failing over and over.
The caveat is that these characters can’t use power-ups. This could be very upsetting for young players (or adults) who wanted to see Elephant Yoshi. This may not be a dealbreaker but probably something you want to mention before starting a level together.
Who says games aren’t educational? Sure, Mario may be miles away from Ms. Rachel, but don’t fool yourself into thinking SMBW is pure brain candy. There’s plenty of dialogue and text to read, full of the common sight words kids are learning in elementary school. You can also apply the same techniques that make for effective reading at home. Ask about character motivation, the sequence of events, or make connections to their lives. Your kid may never have had Boswer steal their castle, but they’ve probably experienced someone being bad at sharing.
Buy Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
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Mo Mozuch
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Nearly three decades after it was first released on Super Nintendo — and despite a handsome remake for Switch, with completely redone visuals and rerecorded music — there’s still something strangely, but not unpleasantly, off about Super Mario RPG.
Mario looks all squat and cross-eyed; in fact, the whole Mushroom Kingdom and all its denizens have a sort of squashed, funhouse-mirror look, as if folding them into an isometric perspective has flattened them all out. Early in the game, Bowser’s castle gets run through by a giant, skyscraper-sized talking sword; when did you ever see a sword in a Mario game? Not long after, a Toad makes a joke about forgetting his bazooka at home. His what? Mario’s house is a wobbly, clapboard shack. Mario has a house. It’s all kinds of wrong.
This adventure, first released in 1996 as Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, was a collaboration between Nintendo and Square (now Square Enix) when both were in their mid-’90s pomp. Nintendo was winding down the SNES after an unbeatable run of in-house classics, from Super Mario World to Yoshi’s Island, while Square was months away from unleashing Final Fantasy 7 on the world. It was a meeting of near equals, and while the characters were Nintendo’s, the turf — turn-based role-playing games — was very much Square’s. The developer had the confidence to make its own tastes and personality felt in Mario RPG, in much the same way it later would with the Disney-crossover Kingdom Hearts games, and in a way few external developers working with Mario ever would again (with the recent exception of Ubisoft’s zany-but-cunning Mario + Rabbids games).
Image: Nintendo
So Mario RPG features many elements that feel like foreign bodies, even within the hallucinatory, anything-goes world of the Mushroom Kingdom. Square was allowed to create its own characters for the game — including Mallow, Mario’s first companion on his quest, who claims to be a frog but looks like a cross between a cloud and a cauliflower with stripy pants and a purple quiff. There’s a lovely score by the legendary Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, Street Fighter 2) that has a lush, nostalgic quality that’s subtly but profoundly different from original Mario composer Koji Kondo’s folksy melodic playfulness.
It all adds up to a curio: a game that has long felt like it belongs in a parallel dimension. Released just months before the Nintendo 64’s debut, original SNES copies of Super Mario RPG command high prices on the used market, and it has had only basic and sparing reissues from Nintendo since (it didn’t come to Europe at all until the Wii Virtual Console version in 2008). But it was also influential, laying the foundations for Nintendo’s later (and more tonally controlled) Mario RPG series, Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi. It has the same streamlined RPG systems as those games, the rhythmic inputs that add immediacy to the turn-based combat, and a similar, mildly meta sense of humor.
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Image: Nintendo
For whatever reason — perhaps a hunger for any and all Mario content in the wake of the Super Mario Bros. Movie phenomenon, perhaps a newfound willingness to take risks with its mascot — Nintendo is now finally ready to give Super Mario RPG its due and integrate it properly with the Mario catalog, via this full Switch remake. It’s strange to encounter this game (for the first time, in my case) in 2023 on Switch, and it’s great that Nintendo, Square Enix, and whoever developed the remake (which remains unclear, but I’ve asked Nintendo for clarification) have so carefully kept its wayward spirit alive.
The full 3D graphical overhaul retains the original’s bizarre rendered look, wisely refusing to homogenize or standardize the designs, and retaining its off-kilter character even as it smooths out the animations. Shimomura has completely reorchestrated her score, but you can switch to the chiptune originals, if you like. There are some modern creature comforts, like a frequent autosave, but most of Mario RPG’s archaic, 27-year-old design quirks remain intact. That said, on early evidence, Square’s expert simplification of traditional RPG mechanics seems bulletproof — and the game plays very swiftly, considering its age.
As smart as the new version is, playing Super Mario RPG feels like a portal to another time — or another timeline, perhaps. A timeline where Mario lives in a shack. I’m still not over it.
Super Mario RPG will be released on Nov. 17.
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Oli Welsh
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Alan Wake 2 is bleak stuff. Sure, your flashlight makes the darkness a little less scary, and the full-motion video commercials are a lighthearted wink to players who seek them out. But for some, the game could benefit from a constant positive presence to raise the mood while you traverse the Overlap and beyond.
Of course, this thought comes after playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, where each level features a goofy talking flower character who remarks on the player’s actions, or on what’s happening in the game world. After going back and forth between the two games, it’s hard not to imagine what the talking flower would be like in Alan Wake 2.
Image composition: Cameron Faulkner/Polygon | Source images: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing, Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Beyond blurting out quips to take your mind off the dread of walking through forests at night with scarily few bullets, or when running from the Dark Presence, the talking flower could be a useful tool for marking objectives, or helping you figure out combinations to safes.
Inevitably, I think the game would take a dark turn with this, turning the talking flower into a deceptive plot device. Eventually you wouldn’t know if you could trust what the talking flower is telling you, adding to Alan Wake 2’s deft skill of extending its dark fiction over the game’s reality. Are the Taken a threat, or are you the threat? Maybe, just maybe, it’s the talking flower.
The chaos is reminding me of how simple things were, back when Alice and I first arrived in Bright Falls. Now, I’m stuck in the Dark Place.
T̶̘͉̯̀̾̑̈́̈́͑̏̚̕͝h̸̝͔̭̹͎̲̦̖͉͓̊͊̒̓̎͒̑̚͜e̶̢̛̦̠̤̳͍̭̠̠͊̄̑̓̌̂̍̐̍͝ ̵͈͚̞̑͛̀̈́̅ţ̶̧̭̜̙̥̀̐̔͜ă̶̲̬̞͔̠͚̪̣̤̎̀̂̈́̕ḽ̸̬̬͎͙̥̘̈͐͗͋͋͋̍̌̀͛̕̕͠k̸̖͎̙̭̖̝̎̽̃̀͊̃̏̑̾̃͒ḭ̶̧̠͙͕̺͎͊̄̈́̾̇̈̐͋̏͘͝ń̸̢̮̩̰͙͌̆͛g̴̞͖͖͉̭͚̞͋́̒̈̃̄̾͗͂̈̎͘̚ ̵̢͎̺͎̙̭͕̹̞̑̆̈́̿f̴̨̨̧̱͖̫̱̥̖̩̝̯͇̪̀͋̒͐͗̓̎͗̂͐͜͠ĺ̸̡̦̼̖̦͔̗̳̭̫̼̳̘̱̝̎̂͛́̀̓̇̈̎͝o̷̡͓̭̞̲̯̞̘͊̈́̉͋̾̿̓̔̈̅͌͜͝ͅw̴̘͖̉̈́̽͗̏̈́̄̈́̓̈́̓̕͠ȩ̸̡̞̱̟̺̹̲͍͖̹̹̀̈́͒̆̀̊̾̉̑̽̑̕͠ͅŗ̷͉̝̘͚͉̱̫̰̈́ ̸̺̥̤̞̭͙̗͚͍̗̺͈͔̣̃͜͠ḩ̴̡̧̰͕͈̩̱̲̯͚̥͚̦́̇͜a̶̜̰̝̼̬̦̼͓͊̉̈́ṡ̸̡̟̩͎̗̘̭͕͕͍͍͖̠͜ ̵̗̬͉̜̩̂t̵̹͓͍̯̤̭͍̻̹̟͚̎͐͛͠ą̵̟̠̬̮̌̊̍̿̒̂̊͌͋̐̚͝k̶̨̛̝̻̫͕͇̙̼͎̞͕͓̥͒͂̔̽̀̑͒̏̚͜͝ȩ̴̝͓̬̝̘̘̙̤̰̫̞̤̈̎̏̐̒̋̏͋͊͝n̸̢̛̠̖͚̠͎͆̂͛̑́͠ͅ ̵̢̘̹͓͖̘̽͛̀͋̐̚m̵̛͚̊̃͂̃̆̋̓̂͛͆̋̎̃͌y̴̙͖͔̳͍͍̟̫̩͎̙̟̔͛̔̏̓̇̀̈́͆̀ͅͅͅ ̶̠͓̝͉̬̤̟̼̞͉͚͋̇̂͗́ͅp̴̨̞̲̹̩̙̫̖͉̩̠̗̜̀͜l̷̲͚̱͉͓̥̪͑̓̔͛̿̐͋͑͂̈́͘͜ã̸̢͚͓͚͔͊̓̒̈̎̆̾̎̚ç̶̟̤̟̯̘̖̝̫͎̣̹̚e̸̜͓̯͐̑̾̈́̂̉̓̆̐͝ ̶̙̖̲̮̏͌͜ͅí̸̯̇̇̇̆̄̔͋͊̾̋͠n̵̨̠̙̟͎̏́̄̓̔͗̀̚͝͝ ̶̜̞̥̭̰̼̖̞̖̭̈̂͒͒̓͑͛̾̐̽̿̕̕͝͝ŗ̴̮̜̼̔͗͋̉ͅę̷͍̥͖̞̻̗͓͓̥̎̅͑̅̾̓̾̃̿̄̕͠ä̸̛̻̎̅̔̈̈́̅̀̎̂̈́̚͝͝ļ̷͕̫̫̜̄̉́̎̐͝į̷͎͇̖̖͚̍̓̀̉̂́̏͂͑̂͌̕ͅt̷̡͉͎͓̻͙̩͍̙͈͋̏̈̏̎̉̀̕y̵͙͉̩̘̐̈́̃̄́̉̓̍̀̂̅̔͝.̵̢̡̢̭̻̝̭͎͔͖̻͔̓̀͜͜͠ͅ
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Cameron Faulkner
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Because of the historical legacy of the platform genre, many interesting sub-genres have spawned through the years. For this list, we’ll include everything except games where action or puzzles overtake most of the actual platforming.
The criteria used for this top 10 list are threefold: quality of the game, lasting influence/legacy, and a limit of one game per series. The Mario series gets two entries in this list to represent one 2D and one 3D game, respectively. Onward to our list of best platform games of all time.
The most recent entry on our list also happens to be the most stylish. Cuphead is a run-and-gun platformer that doubles as a cartoon straight from the 1930s. The art and animation are hand-drawn with excellent authenticity in their presentation, like flickering CRTV effects and an original live jazz score.
But Cuphead isn’t merely style. It’s also got a lot of substance to back it up. The game is notorious for its high difficulty and intense boss fights. Each boss fight feels truly unique and carefully crafted to make the victory feel well-earned. You never feel like anything is repetitive in Cuphead.
Along with breathtaking style and tremendous depth in gameplay, Cuphead also spawned a TV show and a large popularity with streaming audiences. On Steam, Cuphead sits with an overwhelmingly positive score from no less than 130,000 users, one of the highest ratings for a platforming game.
Next on the list is the 1995 Super Nintendo classic, Donkey Kong Country 2. The first DKC revolutionized game animation and visuals with pre-rendered graphics using a compression technique. DKC 1 was truly next-gen for the time, but the sequel took everything DKC 1 did and upped the ante with a true masterpiece.
The flow and vibe throughout DKC 2 have a quality that continues to inspire today. The creativity of level themes, from bramble mazes to horror theme park coasters, made for an engaging experience and memorable experience. The level design also introduced several lasting concepts, such as the ability to create spider web platforms and the fluctuating hot air balloons, which made for some of the most fun platforming you could ask for.
According to fans, Donkey Kong Country 2 is the most beloved game in the series, and it’s easy to see why. The special Kremlin World, the huge number of collectibles, great level variation, fun companions, and legendary soundtrack really made DKC 2 stand out in a time when Super Mario World existed; that’s a legendary feat if there ever was one.
Sega’s answer to Mario’s success was Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega did what Nintendo didn’t, which meant breakneck speed and edgy 90s ‘tude. This stylistic difference worked for Sega, and Sonic became the face of the company and a household name through the 90s.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 became the system-seller of the Sega Genesis and broke records as the fastest-selling game of the era. Part of what made Sonic 2 such a hit with players was its routing through large, open levels. Unlike Mario, Sonic allowed players to freely explore large vertically oriented levels that contained different routes to the exit. Sonic 1 also had multiple routes but lacked the smooth flow that Sonic 2 had mastered to a science.
The music of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is still revered as some of the best videogame music of all time. With stage themes like Chemical Plant Zone and the jazzy Casino Night Zone, it’s easy to see why Sonic the Hedgehog is still going strong with films and an open-world game in the modern age.
Shovel Knight created a seachange for indie games that persists even today. This 2014 retro platformer brought the genre back into prominence after a decade or so of 3D game development obsession in the industry. 2D sprites were back in style and still are to this very day, thanks to Shovel Knight.
The reason Shovel Knight is so beloved can be found in its tight action platforming as a sort of Mega Man for the modern age. Unlike the Blue Bomber’s blaster arm, Shovel Knight wields a shovel to whack enemies. This close-range combat brings a sort of Zelda-esque element to 2D platforming that has never been captured so brilliantly as with Shovel Knight.
Like Zelda 2, there are towns where you can purchase gear and upgrades, find secrets, and even talk to villagers. The levels themselves are challenging side-scrolling affairs with some entertaining boss fights. The DLC included even better levels, bosses, and playable characters like Plague Knight and Spectre Knight, each with their own moveset and abilities.
Next on our list of best platform games is a gem that could earn a spot just from its quality alone. Rayman Legends combines what makes Donkey Kong Country and Sonic the Hedgehog so great and ties it into a clean and quirky package. Each level can be completed at a brisk, flowing pace, with constant momentum and very few start-stop moments. Yet, there are lots of collectibles and secrets awaiting the explorative player in every stage, not unlike DKC 2.
The addition of your flying assistant, Murphy, is ingenious. While jumping around punching baddies, you simultaneously control a flying companion that removes environmental obstacles out of your way. Cut ropes using a face button while simultaneously leaping onto the rope to the next platform. All this somehow controls like a breeze. The cool thing is you can even have a partner control Murphy with couch co-op or online play. This extra dimension to platforming is engaging and elevates the genre in subtle ways that I wish more games would utilize.
The crazy music stages from Rayman Origins return here with even better rhythm platforming fun. Timing jumps along with a bizarre cover of “Eye of the Tiger” while desperately trying to save every Teensy is just one of many gaming moments I’ll never forget.
The entire ‘Metroidvania’ sub-genre became codified with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This game was basically a gothic Metroid on steroids. Instead of multiple interconnected levels, Symphony of the Night allowed players to explore a gigantic mansion with hundreds of rooms and secrets to freely explore. In addition to this, SotN revolutionized the genre with RPG elements. You’re actually building your character throughout the game with stats tied to weapons, armor, and accessories. Like I said, Metroid on steroids.
The boss battles are strategic and require precise weapon usage and platforming to overcome, or you can just grind for upgraded gear and powerful abilities to overwhelm them. Symphony of the Night gave the player tons of options when it came to defeating enemies and general progression.
There are also plenty of legendary moments in Symphony of the Night that have been cemented in gaming history. Alucard proclaiming, “What is a man but a pile of miserable secrets?” with his so-bad-it’s-good voice acting is eternally meme-worthy. Likewise, having to traverse the entire castle again but flipped upside down is another iconic moment that gets riffed on today with clever referential sequences in games like Elden Ring.
Super Mario 64 may be the most influential 3D platformer in history, and Super Mario Odyssey is perhaps the most well-designed, but Mario Galaxy is both. The originality regarding dimensional platforming is remarkable, and it delivers this new way of platforming with consistent mind-bending quality.
Super Mario Galaxy was the Nintendo Wii’s magnum opus, and it used the Wiimote technology with wonderful creativity with its star pull mechanic and true three-dimensional platforming. Sure, the Wii motion controls weren’t precise, but Mario Galaxy’s more broad platforming style suited it perfectly. This wasn’t a precision platformer; it was a planet-sized one.
Besides setting up the Wii as one of the most successful consoles of all time, Super Mario Galaxy teemed with the most creative 3D-level design we’ve ever seen.
Mega Man X took the original Mega Man series, and Dragon Ball Z’d it. Wall jumping is perhaps the most prominent upgrade to Mega Man’s arsenal, and his new dash and charge burst were more impactful than they ever were in the original series.
The animation and sound design were turned to 10 here compared to the original series. Mega Man X’s intro sequence atop the highway bridge is a true masterclass in background design. I mean, a sci-fi metropolis under siege by maniacal robots with Mega Man fighting atop a crumpling highway over screaming guitars? Yes, please. And the music! Some of the stage themes for Mega Man X are almost too good for our ears.
In addition to heightened mobility and more action elements, the X series introduced some RPG mechanics in the form of equipment and upgrades. Sure, the upgrades were as simple as you can imagine, but collecting the best armor and unlocking the Hadouken for X added depth to an otherwise straightforward platformer. Mega Man X lives on today as one of the coolest games to ever grace a console in the 90s.
Without a doubt, Super Metroid was the most ambitious game from the SNES era, and it succeeded brilliantly in its ambition. Super Metroid combined open-world exploration with platforming and action gameplay against the backdrop of a sci-fi horror story.
The first thing you hear when booting up Super Metroid is a haunting hum with a sinister beeping fading in. A hatchling is heard in the distance, immediately lighting up any sci-fi geek’s imagination. The intro to Super Metroid is atmospheric storytelling brilliance. Clearly, a smart ode to the film series Alien, Super Metroid’s deep space horror story went terrifyingly well with the explorative platforming gameplay.
Branching corridors and locked doors populate much of the abandoned space station. Thankfully, Samus has access to tons of secret items and upgrades hidden throughout the derelict facility. Super Metroid helped invent a genre that continues to thrive today. It’s tough to say what the current landscape of gaming would be if not for Super Metroid’s massive influence.
Super Mario World gets the number one spot because… well because it’s just that good. While Super Mario World didn’t invent or codify sub-genres or game-changing mechanics like others on this list, it did solidify gaming as premium entertainment. Super Mario World is one of the best launch games a console’s ever had, with over 20 million copies sold today. Talk about a good first impression for a console.
Super Mario World gave players a sizeable interconnected map with branching paths and plenty of hidden exits. Unlike other platformers of the time, you could choose one of multiple levels and routes and go off the beaten path in search of secrets. The level design is as close to perfect as it comes. There’s a wealth of creativity from stage to stage while iterating on past gimmicks to throw some advanced platforming at the player to overcome.
Ghost Houses comprise some of the most ingenious levels, with trick doors, multiple mazelike rooms, and exits to confound the player. The sheer quality on display with Super Mario World continues to put modern games to task, so just imagine how next-gen it was in 1991.
That’s it for our top 10 best platformers of all time. If you enjoyed this list, check out our other top 10s here on Twinfinite!
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Matthew Carmosino
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Down the pipe and into the Flower Kingdom, Ben and Jess are talking all things Mario today with the release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. They begin by discussing their histories with the Super Mario Bros. franchise (0:00) and its evolution in 2D/3D gameplay (12:00). Later on, they chat about their likes and dislikes of the game (30:00) before producer Devon Renaldo joins to deliver a hot take on Nintendo’s direction, the company’s upcoming releases, and the successor to the Switch (1:09:00).
Hosts: Ben Lindbergh and Jessica Clemons
Producer: Devon Renaldo
Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts
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Ben Lindbergh
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Secrets of Shova Mansion is a level in Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s W4 Sunbaked Desert. It has the normal stuff — a Wonder Seed, flower coins, and a flagpole at the end — but the level also has a secret exit. Finding it unlocks a path to a couple more levels and an entrance to the Special World.
Our Super Mario Bros. Wonder guide will walk you where to find the secret exit location in Secrets of Shova Mansion, allowing you to get the secret, third Wonder Seed.
There are three Wonder Seeds to collect in Secrets of Shova Mansion. The first two — the one you get from the Wonder Flower sequence and from reaching the normal flagpole — are a bit more obvious. You can find our walkthrough of them with the rest of W4 Sunbaked Desert.
Finding the third Wonder Seed leads to a secret exit — and opens the path to Flight of the Bloomps, Expert Badge Challenge: Invisibility 1, and this world’s entrance to the Special World.
Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
You’ll have to play the level a second and get all the way to the end. When you drop out of the final door, there’s a Shova below you pushing a box across a small section of breakable blocks.
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Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Ground Pound the blocks and then push the box into the gap (taking out the Shova in the process). This will reveal a new pipe.
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Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Go through the pipe and run right. You’ll find another pipe there that will lead you to this level’s secret exit and third Wonder Seed.
We’ve got guides to help you find every Wonder Seed in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. You can jump to Pipe-Rock Plateau, Fluff-Puff Peaks, Shining Falls, Sunbaked Desert, Fungi Mines, Deep Magma Bog, the Petal Isles, and Special World.
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Jeffrey Parkin
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the highly anticipated 2D platformer, is finally out on Nintendo Switch. But before you get too ahead of yourself turning Mario and company into giant elephants and whatnot, you should mess around with some gameplay settings first—especially the one that controls the Talking Flowers.
Earlier this week, in another edition of Nintendo’s ongoing web series, Ask the Developer, we learned that Wonder was originally going to have a live commentary feature like what you’d find in a sports game. It was scrapped, but found new life through the game’s Talking Flowers characters who shout at Mario and crew whenever they walk by. Although the Talking Flowers are a cute addition to the game and make solo playthroughs a little less lonely, your mileage with them may vary. Some people think the Talking Flowers, who talk all the time, are pretty annoying, if you can believe that. Here’s how you can turn the Talking Flowers voices off.
First, go to settings and scroll down to “Talking Flower Dialogue.” There you can switch it to “Voice off / Text on.” Super simple. There’s also a fun third option where you can change the language of the Talking Flowers if you want a different flavor of Flower Power commentary. Kotaku’s John Walker is partial to their Dutch language setting.
Read More: Super Mario Bros. Wonder Review Roundup: Wondrous Acclaim
Folks online are pretty delighted that Nintendo gave them the option to let them speak in a separate language from their Switch’s system language but to mute the Talking Flowers entirely.
“Fantastic news. As soon as I saw that they talk to you automatically when you run by them, I was a little worried,”u/klaxhax replied in a thread about the setting option on the r/Nintendo Switch subreddit. “It gave me flashbacks to the GBA Mario re-releases with all those dreadful voice clips…”
“And with that one change, this game is a contender for GOTY,” u/Red_Speed replied in the same thread.
The novelty of the Talking Flowers’ motor mouths has a high likelihood of wearing thin, so knowing how to turn them off or switch up their language may prove useful for Wonder players—whether it’s for their first, second, or third playthrough.
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Isaiah Colbert
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Back in the day, you might have wondered: Hey, why does Mario take damage when he bumps into a Goomba in the original Super Mario Bros.? Turns out, Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto had an answer: The enemies were biting you. We just never actually saw that happen. Well, that changes in the soon-to-be-released Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
In the latest installment of Nintendo’s ongoing web series, Ask the Developer, the folks behind Wonder answered some wide-ranging questions about the upcoming Switch-exclusive platformer. They revealed that it wasn’t really influenced by the movie, that it was developed differently than past Mario games, and the strange work that goes into making 3D models look good in a precise 2D side-scroller. It’s really interesting stuff! But perhaps my favorite bit to come out of the first two parts of this long Ask the Developer is the backstory on why Goombas bite Mario and other characters when they get close.
According to Wonder’s art director, Masanobu Sato, he once heard someone explain that when Miyamoto was asked why Mario takes damage after bumping into a Goomba in the original game, he answered, “It’s because the Goombas bite him.”
However, as pointed out by Wonder’s director, Shiro Mouri, even if that was what was happening, due to “hardware limitations” back then the game couldn’t show that detail. Super Mario Bros. Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka, who has been working on Mario games for nearly four decades, further explained that was why Koopa Troopas turned around to face Mario when you bumped into them in the NES classic.
“We tried to express them biting the player by making them turn around,” said Tezuka.
“But now we are able to show those expressions,” said Sato.
The devs say that in Wonder, the moment a Goomba does damage to Mario a small animation is triggered that shows the iconic enemy biting the plumber (or whichever other character the player is using.)
“Yes, and when they bite you, they’ll do it with a smile on their face!” added Sato.
I highly recommend reading the full interview as it reveals more behind-the-scenes information about how the game was developed and where all its wacky ideas come from.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder hits the Nintendo Switch on October 20, though copies have leaked out into the wild, so be careful of spoilers.
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Zack Zwiezen
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This week brought us a wonderful treasure trove of leaks from deep inside the highest echelons of Microsoft’s Xbox division, accidentally shared online as a result of the company’s legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its now-greenlit Activision acquisition. These confidential emails, slides, and images of potential new products from the Xbox manufacturer reveal the inner workings of Microsoft’s gaming division, as well as whispers of some possible new games from Bethesda.
Read More: Looks Like Microsoft Was Responsible For Leaking Its Own Documents
The leaks happened courtesy of Microsoft itself, as it provided these sensitive documents to the court via a publicly accessible link. Yesterday Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer reacted to the leaks, saying that it “was hard to see our team’s work shared in this way.”
In the leaked emails, Phil Spencer and Microsoft personnel discussed a possible acquisition of Nintendo.
Read More: Microsoft Casually Discussed Buying Nintendo Or Valve In Leaked Email
“At some point,” Spencer wrote, “getting Nintendo would be a career moment.” He speculated that the Japanese games giant could become more open to acquisition offers in the future due to changing pressures on its board of directors. “It’s just taking a long time for Nintendo to realize that their future exists off of their own hardware,” he wrote. “A long time… 🙂
The emails also reveal that Microsoft thought about purchasing Valve and Warner Bros. Games.
Because I decided to flip my Xbox 360 from vertical to horizontal while it was running Oblivion, my adventuring in Tamriel was cut short via a huge circular scratch on the disc that no amount of toothpaste could remedy. Maybe I’ll get another chance; while it’s still up in the air, the 2006 Elder Scrolls adventure might get a fancy new remaster in which I could make up for those lost years.
Read More: Bethesda Road Map Leaks, Includes Oblivion Remaster And Dishonored 3
Bethesda’s roadmap was among the many recently released Xbox documents. It includes a sequel to Ghostwire: Tokyo, a Dishonored 3, and remasters of Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Also, don’t expect The Elder Scrolls VI for quite a while.
Phil Spencer stated that “AAA publishers were slow to react to [the disruption]” of digital storefronts like Steam and the shops built into Xbox and PlayStation.
In a leaked email, Spencer wrote that third-party publishers were unable to replicate the “dominance” they established back in the days of video game retail. After losing their advantage of highly exclusive access to consumers in brick and mortar stores, they “have not found a way to effectively cross promote, they have not found a way to build publisher brands that drive consumer affinity (the way Disney has in video).”
He noted that instead they’ve adopted a strategy of making huge bets on highly expensive prestige projects, relying on those risky, all-in bets to establish and maintain publisher brands. He concluded that “the role of a AAA publisher has changed and become less important in today’s gaming industry.”
Microsoft seemed to have anticipated an Xbox Series X/S port of Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2022. This, of course, didn’t happen.
Read More: Xbox Expected A Red Dead Redemption 2 Next-Gen Update, Wanted It On Game Pass
The Xbox Series X and Series S consoles hit the market in 2020. Since then, the lower-powered, disc-less Series S actually makes up the majority of units sold. As of April 2022, 74.8 percent of Xbox Series owners were gaming on a Series S, suggesting just a quarter of the base left gaming on the more-powerful Xbox Series X unit.
Again, that was over a year ago, and more recent data suggests the install base split is approaching 50/50. But you gotta wonder how much that massive Series S install base is causing headaches for developers trying to bring high-end games to the Xbox ecosystem.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a super good time. But Microsoft didn’t seem to think the D&D RPG would amount to much. In leaked comments, Microsoft estimated a $5 million expense to get the game on Game Pass, justifying the low monetary amount by describing Baldur’s Gate 3 as a “second-run Stadia PC RPG.”
Read More: Xbox Leak Estimates Cost Of Bringing Blockbusters To Game Pass
Reacting to this statement, Larian’s director of publishing noted that Microsoft was far from alone in underestimating the appeal of Baldur’s Gate 3.
In an email to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Phil Spencer described the Xbox Series X/S line as a “better product than [what] Sony has, not just on hardware but equally important on the software platform and services.” He continued, “we have the ingredients of a winning plan […] today was a good day for us.”
As the next-gen consoles launched in 2020 fans of Sega’s long-running Yakuza series were surprised that its latest entry, the RPG Like a Dragon, was available on Xbox Series X/S but not PlayStation 5. The Yakuza series had long been associated with PlayStation; what was up?
Read More: The Silly Story Behind The Weirdest Xbox Exclusive
Yesterday’s leak revealed that Microsoft was just as surprised, and it turns out the reason for Like a Dragon landing on Xbox first was due to two competing regional exclusivity agreements Sega made essentially short-circuited each other. The result? Xbox players ate well while PlayStation fans wept into their DualSenses.
We didn’t just get scans of emails from very serious people, we also got some images and details of possible forthcoming hardware, including a cylindrical-shaped Xbox Series X that won’t include a disc drive.
Read More: All-Digital Xbox Leak Reignites Game Preservation Fears
Code named “Brooklin,” the leaked data indicates that the possible hardware refresh will include “more internal storage, faster Wi-Fi, reduced power” and a “more immersive controller.”
If this thing does see the light of day I’ll happily refer to it as trash can Xbox, in honor of the similarly shaped 2013 Mac Pro refresh.
The potential 2024 hardware refresh might also see a new Xbox gamepad hit the market. The image of a controller codenamed “Sebile” shows a two-tone color design and promises modular thumbsticks and features that many a PlayStation fan have known for a few years now: “lift to wake,” “precision haptic feedback,” and an accelerometer.
Read More: Xbox Series X/S Redesign And New Controller Coming In 2024, According To Leaked Plans
Despite how the controller may look in this image, the copy indicates that it will feature the “same ergonomics” as the current Xbox Series X/S controller (codenamed “Merlin”).
Slides projecting the future of the Xbox platform indicate that Microsoft is very much looking to the cloud (where have I heard that before?) to help power its post Xbox Series X/S console, for which it’s looking at a 2028 release.
Read More: Microsoft Aiming To Release Next Xbox By 2028
Microsoft describes such a machine as a “next-generation hybrid game platform capable of leveraging the combined power of the client and cloud to deliver deeper immersion and entirely new classes of game experiences.” Cool?
So while we might get some sequels to beloved games like Dishonored and a fancy new controller for Xbox and PC, the leaked Microsoft materials also portend another nail in the coffin for physical game media . But hey, maybe Mario and Master Chief will get to go on a little adventure together at some point.
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Claire Jackson
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The next mainline 2D Mario game, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, looks fantastic, shaking up the franchise’s formula with new powers, worlds, and enemies. In particular, one new power that turns Mario into an elephant became quite popular online. However, at first Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, wasn’t a fan of the odd transformation.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder, out later this October on Nintendo Switch, looks well…wonderful! The game features a new, revamped art style that looks 10x better than the New Super Mario Bros. games’, and is filled with new ideas and gameplay mechanics, including Elden Ring-like multiplayer features and a huge roster of playable heroes: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Blue Toad, Yellow Toad, Toadette, and Nabbit. But perhaps the most talked-about new additions to the Mario formula are the new power-ups, including one that turns Nintendo’s plumber into a large pachyderm. Apparently Miyamoto had some…thoughts about Elephant Mario during development.
In an August 31 interview with IGN, Super Mario Bros. Wonder director Shiro Mouri and producer Takashi Tezuka explained that during production of the game, Miyamoto did provide feedback and notes, but he wasn’t in their “hip pocket” all the time “whispering” in their ears.
“Sometimes he would come by where we are working and look at things and give some opinions,” said Tezuka. “He would generally observe things and make comments here and there.”
However, according to Mouri, Miyamoto did have a problem with Elephant Mario, at first.
“It was a phase where we still had tentative visuals for Elephant Mario, and we had plans to adjust the visuals already,” said Mouri. “But he had come and taken a look before that and he gave us the sharp comment that ‘This doesn’t look like a Mario character.’”
According to Mouri, Mario’s dad also took issue with how Elephant Mario sprays water from his trunk, saying that “if an elephant was actually spraying water, it wouldn’t move that way.”
I like to imagine that Miyamoto comes home and spends hours watching elephants in the wild via documentaries and old videos on the internet, closely studying their moves. And finally, all that hard work paid off. Good for him.
In a separate Thursday interview with Wired, Mouri and Tezuka explained that the idea for Elephant Mario came from the desire to create a power-up for the famous plumber that would make him big and able to shoot water. Elephant was the natural choice.
However, when they wanted to let Mario dig underground, they didn’t go with a “mole Mario,” as they wanted him to be able to also take out enemies above him. So naturally they did what anyone else would in that scenario, and slapped a working drill on Mario’s head. I can only assume what Miyamoto thought about that.
Tezuka also pushed back on the idea that Mario games can’t change or evolve, telling Wired he asks his team to come up with wild ideas and not to worry about rules or limits.
“I do think people have ideas that Mario [games have] to be a certain way. There are certain limitations that people have in their own brains,” Tezuka said. “If you think it looks cool, it’s going to be fun. Do it.”
Super Mario Bros. Wonder—and all of its wild power-ups—launches on October 20 on Nintendo Switch.
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Zack Zwiezen
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