Press Start: Introducing "Mario Madness!"

Mario's *official* 35th anniversary happened over the weekend, but the party is nowhere close to over. As you may have heard on the latest episode of Ode to Games, I'm setting a goal to play every mainline Super Mario game before the end of 2020. I've always adored the Super Mario franchise, but looking through the entire catalog of games, I've realized there are actually quite a few I've never finished.

After completing each game, I plan to write a retrospective on the game right here on OdetoGames.com. Upon completing the entire series, I will publish a fresh, new ranking of the entire Super Mario franchise. We'll be calling the series "Mario Madness!" I'm excited to announce this new series, and I can't wait to dive into the whole Mario franchise this year.

Here are a few ground rules:

-I'm only playing all of the original Super Mario games. This means remakes like the SNES Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario 64 DS don't count.

-I'm only playing the games featuring Mario as the main playable character. Sorry, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island fans, that game isn't included in this series.

-Ports are fair game. I plan to play Sunshine through the 3D All-Stars collection releasing this Friday, since it's not a full remake.

-Mario Maker is not included. This was tough, but I think it's too difficult to weigh a creation tool against the main series of platformers. Super Mario Maker 2 does have a single-player mode, but I still think it's too different to count.

Here is a list of games included, as well as when I last completed them, and how I plan to play them this year.

• Super Mario Bros./Completed 2020/NES Switch Online

• The Lost Levels/Never completed/NES Switch Online

• Super Mario Bros. 2/Never completed/NES Switch Online

• Super Mario Bros. 3/Competed 2017/NES Switch Online

• Super Mario Land/Completed 2020/3DS Virtual Console

• Super Mario World/Never completed/SNES Classic

• 6 Golden Coins/Completed 2020/3DS Virtual Console

• Super Mario 64/Never completed/3D All-Stars

• Super Mario Sunshine/Never completed/3D All-Stars

• New Super Mario Bros./Completed 2005/DS

• Super Mario Galaxy/Completed 2020/Wii

• New Super Mario Bros. Wii/Completed 2009/Wii

• Super Mario Galaxy 2/Completed 2020/Wii

• Super Mario 3D Land/Completed 2011/3DS

• New Super Mario Bros. 2/Completed 2012/3DS

• New Super Mario Bros. U/Completed 2019/Wii U

• Super Mario 3D World/Completed 2013/Wii U

• Super Mario Run/Never completed/Android

• Super Mario Odyssey/Completed 2017/Switch

It's a lot of games to get through, but there's no better time to celebrate Mario than right now. You can follow all of the Mario Madness updates on the show and right here on OdetoGames.com!