Welcome back to The Nintendo Report! It’s time for part 2 of our look at the madness that is Mario. In case you missed last week’s post, we’re working our way through Nintendo’s IP to determine how healthy they all are. But when we reached the letter M, well, Mario’s kind of his own beast. So we decided to break down all things Mario into a number of categories. We hit a lot of the big stuff last time, but there’s still plenty of Mario-related genres to tackle. How are the remainder of his projects looking these days? Let’s find out in The Nintendo Report. 

Educational games

Oh yes, these were indeed a thing. Mario’s got quite a history of educational titles dating all the way back to 1986’s Famicom release “I Am a Teacher: Super Mario Sweater.” Since then, Nintendo has lent their mascot to the likes of The Software Toolworks, Interplay, and Brainstorm Entertainment to make numerous titles intended to trick kids into thinking learning is fun! 

Health rating: Very dead

Nintendo doesn’t really lend their properties out quite so willy nilly anymore, and thank goodness for that as these old Mario educational games, while super weird and interesting, are kind of a blight. This is particularly true of Mario is Missing, a game that countless kids couldn’t wait to get their hands on, thinking it was a cool new adventure game where Mario was kidnapped and Luigi had to save the day, and instead got stuck learning geography. Nearest I can tell, the most recent Mario educational release was 1997’s Mario Teaches Typing 2, which is uhh… quite an experience. I sincerely doubt any of these games will be back, and I honestly think that’s a good thing. 

Mario Paint

Mario Paint, on the other hand, was brilliant. It was a genuine art program for the Super NES with a cool Mario theme. It came bundled with the Super NES Mouse, and allowed players to draw, color, compose music, and even create rudimentary animations. 

Health rating: Difficult to say

Mario Paint had a series of Japan-only follow ups on the 64DD called Mario Artist. Those happened quite a long time ago though, so you’d think this series was toast. BUT, then Super Mario Maker came along. While that game is absolutely not a Mario Paint game, it does feature a lot of aspects from Mario Paint, like the Save Robot (complete with his original music), the Gnat Attack minigame, the rocket that clears your screen, and the always delightful Undodog. Mario Maker isn’t the biggest Mario game in the world (more on that later) but it is still a rather popular release. So while it’s been a while since Mario Paint proper has been around, the brand clearly hasn’t been forgotten. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.   

Hyper Click Mouse for Super NES - Hyperkin

$19.99

Product Description   Point yourself in the right direction with the Hyperkin Hyper Click Retro Style Mouse for Super NES®. The Hyper Click is an...… read more

Super Mario RPG

I’ve broken down Mario’s various RPG series into three categories because, well, the guy’s got three distinct RPG series! Well, maybe “series” isn’t the right word for Super Mario RPG. This was where Mario had his first turn-based adventure, resulting from a dream team-up between Nintendo and SquareSoft. It was a pretty big success, and maintains a sizable cult following to this day. 

Health rating: Okay…

Super Mario RPG seemed all but dead until last year when the original game was fully remade for Nintendo Switch. Said remake was rather brilliant, too! But what does that mean for the future of the franchise? Who the heck knows? There’s no shortage of people out there who would love to see a proper sequel to Super Mario RPG (just look up how many wanted Geno for Smash). Whether or not this materializes into an actual new game is anybody’s guess, but given the wild stuff that’s happened in the past couple of years, anything’s possible. My money’s against it, though, no matter how badly I’d love to see it. 

Paper Mario

Originally touted as Super Mario RPG 2, Paper Mario has truly become its own thing. It’s another turn-based RPG that draws a lot of its gameplay inspiration from Super Mario RPG, but it’s got its own writing voice, characters, and of course visual style, that give it its unique charm. 

Health rating: Very good

Paper Mario doesn’t appear to be in any danger of going away anytime soon. The only thing that’s holding it back from a “Great” rating is the quality of its output. I’m using the term “quality” here very loosely, as I’ve enjoyed every Paper Mario I’ve played, which is admittedly very few, but I digress. The Thousand Year Door appears to be what most fans consider the gold standard for the series, but following that release, Nintendo put a pretty different spin on the franchise. The most recent original release, Paper Mario: The Origami King, came out on Switch in 2020 and has gone on to become the best selling entry in the franchise. Its reception from fans was generally positive, but was still mostly at odds with what longtime fans wanted. But then, in 2024 Nintendo released a full on remake of The Thousand Year Door, which seemed to make almost everyone happy, except those terminally angry people who will never like anything newer than the thing they grew up with. So yeah, Paper Mario is doing well, and if the TYD remake is any indication, might possibly be on track to become even better than ever, especially if it can find its way through its apparent identity crisis. 

Mario & Luigi

And finally, we have the third branch of the Mario RPG tree, Mario & Luigi. This series specifically focuses on the two Mario Brothers travelling together, doing cooperative moves, and telling silly stories. It got its start on the Game Boy Advance back in 2003 with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and has seen numerous sequels and remakes ever since. 

Health rating: Great

Things seemed bleak for the Mario & Luigi series as AlphaDream, the studio behind it, folded in 2019, seemingly at least in part thanks to the poor sales of their 3DS Mario & Luigi remakes. I think their performances weren’t necessarily due to the games quality so much as the catastrophic dropoff in all things 3DS following the launch of the Switch, but regardless, without AlphaDream, the series’ fate was at best uncertain. Then in 2024, Nintendo launched the gorgeous Mario & Luigi: Brothership on Switch by way of new developer Acquire. As of this writing it’s still pretty early, but its initial sales seem to have been rather impressive, especially considering the age of the Switch. It also reviewed generally well, with a few outlets not liking it, but the majority thinking it was pretty darn well made. Clearly Nintendo is interested in keeping this one alive. 

Mario & Sonic

Once fierce rivals, Nintendo and Sega became fast friends once Sega left the hardware business. This led to the crossover game that fans had been dreaming about for ages, Mario and Sonic! The only hitch was, the game that got made was absolutely nothing like what people were actually after. The Mario & Sonic crossover was all about the Olympics in the form of a minigame collection. Not a bad collection, mind you, just pretty far from what fans had been hoping for. 

Health Rating: Basically dead

The Mario & Sonic Olympic games had a pretty solid run, but seemingly came to a halt in 2019 following the release of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020 for Switch. They completely skipped over the 2022 Winter Games in China, and the 2024 games in Paris, and if that wasn’t enough, there was also a Sonic at the Olympic Games release in 2020 for mobile devices that nixed the Mario characters entirely. It looks like this partnership has come to an end. Oh well. 

Mario Maker

Making Mario games has always looked like fun, and homebrew developers have been doing it for ages. But it wasn’t until 2015 when Nintendo finally let fans officially take the reins. Super Mario Maker for Wii U was exactly what it sounds like, a game where players got to create their own Mario stages from scratch, upload them online, and share them with the world. It was brilliant. 

Health Rating: Pretty good

Super Mario Maker was a huge success by Wii U standards, but thanks to that platform’s dismal install base, the game never really took off as much as it could have. Thankfully, they released a full blown sequel in 2019 for Switch that got the game into the hands of considerably more people. The thing was, the first game got a ton of coverage, so by the time its sequel came around, it didn’t feel like quite as novel a concept. It also seemed weirdly incomplete, with certain menu options looking like they were meant to contain more, but ultimately being left blank. It still sold around 8 million units, which is pretty great, but even with some really impressive updates, it never really lived up to its awesome potential. A third entry wouldn’t surprise me, but the series going on hiatus for a few generations wouldn’t either. 

Mario + Rabbids

Back in crossover land, we have one that nobody saw coming, Mario + Rabbids. Ubisoft’s weird and obnoxious Rabbid creatures from the Rayman series crossed over with Mario and friends in 2017 with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Oddly enough, the gameplay doesn’t really pull from either franchise, instead functioning as a tactical strategy game for some reason.  

Health rating: Basically dead

Mario + Rabbids performed pretty well, and even got itself a sequel, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope in 2022. That one, however, performed less well, moving just shy of 3 million copies. And look, 3 mission copies is nothing to shake a stick at, but for a game with Mario on the box, is kind of low. To make matters worse, Davide Soliani, the creative force behind the series, left Ubisoft in 2024, meaning that there isn't anyone left at the company to properly champion a third entry. I think it’s safe to say we’ve seen the last of this particular crossover. 

Pinball Games

Mario got his pinballing start back in 1985’s Pinball for NES. (Well, 1984 on Famicom). Mario was featured right on the box, and was a playable character in a minigame that had him walking around with a metal girder trying to bounce a pinball around and save Pauline who was trapped at the top of the screen. He has since moved on to other pinball experiences with him in a more starring role, including two actual physical tables from Gottleib! 

Health rating: Basically Dead

The last proper video pinball game that starred Mario was 2004’s Mario Pinball Land for Game Boy advance. It didn’t exactly receive the highest of acclaim, either. Critics and fans were largely split on the game, liking its concept, but lamenting its lack of replayability and overall fun. Seeing as that was 20 years ago, I get the feeling Mario’s pinball days are done. 

Wrecking Crew

After Mario Bros., but before Super Mario Bros. officially became the standard for what a Mario game was supposed to be, Wrecking Crew presented a fascinating alternate take on the formula. Mario and Luigi were construction workers, and it played out as a sort of puzzle game where you had to figure out how to demolish all the walls in a given area without the ability to jump. Enemies would walk around, including Foreman Spike (who recently appeared in the Super Mario Bros. Movie, fireballs would fly, and good times were had by all.  

Health Rating: Hard to Say…

Wrecking Crew got two follow ups. One was Vs. Wrecking Crew, a more action-oriented take on the formula exclusive to arcades, and the other was Wrecking Crew ‘98, a color matching puzzle game that, at least from a gameplay perspective, bore little to no resemblance to the original Wrecking Crew at all. That’s a long time to go without an actual new entry, but not only has Wrecking Crew popped up regularly in the Smash Bros. series, including getting its own stage in the latest entry, but here we have the Mario Maker factor again. Mario’s look in Mario Maker is a direct reference to Wrecking Crew. You could even argue that the Hammer powerup in Super Mario Maker 2 might be a reference to the one Mario and Luigi wield in Wrecking Crew. It’s obviously not a property Nintendo has forgotten about, but it’s also not exactly one that they seem too keen on expanding on. I’m afraid there’s no prognosis here. 

And the Rest

Outside of cameos, Mario’s appeared in a number of one-offs as well. There was Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, Fortune Street, Game & Watch games, Mario & Wario, Hotel Mario, etc. They all have one thing in common. They’re all…

Health Rating: Basically Dead

And look, this isn’t in any way surprising. A character like Mario is doubtlessly going to appear in numerous one shots, and that’s okay! Could we use a new DDR: Mario Mix? Absolutely. The more we get to see Waluigi Dance, the better. But these experiments are a part of what makes the Mario universe so darn cool. There are no rules, as long as everyone’s having fun. So while these one-offs may be dead, who knows what the next one will be? 

And there you have it. A fairly comprehensive look at Mario’s various franchises. For the most part, they’re doing pretty well! There’s no way anyone could keep all of them regularly alive, and all things considered, Mario’s in a much healthier place than he was even just 10 years ago. And with the plumbers out of the way, that leaves us with the rest of the letter M. Join us next time as we dive into the world of Nintendo’s other M games. From Miis to Metroid, we’ll dig deep to see how everyone’s doing these days. 

See you then!