With Super Mario Bros. Wonder making its debut on Friday (October 20th), Odometer is taking a look back at the top 5 best games of the long-running video game franchise. 

The original game first hit NES in 1985 as being the first side-scrolling 2D platform to feature the funny plumber, Mario, as he took on the long-running villain, Bowser. The video game kicked off the franchise that has expanded over the course of 38 years. 

Along with the video games, the franchise has two films. One was released in 1993 and the other, an animated film, hit theaters earlier this year. 

Here are our top 5 best games of the Super Mario Bros. Franchise. 

1. ‘Super Mario Bros.’ (1985)

Obviously couldn’t kick off this list without the original Super Mario Bros. The game introduced Mario as well as the Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Bowser, Princess Peach, and the mushrooms. It consisted of eight worlds with four levels each. There were a total of 32 levels in the entire game. 

2. ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ (1991)

Arguably the best of all the Super Mario Bros., the third game was released in 1990. Players were able to select Luigi or Mario as they made the journey to save Princess Peach from Bowser. This game featured a multiplayer option but would allow two players to take turns navigating through each world map. But in each world, Mario (or Luigi) would take one of Bowser’s seven children. In the process of saving Princess Peach, the brothers would retrieve all the worlds’ stolen wands and restore the worlds’ kings to normal. 

3. ‘Super Mario Bros. 2’ (1988)

Super Mario Bros. 2 made its debut in 1988 and featured Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach as the protagonists. Their key objective was to beat Bowser and save the worlds in the Mario universe. The players would select which character they wanted to play on each level. However, this game did not have a multiplayer functionality. It consisted of 20 different levels throughout the course of seven worlds. Each world notably had three levels, except for world seven, which had just two. 

4. ‘Super Mario 64’ (1996)

Released in 1996, Super Mario 64 was the first game in the franchise to be in 3D. In this game, Bowser invades Princess Peach’s castle and kidnaps her. Mario is tasked to save the Princess once again by beating bosses in different worlds that he accesses by jumping through magical paintings. 

5. ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ (2007)

A little over a decade after 64 made its debut, Super Mario Galaxy hit the Wii with such uniqueness and fun. The game, which is set in outer space, follows Mario as he once again is on a quest to save Princess Peach and defeat Bowser in order to save the universe. The game introduced Princess Rosalina to the Mario universe. She gave Mario the task of retrieving all the Comet Observatory’s Power Stars from Bowser. 

Although Mario was able to defeat Bowser and rescue Princess Peach, one of the galaxy’s planets ended up collapsing on itself and became a supermassive black hole, which started to consume the entire universe. The Lumas, which are star creatures that appeared throughout the game, ended up sacrificing themselves in order to save the universe. The universe was saved and Mario ended up back in the Mushroom Kingdom along with Peach and Bowser.