Super Mario Games in Order

Why this order?

Super Mario is less a continuing saga than a string of self-contained playgrounds. Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach, Mario runs and jumps to the rescue, and the credits roll. Every entry resets that loop with fresh mechanics rather than picking up a plot thread. That means there is no canonical story order to honor. The most useful way to experience the series is simply the order it arrived, watching the design language evolve generation by generation.

The default Release order walks the landmark mainline games from Super Mario Bros. (1985) through the Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2026). Playing chronologically is genuinely rewarding here because each title is a snapshot of what Nintendo could do with its newest hardware: the leap from the NES sprites of Bros. 3 to the open 3D of Super Mario 64 is one of gaming's clearest before-and-after moments. Remasters and enhanced editions sit directly under the game they revise, so you can skip or swap them without losing the thread.

If you would rather pick a lane, the series splits cleanly into two lines. The 2D side-scrolling line runs Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The 3D line runs Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey. Both lines are excellent starting points; newcomers often find Wonder or Odyssey the friendliest doors in.

Order genuinely matters in exactly one place: Super Mario Galaxy 2 is built straight on top of Super Mario Galaxy and assumes you have already learned how its gravity puzzles read, so play Galaxy first. Everywhere else you can start cold, and the only other sequencing decision is which version of a game to pick up.

So which version should you buy? Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are best bought as the October 2, 2025 Switch release, sold bundled or individually, which adds sharper textures, an Assist Mode and gyro aiming in place of the Wii pointer, so there is no reason to hunt down the Wii discs. Super Mario 3D World should be bought as the Switch version that comes with Bowser's Fury attached, since that is an entire extra open-world campaign for the same purchase. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on Switch already contains the New Super Luigi U campaign and adds Toadette, which makes the 2012 Wii U original redundant. Super Mario Bros. Wonder now has a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (March 26, 2026) adding Rosalina, the Koopalings as bosses and the Bellabel Park multiplayer plaza, with a paid upgrade pack if you already own the 2023 release.

The older re-releases polish rather than rebuild. Super Mario All-Stars (1993) gives Bros., Bros. 2, Bros. 3 and The Lost Levels a 16-bit graphics and audio overhaul while leaving the level design untouched, so it is the prettiest way to play them and not a different game. A Nintendo Switch Online subscription covers a lot of the back catalogue: Super Mario Bros., Bros. 2 and Bros. 3 live on the NES app, Super Mario World and All-Stars on the SNES app. Super Mario 64 is the exception, because it is an N64 title and needs the pricier Expansion Pack tier added in October 2021.

The one real hole is Super Mario Sunshine. Its last modern release was Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which Nintendo delisted on March 31, 2021 and never brought back, so buying Sunshine today means a secondhand cartridge or the original GameCube disc. Nintendo has announced Sunshine for the GameCube Nintendo Classics service on Switch 2, but it is still unreleased and undated, which is worth weighing before you pay resale prices. One more naming trap while you shop: the Super Mario Bros. 2 sold in the West is a reskin of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, because Nintendo of America considered Japan's real sequel too punishing, and that Japanese version eventually reached the West as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

A final gotcha: this is an essentials tour, not a complete catalog. The wider Mario universe spills into spin-off franchises that sit outside this list: the racing of Mario Kart, the board-game chaos of Mario Party, the storytelling of Paper Mario, and the turn-based RPGs like Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi games. They are worth your time, but they are not mainline platformers, so we have kept them off the core run.