SMB Numerical Canon

Eric B

Spiny
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There are different ideas as to which "number" SMB game we are "up to". It is widely known that SMW was SMB4. After that, people lost count, as many third party games based on Mario came out (such as the 3D Super Mario RPG which came out for the SNES right around the same time SM64 debuted for the N64), and then the new 3D Mario games, the "Smash" and "Party" series, the Wario spinoffs, and new "Kart" games.

I would say that the "official" number would consist of first-party multi-world platformers that are not spinoffs (such as SMW2, basically).

-1: Donkey Kong (arcade, 1981-2)
0: Mario Bros. (arcade, 1983)
1: Super Mario Bros (NES, 1985)
1A: VS. Super Mario Bros (Arcade version, 1986; includes 2J levels)
2J: Super Mario Bros 2 (Japanese, 1986, aka "the Lost Levels")
2A: Super Mario Bros 2 (USA, 1988; originally Japanese "Doki Doki Panic" or "Dreamland")
3: Super Mario Bros 3 (NES, 1990; Originally, arcade "Playchoice 10" machine, 1989)
4: Super Mario World (SNES, 1991)
5: Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)
6: Super Mario Sunshine (Game Cube, 2002)
7: New Super Mario Bros (DS, 2006)
8: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)
9: New super Mario Bros Wii (Wii, 2009)
10: (Super Mario Galaxy 2, proposed for Wii, 2010)

The Super Mario Land series gets left out, because it was strictly for the Game Boy, and released as a totally separate series from the NES and Super NES games 1 through 4 it was released in the midst of (So additional numbers would be out of place anyway). Game Boy back then was still the old black & yellow screen, so was very different, and the game even had a different princess and boss.
This may put New Super Mario Bros in question also, since it was released specifically for the DS (Game Boy's ultimate successor in the handheld field), but by now, the handheld and home console platforms have clearly moved closer together, with full color and full graphics games, and NSMB is clearly tied to the SMB line of games in its obvious retro format. So it was a true "SMB7".
Many seem to believe the 3D series should be left out, but they were a logical extension of the Mario franchise, and still keep in with the same basic format.

so would any one else agree?
 
I guess. :-\

I normally consider it to be like this:

Super Mario Bros.:
1) SMB
2) SMB2
2.5) SMB2(J)
3) SMB3
4) SMW
5) NSMBWii

Super Mario Land:
1) SML
2) SML2
3) NSMB (kind of consider this the true SML3 and Wario Land just to be a spin-off)

Everything else doesn't really matter to me number-wise.


Though the whole numbering thing doesn't really matter to me because Nintendo never really uses them nowadays. :P
 
So basically, you divide it according to home consoles, and handhelds, and I guess the 3D series is also separate.
 
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