Super Mario Bros. (NES)

Best: That Iconic Mario Movement

It’s really tough to single out one thing about the original Super Mario Bros. that stands out as its best aspect. It was a triumph on so many levels: unforgettable music, distinctive character design, and the best platforming levels the nascent genre had yet seen, just to name a few. But none of that would have mattered if just running and jumping as Mario through all those treacherous environments and making those Hail-Mary leaps over Bowser at the end of each castle didn’t feel so damn good. Today, of course, playing as Mario doesn’t feel particularly remarkable, but that’s just because Nintendo knocked it out of the park in designing his movement, creating something that immediately felt so intuitive, natural, and amazing that games have been building on it ever since.

Worst: The Water Levels

Look, I appreciate that Nintendo wanted to change up the action as you traversed the Mushroom Kingdom, so I can totally forgive the presence of Super Mario Bros.’ water levels. But in a game that was revolutionary in part because of just how good the movement feels, these stages, in which you sluggishly try to avoid swimming straight into a slow-moving Blooper or Cheep Cheep, really deflate the momentum. Swimming stages have continued to be a staple of Mario’s adventures, of course, but Nintendo would tweak the movement to make them less of a drag. By Super Mario Bros. 3, you already felt like you had more control underwater, and if you scored one of those snazzy frog suits, you were really in business.

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