We are about 10 weeks away until the release of Mario Odyssey. For the pleasure of the Steemit audience and myself, I will unveil my top 10 favorite Mario games. The list will include the Mario games spawned from the genius of Shigeru Miyamoto (the platformers and 3d titles), or the Mario games based on Miyamoto’s style (which may be the case for a couple hand held Mario titles that made the list).   

  I will unveil one Mario title a week for the next 10 weeks because why the hell not. What better time to discuss Mario then right now?    Without further adieu I give you the Number 10 game to kick off the list. . .   

Number 10.  Mario Sunshine

  Given that Mario Odyssey is the reason for the season, Mario Sunshine is a fitting way to kick off the list. This is a polarizing title. I loved it. It is probably the second most difficult Mario title of the mainline Mario games. The first would be Mario Lost Levels, also known as the Japanese Mario 2 (released later as Lost Levels on Mario Allstars for the SNES). That game is hell and is an article for another a day.    

  The game play in Mario Odyssey is rumored to be heavily based on Mario Sunshine. 

  Mario Sunshine is a difficult game, but the gameplay is the most fun of all the 3d Marios. For the true gamers out there, this game is far superior than Mario Galaxy and Mario 3d World. The latter titles hold your hand a bit too much. Sunshine gets it just right.    

  Sunshine was a commercial failure. I attribute this, due to the fact that a lot who grew up playing Nintendo were entering high school. At this stage, the teenage gamer sought titles like Metal Gear Solid. Playstation 2 and Xbox were white hot, and characters like Solid Snake made you feel like more of a badass than Mario.    I played Sunshine many years later, and loved it. It’s far different than any other Mario game, but to me, Sunshine is comparable to Mario 2 for NES, in that, the gameplay was radically different, but still amazing.    As you can see below you have a water gun that doubles as a water jet pack. See below. 

I will note that Mario Sunshine is the only 3d Mario Game to be on my top 10. It probably deserves to be higher on the list, but what can I say, I’m biased toward the 2d platformers. This is the best 3d Mario Game to date. Kudos to Nintendo for looking to Sunshine as their inspiration for Mario Odyssey.    

I will unveil Number 9 next week.