Best and Worst Looking Mario Game?

[DJ Coco]

Let's not talk about the quality of the games. Let's just talk about the aesthetic.
Let's also ignore the spin-offs and focus on the mainline titles, whether it be 2D or 3D.

For the best looking one, I gotta say there's multiple contenders for me.
I would say Sunshine takes the cake. Despite the low-res repetitive texturing, they really managed to capture a vibe that is just extremely pleasant to look at, and kind of makes you wish you were really on the island taking a vacation.

Odyssey also looks really good, with its many different vibrant artstyles. I also have a soft spot for SMB3 on the NES.

For the worst looking one, it's quite easily NSMBWii for me, with only NSMB2 coming close.
Washed out colors, ugly color palettes and everything using the same plastic looking material makes for an incredibly unaesthetic game.

[Vert]

New Super Mario Bros Wii is definitely the ugliest Mario game for me. The desaturated color palettes, plastic look and uninspired environments make for a really bland looking game. NSMB2 also doesn't look particularly inspired, but at least it had some color so I'm willing to give it that.

As for the prettiest one... 2D wise I always had a soft spot for Yoshi's Island with its unique and polished style. I guess Odyssey for the 3D games for its great blend of a cartoony yet realistic style and very memorable environments.

I make games with my friend DJ Coco sometimes. Check them out here: https://cliax-games.com/
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[NowhereMan]

I missed out on the entire Gamecube era despite watching my friend play Mario Sunshine all night one night.

Going back to the Super Mario Bros 3 versus Super Mario World, both great games, I actually prefer the SMB3 sprites of Mario to the SMW 16-bit look. Also the box art was the best "Mario" of its time for me, too.



Although the All-Stars editions of the classics, 1-3 look great on the SNES.

The aesthetics of the entire game of Yoshi's Island is something that is unlike all the rest, beautifully designed, although Mario is a baby. I just like the look of the entire game. 

I am not entirely a fan of the "look" of Super Mario RPG, but again, not the game, just the look. Although I like the direction and threshold they were going. 

The game art of Super Mario 64 is absolute prime, although the actual Mario in the gameplay is not my favorite, but it is great for its time.



The N64 Mario is what it is, looking at Mario Party, etc. 

It's hard for me to talk about Mario's looks in games like Super Mario Land because it was the original GameBoy, to begin with, also because of its time, although I love the game, itself. 

And then we could talk about the Mario in the original Super Mario 64, versus the Nintendo DS version, but I won't.

The original Mario & Luigi sprites, definitely not my favorite "looks", but not bad games.

I love the art style of the Paper Mario games, not necessarily the Mario "looks", though.

Everything beyond Super Mario Galaxy looks really good to me, the mainstay games. 

The NSMB on the DS, for example, I don't think it looks the "worst" or anything, it is just a different feel of 2D Mario in a 3D world.

EDIT: Must have got me excited on this topic, as I didnt read the starting post thoroughly lol

[VinnyVideo]

Yoshi's Island is my favorite Marioverse aesthetic. I agree that Super Mario Sunshine has a great graphical style and atmosphere as well.

None of the mainline Mario games are bad games in any way, including in terms of their graphical styles. But I agree that the New SMB games didn't have the most inspired graphical style, and New SMB Wii might have aged the least gracefully of the bunch.

Course clear! You got a card.

[Louis Paul]

I'm biased to the SNES graphics, so I prefer the graphics of Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars and Yoshi's Island. I never liked the graphics of newer 2.5D platform games.

Another reason for that was because I loved to play a fangame called Super Mario War, with graphics mainly taken from SMW and SMAS. And when I watched the Super Mario Maker videos on YouTube I preferred watching the SMB, SMB3 and SMW levels.

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[BillieVee]

I loved the aesthetic of the Super Mario Galaxy games. Can't think of any bad-looking mainline games, although I agree that some of the NSMB games were visually bland.