3. Super Mario World (Super NES)
Mario's SNES debut was the ultimate refinement of the formula created on his NES games. The designs of the characters were launched into the 16 bit era, and whilst some elements have seen updates since (Yoshi was more bulky in his introduction) they have pretty much remained the same ever since. An enormous amount of levels, this game really took the fight back to Sega's new kid on the block Sonic and showed the world why platforming was the house that Mario built. This was also the game where 'Super' Mario finally got a cape.