The Best Nintendo Game Every Year 1983 - 2024

And so a new Nintendo console arrives, so too does the Moustachioed Inevitability. Whilst both narrowly missing inclusion on this list, both Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine were huge hits for respective onsoles landing in the top and third sales slot respectively.

Thankfully, whilst Mario Galaxy did use what the Wii could uniquely offer, it was at its core a traditional 3D Mario platformer.

More than anything else, Mario Galaxy’s biggest strength was in its wild sight-seeing tour of Rosalina’s wacky universe, with its constantly shifting gravity and its endless planetoid each with different shapes, gimmicks and objectives. The game kept players engaged (or addicted) by retaining the most basic Mario gameplay but offering a continuous stream of something new to see.

And hear too, since Galaxy’s lushly-textured score was the first time Mario had an adventure to the sounds of a real orchestra.

Perhaps the most consistently good 3D outing that Mario has ever been on, Galaxy would remain one of the best examples of what the Wii could achieve in terms of its graphics as well as how innate motion controls could feel if done subtly.