How the Mario games I’m personally most enthusiastic/nostalgic about are all among the black sheep in the series:
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SMB2US: This game can be so creepy. Sometimes you dig up a plant and it’s a bubbling potion for some reason. Then when you throw the potion it creates a door to the “backside world”. And when you pick up a key, some kind of cursed floating mask starts chasing you in big swooping motions, and it’s not contained to the room it spawned in
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World: Half the levels have a secret exit somewhere and that causes the overworld to branch out and interconnect in so many clever ways. Yoshi abilities depend on the color of the Yoshi and the color of the shell they’ve holding in their mouth, and if you find a blue shell you can fly anywhere with full control, but Yoshi can’t resist swallowing it after a while. My mind was blown when I used a blue yoshi to reach the extra secret world beyond the main secret world.
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3d World (Wii U version): Despite the “world” in the title, this is closer to SMB3 (or obviously 3d Land) in basic philosophy. It’s one of my favorites just because it’s a delightful modern-but-back-to-basics challenge platformer. It varies up the pacing a lot with Captain Toad levels, WarioWare-ish chains of 10-second micro-levels, and returning to previous levels with different characters/powerups to get more starcoins. It also has “having fun using new graphics tech for the first time” energy, with gimmicks like the transparent pipe networks, and the “Shogun’s castle” level where Mario becomes a silhouette when he’s behind a paper wall. Last but not least you can play as Princess Peach in a catsuit