When legends of gaming join forces, usually the result is something amazing. At least this holds true, with most games on all the popular gaming platforms, and especially when Super Mario  games are concerned. Granted, there have been less successful titles in the collection of Super Mario games, but never really bad ones, or worse, complete failures.

I am happy to see that this holds true for Super Mario games on the PC as well, where I had a thorough look at Fantastic Trio, a platform game after  the finest Super Mario Games tradition, only this time you get to choose to play as Super Mario the Italian Plumber, The ultra fast Hedgehog: Sonic, or Disney’s prime champion: Aladdin.  With names like these, surely a game featuring them, must be something else. Well, I am happy to report it is not.

Fantastic Trio upholds the same quality as any classic Super Mario game, with all the exciting elements from the collecting of the coins to the squashing of your enemies by jumping them.

Needless to say that unlike its classic role models like Super Mario World, this game is a lot younger, and it shows. The graphics are simply amazing, and our three heroes have never looked this good on any computer screen, with sounds that could be coming straight from your CD or DVD player.

I think everybody gets the idea, that Fantastic Trio is indeed a fantastic game, that holds true to the original and addictive game play, its role models adhered to and is every bit as good, only with better looking graphics, and excellent sounding music.

The only minor complaint I could make against this otherwise excellent arcade game, would be that especially the first levels could have been made more challenging, as I  found them to be a bit easy to conquer.

Once again this shows the tremendous improvements flash arcade games are going through, especially when Super Mario games are concerned. Currently we are even seeing flash based multiplayer games hitting the market, so it won’t be long until we will see a multiplayer Super Mario game, emerge, which will be the point, that PC Super Mario games will take on a life of their own.

Of course Fantastic Trio is available on the established Super Mario games arcade sites, along with many more excellent titles, including all the classic Super Mario Games!

I enjoyed playing Fantastic Trio quite a lot, and can recommend this free to play arcade platform game to any fan of the Super Mario Games, but also to those that have enjoyed the Sonic games and to a lesser extend the Aladdin games from Disney. In fact the ones that enjoyed playing Tarzan on the Playstation consoles, will be pleasantly surprised as well

In an age, where video games seem to get released more and more for console gaming only it is good to see PC gamers striking back with free arcade Super Mario games, that are improving at the speed of light!

It won’t be long now until us decent PC gamers will say “screw the consoles”, we got better games for free, and what a glorious day that is going to be for all PC gamers worldwide!

Popularity: 30% [?]

The villain Fawful, better known in Japan as Gerakobits, is one of the villains that keeps reappearing in the Mario and Luigi series of the Super Mario Games collection. He made his first appearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, as one of the servants of Cackletta, an evil witch who was after the “Beanstar” at the time. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in time he reappears as a store owner. He was last seen in 2009 in Bowser’s Inside story, the last installment of the Mario & Luigi series, where he starred as the main villain of the game.

Fawful was originally created my Masanari Sato and altered for the English audiences by Bill Trinen and Nate Bihldorff, of the US department of Nintendo. Fawful, became popular fast, due to his catchy one-liners, like “I have fury!” and “Fink rat!”

Since his debut in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Fawful is known for his one liners, spoken in typical broken English, and he typically refers to himself in the 3rd person. As villains go, Fawful is a small player in the Super Mario Games universe, yet he still is one of the most popular ones, and whenever he appears in a game his one-liners will gain a following that spread throughout the Internet. Fawful is a servant of Cackletta, to whom he is loyal. In Mario & Luigi: partners in time, he appears as a store owner who trades beans for extreme badges, but only the young versions of Super Mario and Luigi, are able to enter. Throughout the game, it is explained that Fawful used the store to hide, and come up with a place to take revenge on the Mario brothers to whom he refers to as “Red Stache & Green Stache”. In the last installment of the Mario & Luigi series, he is the one causing the brothers to end up in Bowser’s stomach, and also the cause for infecting the citizens of Toad Town with the “Blorbs”. Fawful intended to take over Mushroom world, by using the power of the dark star, ultimately getting his revenge on the Super Mario brothers. Eventually he is defeated and blows up.

Since his first appearance, Fawful only received positive receptions, and ranks as the number seven on the favorite villains list. It is safe to say that though he is only a minor villain, Fawful is one of the most memorable villains in the universe of the Super Mario games, as was created by Nintendo. His particular way of speaking, often referred to as “broken Japanese game speak” added humor to the games, and contributed greatly to the overall entertainment factor of the games.

Given the fact that Fawful blew up in the last installment of the Mario & Luigi series, it remains to be seen if we will ever hear from the loveable villain again, or if Nintendo in their wisdom has decided to bury the character forever.

Fans of the games, at least are hoping see more of Fawful in the near future, so let’s hope Nintendo listens to their fans.

Popularity: 59% [?]

Mario: Bombs Away was one of the Super Mario Games that were created as a standalone hand held game, and was released in 1983. And because of this date falls in the classic Super Mario games category.

Years later, the Super Mario game was added to the popular “Game and watch” packages that were released for the Nintendo Game boy Color and the Nintendo Game Boy Advanced. Since Mario: Bombs Away, was originally created as a standalone handheld game, this is one of the lesser known Super Mario Games, yet it holds all the typical addictive features, typically associated with Super Mario Games. However, this may soon change, as this title has also emerged on the Super Mario Arcade gaming scene.

The objective of this Super Mario game is to have Military Mario drop bombs, from left to right, without hitting oil spills and torches of his enemies. While this is a very simple concept, the game actually proves to be very addictive in game play, which makes it for all intends and purposes a worthy addition to the Super Mario games collection.

For this Super Mario game our hero dropped his famous red overall, and cap, in order to replace it with military gear and helmet, which was a rare and unique occasion, as it does not happen very often that we get to see the charismatic hero of the Super Mario games, without the tenue he has become famous for, But Mario Bombs away, certainly is one of those rare occasions.

Currently the Super Mario: Bombs away game is available on the Internet, as a flash game you can play for free in any browser, and on any platform, as long as the device you are playing on is capable of establishing an Internet connection and browse the World wide web. The game can be found at the better arcade gaming sites, especially those that are dedicated to offering Super Mario games.

Originally the game was played on a LCD handheld console, where the player used the built in mirror to view the action, obviously on a regular PC, or Internet capable device this will not be required, and the game plays just like any other Super Mario game, that will run in your browser.

Mario: Bombs Away, is the perfect example of a Super Mario Game, that has been ported to the PC, looking better than ever, while retaining all of its unique qualities, surpassing the original game. The fact that just like all the other Super Mario games, that have been ported to the PC, Mario Bombs away is free to play, makes this version the most popular one, even surpassing the Game and watch series that were released for the Nintendo Game Boy advanced.

Overall, Mario Bombs away, is one of the more simple Super Mario Games, that would in these modern times, rather classify as a Super Mario Mini game, rather than a fully fledged Super Mario game, however, the game is still good for hours of clean arcade gaming fun, and therefore deserves its own review.

Popularity: 39% [?]

The fact that the Super Mario games have arrived on regular pc games, and other internet capable devices, is something that has become common knowledge, but mostly regarding the classic Super Mario games.

Lesser known is the fact that new Super Mario games are being released almost on a daily basis. That’s right brand new adventures of our hero, and in all popular gaming genres.

Besides the classic Super Mario games, that will play in your browser, there are Super Mario fighting games, Super Mario racing games, and of course super Mario platform games all starring the little Italian plumber, in new adventures the world has never seen before. This is merely a small selection of available gaming genres, starring Super Mario, as literally every gaming category imaginable is present, on the better arcade gaming sites, dedicated to offering Super Mario games.

At the same time the classic Super Mario games have been getting makeovers, and are being re-released, with smoother game play, better graphics, and perhaps most important more levels! In fact, Classic Super Mario games, have never before looked as good as they do on the PC, and best of all they are free to play!

The best place to find the free Super Mario games are as stated the dedicated Super Mario arcade gaming sites, because they specialize in Super Mario games, and will always feature the latest releases, for you to play!

It goes without saying that this is excellent news for us; the fans of all the Super Mario games, as this means that independent new games are being released without involvement from Nintendo. Now, this is not to state that Super Mario games, released by Nintendo are a bad thing, it is just good to see that we do not have to rely on just one company to be assured of fresh supplies of new Super Mario Games, because as true fans, we can never get enough of the adventures, our plumber hero engages in.

Over the last two years, a strong Super Mario gaming community has emerged, that can hold its own, which will ensure the arrival of an abundance of new Super Mario games, and with technology developing as fast as it is, we can expect great things from these releases, as it seems that with each new Super Mario game release for the pc, the quality of the games improves, by bounds and leaps.

In fact I would not be surprised that in two years from now, Nintendo would face serious competition from the free Super Mario games that are created for PC and other Internet capable devices!

The only question that remains will be, how will Nintendo respond to such a development? Will they embrace it and treat it like a great opportunity, or will they respond like traditional media companies responded to music and movie downloads and try to fight us every step of the way?

Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, at this rate, in just a few more months, the super Mario Games for PC, will become an unstoppable force, through sheer volume, regardless of Nintendo’s response.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Princess Peach Toadstool, is the ruler of the Mushroom kingdom, and  is frequently in need of rescue by Super Mario in many of the popular titles of the Super Mario games.

Her first appearance was from the hand of Shigeru Miyamoto, but he would at a later stage, turn this over to  Yōichi Kotabe, for a makeover according to his instructions. The goal was to make the Princess look more stubborn yet cute, and under the hands of Yōichi Kotabe her appearance was changed significantly.

Princess Peach has long blonde hair, with large blue colored eyes, a slim figure and rosy cheeks, a typical characteristic of most characters in Mushroom world with humanoid features, like Mario, Luigi, and the others. She is often seen wearing red dresses or pink ball gowns and white shoes. She also often wears white gloves, some jewelry, with mostly sapphires and rubies, for which she apparently has a fondness.

While playing sports, the Princess is almost always seen in pink, and wears shorts and halter tops, white socks and tennis shoes. At such events she wears her hair in a pony tail.
At the very first appearance in the Super Mario Games, the Princess wore white pajamas, and matching white slippers.

Overall the Princess is perceived as well mannered, selfless and kind. Typically she will show no aggression in any event, which makes her easy prey to the villains of Mushroom world, which in turn creates the need for more rescuing by  Mario and the others.

During appearances where the Princess is a playable character in the Super Mario games, her most remarkable ability is that she is able to float in mid air, as was first seen in Mario Bros. 2. In this game the Princess was a popular character as this ability made navigation throughout the game a much easier task. Princess Peach also has the ability in the popular Paper Mario role playing game.

In the year 2007 the princess ended up on the  Forbes  Wealthiest Fictional People list, with an estimated wealth of $ 1 billion, and she holds the 10^th position on the top ten video game politicians list of Electronic gaming.

Originally the Princess was not known as Princess Peach, but as Princess Toadstool. This changed after the legendary Super Mario game: Super Mario 64, after which her name was changed to Princess Peach permanently.

Princess peach rules the Mushroom Kingdom, where she was born inside the royal castle, which is currently her home, and she resides there along with the Mushroom world government, which is represented by a chancellor, who is her grandfather. Her grandmother also resides in the castle. All live there under the protection of the Royal Guards known as mushroom retainers, and are served by their loyal servant Toadsworth.

Princess Peach’s father is the Mushroom king , but he has never made an appearance in any of the Super Mario games.

Peach made her first appearance in Super Mario Bros. and has since then been kidnapped, abducted and held captive by a wide variety of villains, among them Bowser and the alien Tatanga, but was rescued by the Super Mario brothers on every occasion.

Popularity: 63% [?]

It took almost 20 years for Nintendo to release a true sequel, for a Super Mario game, but not taking titles like Yoshi’s Island and Wario land into account, as those are adventures of our plumber, that stand on their own, that are familiar, using the well known Super Mario Games characters, but do not add, to the story of any of the original Super Mario games titles.

With Super Mario Galaxy 2 this has come to an end, as this amazing game is a straight up sequel to the blockbuster Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii.

Taking advantage of sending Super Mario into the depths of space, Nintendo was able to play around with the rules, that were set out in the other Super Mario Games. What little laws of nature exists in Mushroom world, it could all be tossed out of the airlock, as each planetoid could have its own set of rules, setting the scene for a wide variety of games, each with its own rule set and setting.

This made Super Mario Galaxy unique, but it also made the game the only one in the Super Mario Games collection, that was in need of a sequel, a task that seemed easy enough, all Nintendo had to do was live up to the quality of the original. While this could prove to be a true challenge for the designers, with this new installment of the galaxy series, they have proven once and for all, that they were up for it, and once again delivered a game, that is nothing other than excellent.

Like most Super Mario Games, we start off in familiar surroundings. The location Yoshi’s house, only this time it is located on an asteroid. From there our Hero is blasted into space and the adventure can begin. The first challenge will be a series of mini games designed to get familiarized with the game controls and the 3D surroundings.  Like in the original game, a Piranha plant needs to be hit, in order to earn your very first star.

The settings and levels are very similar to the original Super Mario Galaxy game, but this time they serve different purposes, but the original story has its place as well, with flash backs of it throughout the game.

Overall Super Mario Galaxy 2 has turned out to be more organized than its predecessor, yet entails the same amount of mind bending fun, if not more so, as the focus seems to lie upon anything that can catapult Mario to another destination, there will be plenty to soar, run and jump, while gearing up for the next challenge.

While Super Mario Galaxy is by no means an easy game to play, it is a very easy one to like, with superb graphics, intuitive  game play, wide variety in gaming styles and some of the fastest camera movements the Wii has ever seen. It is safe to say that Nintendo has once again delivered a brilliant addition to the already impressive collection of Super Mario games.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a game in the RPG genre, that was also known as Mario & Luigi RPG in Japan. The game was created by a company called Alphadream and published and distributed by Nintendo. The game was released in 2003, for the Game Boy Advance, and is the third game in the RPG genre. The game is comes after Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, which was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Paper Mario, which was released for the N64 console. After the Superstar Saga there would follow two sequels both for the Nintendo DS: Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, released in 2005, and  Bowser’s Inside Story, which was released in 2009.

The game’s storyline starts off in the Mushroom Kingdom, but quickly shifts to the Beanbean kingdom for the larger part of the game, where the Mario brothers do battle with Cackletta, the game’s main villain. The adventure starts off with Cackletta, along with her aid called Fawful, manages to steal the voice of Princess Peach, after infiltrating the castle posing as an ambassador of the Beanbean Kingdom.

As the game and storyline progresses, the Mario brothers learn the true goal of Cackletta’s evil scheme, which is to activate  the beanstar, capable of granting wishes. The villain needs the Princess’s voice in order to control the Beanstar as legends state that only a pure voice can control it. Unfortunately Peach is the only one who remains with a voice of these qualities, and therefore Cackletta had to steal it in order to be able to carry out its evil plans.

Halfway through the game we once again meet with Bowser who gets possessed by Cackletta, introducing the deranged Bowletta, as the result. Our heroes team up with the charismatic Prince Peasly in order to defeat the half crazed villain, who after being defeated releases Bowser in order to save both Kingdoms.

The game differs from traditional role playing games, because it focuses mostly on the battle interface, and lays the emphasis more on timing and well placed attacks. The game is light hearted, filled with funny jokes and humorous references to the legacy of the Super Mario games series, making it once again a game that is suitable for all ages, which is something Nintendo seems to excel at when the Super Mario games are concerned.

Overall, the game was very well received and got positive reviews from most of the critics. Some even went as far as declaring Superstar Saga the twelfth best game for the Game Boy Advance, when reviewing the total assortment of available games for the Game Boy Advance.

The next installment after Superstar Saga would become Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, though also an RPG type of game, the story that unfolds there appears to be unrelated to the events that took place in the Superstar Saga, which is only referred to on a few occasions, and follows a completely different story line, with other villains to defeat.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Mario Party 4 is the fourth of a series of board game styled video games and the first to come out for the Nintendo GameCube console, starring all the well known characters from the Super Mario games series. This fourth installment of the series was released in 2002 in the United States, Europe and Japan.

In Mario Party 4, 8 characters from the Super Mario games series are featured, that can be controlled as characters in the game, that offers six game board with each a different theme, to play on. The goal is to collect as many stars as possible , which are available on a predetermined location on the board where they can be bought. Dice determine the player’s movements, where every roll of the dice resembles one turn. After every turn a mini game follows, where the players can accumulate cash for the character in question with which items and stars can be purchased.

Overall the game was well received by the gaming critics, though an often heard complaint at the time was that the game lacked gaming speed and originality. Nevertheless it won the Family Game of The Year award for the year 2003.

The game can be played with up to four players, each controlling a character from the Super Mario universe. Any character that has no player to control it, will be controlled by the computer. Though there are eight characters to choose from, it really makes no difference which one is chosen as all of them posses identical skills and abilities. In this fourth installment of the series it was also possible to assemble teams for the very first time.

The duration of each game can be set by the pre determined amount of mini games, as these can be increased or decreased by a factor of five. At the end of the game the winner is whoever has accumulated the most stars during the game.

Other features are the optional bonus mode, where hidden blocks are added to the playing field. When located the player receives a star or a coin.

While the game received many mixed reviews at its release, it is still generally regarded as being one of the better installments of the Mario Party series, with some of the best mini games ever created for the series, and especially its multiplayer mode was much praised by friends and foes of the series.

Though the selection of available boards, were lacking in originality, the mini games made up for what was lacking there. Mario Party 4 is a game that is good for hours of fun with a very high replay value, due to its many options, but especially because of the excellent multiplayer features the game possesses.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Mario is Missing is one of the first from the Super Mario  games series, that was developed for educational purposes, and was released for the PC, SNES, NES and Mac. The company that developed the game for the PC and SNES was called The Software Toolworks, while the NES and MAC versions were developed by a company called Radical Entertainment. All the different versions of the game were released through the software publisher Mindscape, in 1992 .

Mario is missing, was the first game of the Super Mario games series, featuring Luigi as the main hero in search for his missing brother. It would be until the release of Luigi’s Mansion in 2001, that the other half of the Mario Bros would star in a major game release of the Super Mario games series again.

The story line of the game, revolves around Mario who is captured  by the Evil Bowser, after following him to Antarctica, where the arch villain has built a castle, and devised a cunning plan to melt the icecaps to flood the world, using hair dryers he is buying from a company called Hafta Havit. Lacking the funds to bankroll the operation, he sends his koopa minions to various city across the world to steal artifacts he can sell. Mario, Luigi and Yoshi catch on to his evil scheme, and set course for Antarctica in order to put a stop to the villain’s evil plans. It is at Bowser’s castle, when Luigi is hesitating to enter, and Mario goes after Bowser on his own and disappears, leaving Luigi with the daring task to find and rescue him from Bowser’s clutches.

Luigi advances throughout the game by finishing levels that are set in the castle of Bowser, where every floor is protected by one of the Koopa minions and contains several pipes that function as gateways to transport Luigi to a city where Koopa’s are active. Once a level is completed Luigi must face and defeat the Koopa guard of that particular floor in order to advance to the next level.

The game revolves largely around moving through a city in the side scrolling fashion typical for Super Mario games, while jumping the Koopas in order to retrieve the artifacts they have stolen for Bowser. Once retrieved, these artifacts, which happen to be parts of well known landmarks must be returned to the proper locations, where Luigi must answer three questions about the particular landmark that was returned. Once returned the location is once again open. During the quests Luigi has to find out his location in order to be able to call in the help of Yoshi, and for this purpose he uses a gadget called the Globulator. If Luigi is successful in guiding Yoshi to the right place, he can ride him, in order to double his speed to move around. Once the exit is located, Luigi ends up back at the castle, but only when Yoshi is with him to frighten the Pokey into the pipe. Without Yoshi Luigi is not able to get back to Bowser’s castle, and has to move to a new city in order to try again.

Luigi has the ability to interrogate the local population while on his quests, in order to gain clues regarding his location, the general location of the koopas that are left, and to obtain information on the landmarks that have been affected by the Koopas. Luigi also possesses a map pointing out all locations in a city where the info booths, locals and koopas are located.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Luigi is the other half of the Mario Bros, Mario’s younger and more timid brother.

Luigi appeared first in the Super Mario arcade game: Mario Bros, as a character to be played by a second player. He continued in this role in other games, like Super Mario Bros and Super Mario World, to name a few. All this changed with the release of Super Mario Bros 2, where Luigi became available as a playable main character for the very first time. In more recent releases Luigi’s role was diminished to spin off titles like Mario Party and Mario Kart, but he also starred on two occasions as the main hero of the game. The first time Luigi starred as the main hero was in 1991 when the educational game Mario is missing was released, where Luigi was called upon to find his missing brother. A quest he had to undertake once more in Luigi’s Mansion, after sending his brother to check out a haunted mansion he had obtained, and Mario once more went missing.

The Luigi character was original created to act as a palette exchange for Mario, using a green color scheme instead of the well known red, which is typical for Mario. As his role in the Super Mario games series progressed he developed characteristics of his own, being slightly taller than Mario, and a little thinner. Luigi is portrayed as Mario’s equal when it comes to kindness, but less of a hero in potentially dangerous situations.

Luigi was created simply to function as a Mario double in two player mode of the various Super Mario games. In the first releases the two were exactly identical, except for the color scheme, due to the same graphical restrictions of that period in time, that were responsible for the characteristics Mario is now famous for. All this changed with the arrival of Super Mario Bros 2, where for the first time it became possible to equip Luigi with a set of characteristics of his own.

After the successful release of Mario Bros, the time was right to introduce the plumber in green to a wider gaming audience, which occurred through the release of Super Mario Bros. In this installment of the popular Super Mario games series, Luigi once more functioned as Mario’s double, but when Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels came out in 1986, all this changed, as this game gave the starting signal for his development in the Super Mario game series. In Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, Luigi was given his own unique set of abilities, allowing him to jump higher than his brother, but at the same time he was slower at gaining speed then Mario.

While still appearing identical to Mario, besides the color scheme, this was the start for the final development of Luigi, into the character we know today, which came into full effect with the release of Super Mario Bros. 2, where he received his current looks and style.

Overall, Luigi has turned out to have become one of the most popular characters in the Super Mario games universe, and it is certain that we will see him again, in many new Super Mario games that are yet to come.

Popularity: 100% [?]