jan Misali, amateur linguist, asks a seemingly simple question: how many of the Mario games are “Super Mario” (or ‘mainline’) Mario games? It turns out to be surprisingly complex, because of the dozens of Mario games released over the years, there’s only universal consensus on three.
You’d think that the 3D games, starting from Super Mario 64, would be obvious inclusions, but there is disagreement, and it only gets harder to tease out from there. Does Super Mario Galaxy 2 count? At what point do the Gameboy Super Mario Lands stop counting as they turn into Wario Land games? At what point do the New Super Mario Bros. games count? Does Bowser’s Fury count (as part of the rerelease, or on its own)?
Almost everyone agrees that, even though they are doing their very best and we are very proud of them, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is not a Super Mario game.
If this sort of thing appeals, perhaps you would also enjoy:
a deep dive on the history of the letter ‘w’
why hangman is a weird and kind of broken game
or his series reviewing conlangs, Conlang Critic
previously
If you would like to know more about Mario, boy that’s a big question