Surprisingly, SMB3 managed to buck the trend of games barely surviving then getting eliminated the next round (Luigi U and NSMB) - instead, the newest game of the franchise, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, is out! It may be an absolute treat aesthetically, but the lack of replay value and its relative easiness compared to the other 2D Marios is likely what killed it here.
Eight games live to see another day.
Bowser's Fury is out! As someone who's never played it (it's literally the only mainline Mario I've never played in my entire life), I can't say much about it, but I do find it impressive what is technically a sub-campaign in a port managed to make it this far. Only 10 games remain.
New Super Mario Bros. for the DS is out at 12th place - and with that, we've hit this game's halfway point! Unsurprisingly, most of the early eliminations were either oddities from the franchise's early years (Lost Levels, Mario 2, Mario Land) or games of the so-called "bland era" (all of the New games in addition to Mario Run). The only early boots I'd say genuinely shocked me were Super Mario Land 2 and Super Mario 3D Land; other than those two, there haven't been many out of the ordinary placements.
11 games remain.
Last night's voting actually ended in a tie between New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii - something that surprisingly hasn't happened within this game so far. I was originally considering putting both of them in a "sudden death" tier and having you guys comment which one to eliminate, but I felt that'd just be a waste of time, so I instead decided to break the tie by looking at each game's Metacritic score. They're pretty close, but NSMB just barely edges out NSMBW with a score of 89 as opposed to 87. That, plus the fact NSMBW received its vote first, is what influenced me to eliminate it over NSMB.
12 games remain - we're only one elimination away from the halfway point!
It's come to my attention that the tier list I uploaded for Day #9 left out both 3D World and Bowser's Fury for some reason, despite both games still being in. I have no clue what caused this error (my best guess is a glitch), but whatever the case, I apologize for the confusion this situation may have caused.
Anyhoo, Super Mario Bros. 2 (or Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, or Super Mario USA, or Super Mario Advance) is out. This game always sort of stuck out to me because of how unique it is compared to the rest of the franchise - even with the Mario elements the American version brought in such as the mushrooms and Koopa shells, there's still a lot of really neat things in this game that I wish would've received more use in future titles. Unfortunately, this game's unusual nature is likely what did it in, as while it is still a good game, it doesn't really fit the expected Mario formula that well. 13 games remain.
New Super Mario Bros. U is out! Again, I don't really have much to say this time around because I haven't played it that much (my disc of the Wii U version got scratched years ago), though I will say things currently aren't looking good for the NSMB subseries. 14 games remain.
New Super Luigi U might have narrowly survived the last elimination, but karma takes no prisoners, and the votes were unanimously against it this time around. 15 games remain.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 is out! I actually don't have that much to say about it - it's been years since I last played it, but what I will say is I find it interesting how we've just eliminated two handheld 2D Mario sequels based around coins in a row. 17 games remain.
Now here's a result that actually kinda shocked me - Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins has been eliminated. I always thought it was pretty underrated for a Game Boy title, but I suppose not everyone thinks the same way. 18 games remain.
I know I said I probably wasn't gonna post today until really late in the evening, buuuut I figured I might as well just call it here since the votes aren't that close.
The Lost Levels just lost the competition! 19 games remain.
Super Mario Land is out! As someone who replayed it in its entirety recently, I can't say I particularly agree with the assertion of it being the second worst mainline Mario game, but I do get where the detractors are coming from. Two down, 20 left to rank.
(NOTE: Since I'll be moving out of my dorm for the majority of the day tomorrow, chances are I won't be able to post Day #4 until really late in the evening. Just making that clear in advance so no one's led to believe the ranking's been cancelled.)
And we've got our first boot! Super Mario Run received a whopping 15 upvotes (not counting the other comments that voted for it), taking it out of the running (see what I did there?) for the title of the best mainline Mario game. 21 games remain.
Figured this would be a fun ranking to do, seeing as I've been on a bit of a Mario kick as of late. 22 games, and only one can be crowned champion. Who'll it be? Well, that's for you guys to decide!
(BTW, in case you're wondering, the Robot Master ranking is cancelled. I may reboot it sometime in the future, but it's done for now.)
Bounce Man has been bounced! Don't really have much to say about him - I guess he's got a unique design, but he looks more like a miniboss than a proper Robot Master. 107 remain.
(In case you aren't familiar with any of these guys' names, here's a link to a relevant article on MMKB.)