5 games similar to Super Mario Bros. — handpicked for fans of Platformer games.
If you love Super Mario Bros., you’re a fan of one of the most influential game designs ever created. The perfect platformer combines immediate accessibility, hidden depth, satisfying controls, and escalating challenge. Here are the best games that capture that same magic.
The most obvious choices for Super Mario Bros. fans are the sequels, each evolving the formula:
Super Mario Bros. 3 is widely considered even better than the original — it adds power-ups, world maps, and design variety that make it one of the greatest NES games ever made.
Super Mario World on the SNES perfected the 2D Mario formula with Yoshi, Cape Mario, and a hidden world of additional challenge.
Super Mario 64 revolutionized 3D platforming the same way the original revolutionized 2D platforming — if you’re ready to move into three dimensions.
Mega Man 2 — The perfect marriage of platformer precision and action shooting. Like Mario, it rewards mastery and offers challenging but fair level design.
Kirby’s Adventure — A more accessible platformer with Kirby’s copy ability mechanic. Beautiful graphics, wonderful music, and some of the best level design on the NES.
Ninja Gaiden — For Mario fans who want a harder challenge. The cinematic storytelling and precise action platforming are extraordinary for NES hardware.
Donkey Kong Country — Rare’s SNES masterpiece uses pre-rendered 3D graphics that still look stunning and features tight two-character gameplay with excellent level variety.
Super Metroid — The ultimate exploration platformer, offering a vast connected world to explore with gradually expanding abilities — the godfather of the Metroidvania genre.
All the best platformers owe something to Super Mario Bros.:
| Feature | Platform | Year | Score | Genre |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario World | SNES | 1990 | 9.8 | Platformer |
| Mega Man 2 | NES | 1988 | 9.5 | Platformer, Action |
| Kirby's Adventure | NES | 1993 | 9.2 | Platformer, Action |
| Donkey Kong Country | SNES | 1994 | 9.3 | Platformer |
| Super Mario 64 | NINTENDO-64 | 1996 | 9.9 | Platformer, Adventure |
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The SNES launch game that defined the 16-bit era. Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, expanded Mario's move set, and delivered 96 exits across a vast, joyful world that remained the gold standard for platformers for years.
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The pinnacle of the NES Mega Man series. Mega Man 2 perfected the formula of absorbing defeated bosses' weapons and applied it to eight masterfully designed stages with an all-time great soundtrack.
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Kirby's NES masterpiece introduced the Copy Ability system and delivered the most technically stunning game on the hardware. Released in 1993 as the NES was being retired, it was a spectacular farewell to the platform.
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The graphical revolution that shocked the world. Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered 3D graphics seemed impossible on SNES hardware, and the game underneath matched those visuals with excellent level design and music.
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The game that invented 3D platforming as a genre. Super Mario 64 launched alongside the Nintendo 64 and demonstrated, definitively, that video games could work in three dimensions. Its influence on every 3D game that followed is incalculable — this is where the template was written.