There were other good games back then, but not much that is really better. Back then we had a few less genres, and many of the other genres were still - by our modern terms- primitive. There aren't many platformers in the same league as SMB and SMB 3. Megaman, Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, and a few others. Samus evuntually went to FPS. Sonic and Megaman are shadows of themselves. Mario is the only one that maintained his ability to maintain high quality and innovate in platforming.
Also, the Atari platformers have nothing on SMB. I like some of them. Pitfall is classic, but SMB really takes the genre further.
Add in his cross genre appeal with SNES Mario Kart and N64 Smash bros. and you have an icon.
You might as well ask Wii Sport players why they bought a WII. Mario was the system seller back then.
"But as always, technology refused to be dignity's bitch."--Vance DeGeneres
