Minecraft, maybe, but I fail to see how Wii Sports or Madden was more important to the industry than Mario

You have no idea what you are talking about, before mario the industry has imploded, Super Mario Bros reignited the industry and set a new standard for video games in al senses.

I don't know if I would consider it the Greatest of All Time (GOAT). Maybe more like a Significantly Heralded Exciting Entertainment Program (SHEEP).

Jokes aside, I would rate Pac-Man and Space Invaders higher. The top of my list would be Doom, as it really started the FPS craze that dominates the games market today.

Wow, there's a lot of downplaying going on here. While it is fine to argue that other games were more important to the industry, it is just plain ridiculous to say that super Mario bros wasn't that important. Also people saying that if Nintendo didn't resuscitate the console market someone else would have are just being silly, that kind of argument could used against anyone that has invented or discovered anything. Sorry Einstein your discovery of the theory of relativity is not impressive because someone else would have discovered it if you hadn't.

And who here said/wrote that Super Mario Bros wasn't important?

It's a difference if something is important (among other important things) or "the most important thing".

Space invaders was more important imo

Super Mario bros is important to the video game industry in much the same way that Citizen Kane is important to the film industry. It's not necessarily that they stand the test of time, indeed many games and movies have outdone them in terms of quality several times over, but what they did was show the world the potential of the medium, showed people they could be so much more than what had been believed.

I think you misread my post, I said that some people don't think its "that" important, meaning it was kinda important, but not very. I probably should have worded it a bit better.

Definitely is.