SMB3 broke the mold on what could be a Mario game world wide, SMW just followed up on that but Mario 3 was superb and ground breaking.

Yoshi's Island

Poor New Super Mario Bros DS; 171 votes and it didn't get a single one.

And wow at NSMBU getting more votes than the original Mario Bros, that I did not expect.

greatest of all time for me - SMB3. Best is SMBU. Mario in HD and the gameplay and new power ups are cool. Several people just didn't like that this version has little upgrades from the classics.

Mario Bros 3 cant beat the tanooki suit IMHO World was a slight step down and every game after that hasnt come close to 3 or world

that was hard - instinct goes to SMB3 because it is magical, you can FLY!!!!!!, and has created the series as it is now imo.

Of course NSMBU is probably the best looking yet and clever and smooth controls and great dlc.

But hey fxxk it I am going for the Flight! SMB3.

It's no surprise to me the games that are dominating this conversation, and they rightly deserve to be up there. I voted NSMBU though because I don't think it gets the credit it deserves. It is easily the best NSMB and it just plays really nicely. It is not as revolutionary as SMB3 or SMW for sure, but I think it really builds on the successes of the series as a whole up to that point.

No SMW2 Yoshi's Island? FAIL!

Seriously though, my top 5 are:

SMB3
SMW
SMW2 Yoshi's Island
NSMBWii
SMB2 USA (suck it haters!!!)

I ran out of poll slots. 

Also, I thought the thread might turn into a debate over whether it counted as a proper Mario, or a Yoshi game.

Hence "other". ;)

SMB3. It was more innovative, harder and interesting than SMW. SMW, while fun, was so easy, it felt like a game made solely for children. And I don't want to hear about the whole 100% thing... that's a cop out. SMB3's base levels in the 8th world (particularly some of those last ship levels) are harder than the hardest hidden worlds in SMW.

And did I mention that SMB3 is much more innovative? Yeah, there's that.