Pick it up! Now! That's an order! :p

Interesting analysis in the thread starter. All I can say is that I loved every one of those titles and I hope we don't have to wait for the next Nintendo platform before we see the next Mario. Realistically though, I fear that may be the case. That's how it always seems to go.

I have to admit that I'm one of the people who didn't like Sunshine. It was the only Mario game that I stopped playing after fifteen minutes. Call me irrational, but I'm not going to slog through a game when the first fifteen minutes made me want to put my controller through the television. Now, don't get me wrong, I can appreciate that Sunshine was, objectively speaking, a good game. I watched my brother finish it and apart from the lack of generally crazy settings (the island resort theme was annoying), it was a well polished, high quality game. For me, however, it did not feel like a Mario game. It wasn't the once a generation platformer that I'd been waiting for.

Now I want to replay Galaxy.

Yoshi Confirmed for Super Mario Galaxy 2!

Mario MMORPG anyone?

"Super Mario Bros. invented 2-D platforming as we know it."

Sorry but both 2D platforming with and without scrolling graphics existed for years before Super Mario Bros. Sure, it was a fun game but it did not invent the genre, saying so gives credit for years of work where it isn't due.

You're comparing Pit fall and Pac-Land to SMB?  Notice the as we know it.  As in Platforming as we know it where a player manipulates a charecter with a set of momentum based physics, seemless obsticles where levels have beginnings and endings, and triggered events.

(Took me 8 minutes, I'm getting rusty.)

My point was that SMB was another incremental step forward, not a complete reinvention of the genre.

My point was that it wasn't incremental at all.  It did all those things and had style, which no other game before combined.  And not many games after.

"Super Mario Bros. popularized the side scrolling genre of video games and led to many sequels in the series that built upon the same basic premise. Almost all of the game's aspects have been praised at one time or another, from its large cast of characters to a diverse set of levels. One of the most-praised aspects of the game is the precise controls. The player is able to control how high and far Mario or Luigi jumps, and how fast he can run. 

The music, especially the Overworld theme, has also become one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world."

It was so revolutionary, so far ahead of it's time, and so good that many people still play it.  It makes every serious developers "influence" list. 

You own atari and early NES games, you don't see difference in quality, refinement, and overall interweving of all the elements I listed unlike any game for years before or after?

Edit: I know I sound like a fanboy here, but seriously.  SMB is such an important game.  It was such a turning point in game design.