THIS IS NOT A VS GAME THREAD! OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE COMPLETLY DIFFERENT GENRES AT DIFFERENT TIMES.

Id just like to know what you think offered most at the time it was released? In 1993 Im pretty sure that cartridge was like treasure for everyone.
Ive never played tHE Orange Box and Im not interested in it BUT I'll agree that its one hell of a deal to all fans of the series.

So which do you think offered the most at time of release? Which did you like better?

I purchased Super Mario All-Stars the day it was released (great compilation).
That said Orange Box offers solid online gaming.

Orange Box won!

Now there is a genuinely interesting question, and a comparison with some merit.

Both contained old favorites in re-released form, both had the promise of something new, and both were met with much enthusiasm and criticism. Overall, however, Orange Box wins out ever so slightly because it had Portal in it, probably one of the most innovative games made in the last 20 years. All-Stars had only re-releases to show for itself.

Mario Allstars by miles but it needs to be the one with Super Mario World in it.

I'm going to have to go with orange box on this, and I haven't even played that. Portal is brilliant, Team Fortress 2 is the first Online Multiplayer FPS that I've EVER been interested in, and half life 2 has a really decent storyline from what I can see so far.

I was never huge on the Original Super Mario Bros or the Lost Levels, though 2 was okay and 3 was brilliant, but even with that, I can't really get behind the idea that Mario Allstars did that much.

It might just be timing though. Orange Box was how most people were INTRODUCED to Portal, Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2, which I believe were all released seperately later. With Mario Allstars, it was a repackaging; a good deal, but nothing groundbreaking, except perhaps savepoints.

EDIT: Oooh, Onyxmeth brings up a good point. Adding Super Mario World to that mix increases the value drastically. It's pretty close when you factor in relative time periods, but I'd still put Orange box ahead, mostly due to having such a diverse mix of game styles that all use roughly the same game mechanics

The orange box will have a distinct advantage for a number of reasons mostly having to do with it being released far more recently.

It's really a close call and while I think I would lean towards the orange box I'm really not totally sure for the exact reason stated above.

SMA all the way.

Oh Lord, that is hard.

I'm going to have to think about this one for a while.

But if the Orange Box wins, it is almost exclusively because of Portal.

Mario All Stars released graphically and audio superior versions of 3 of the best games of all time, and tossed in Lost Levels to teach us that Mario 2 wasn't so bad. My copy was free with my SNES (Along with Super Mario World!).

Orange Box offers 2 older games along with Portal. I have a hard time considering any of the games as complete games. I guess the tip of the hat goes to Mario All Stars. You don't get much more value for your buck than "free".

Lewis did you own the Orange Box, because that doesn't sound like a good summary of what's inside it