Am I the only one who is thinking 'Mario invented the Platformer as we know it today'...?

In any event, I think there's plenty of games that got overshadowed not so much by 'Mario', but by the same thing that has plagued games since their creation. A lack of marketing or because they were made by smaller companies. You could try to blame the fact that some of these games didn't take off on Mario...or the fact that they just didn't take off themselves.

Also, some of these games did take off, but only in certain regions. Like Bonk and Doki Doki Panic, which spawned entire series of games in Japan and are still going.

In any event, there's probably a few I could name. Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (NES), Duck Tales series (NES), Dragon Ball Advance Adventure (GBA)....but the thing is, I don't think 'Mario' had anything to do with why they didn't get popular. Heck, some of these games did get popular back in the day when they came out, as well as the games that have been suggested in the thread already. There's just a difference between 'popular' and 'sustained sales and good gameplay'. And Mario has a core development team which has been making and innovating a solid product for....25 years. I can't think of any other platformer series that can make that claim.

Crash Bandicoot Warped is one of the best platformers ever. I'd kill for another game like it, with more polished racing and more of the tiger levels.

I can't say that either of these games were overlooked, but I like Kirby and Donkey Kong just as much as I like Mario. Donkey Kong Country is still my favorite game ever, and kirby games have always been fun. I disagree wih you that Megaman is better than Mario though. I think Megaman has crappy physics on the NES and moves way to slow on the SNES. I do like Megaman in the same way I like Sonic. Neither of them are more fun than good ol' fashioned Mario though.

the Great Giana Sisters :D

i hoped you're not serious, the whole world played that as Super Mario Bros 2 except Japan.

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those games may not have existed.

SNES had the best platformers ever, IMO. Yoshi's Island and Donkey Kong Country were the cristalization of 2d platformer maturity.
I agree, though, that as this comes down to personal tastes, it is hard to say which games were better than others. Let's just say that you are right, and that there are lots of wonderful games that deserved a lot more of attention.
Anyway, we can't argue that the Mario franchise has offered us along the years lots of innovation and great gameplay. I think its success is well earned.

On the N64, imo both Banjo games and Dk64 were superior to SM64. Of course, that was only after SM64 had shown them how to do a 3D platformer right.

I think the Mario franchise owes much of its success to the fact that they were the first games to do it right. Everything that came after built upon the foundations that Mario games had laid, thus seeming like copycats to many. Most of the time, people simply prefer the original, even if superior copycats come out (that's not to say all platformers copied Mario). Plus, Mario games just went on improving themselves with every iteration, becoming better and better.

With all due respect I believe that any platformers created after Mario owe some of their existence to the existence of the Mario franchise. Furthermore some of the interest in other platformers must have stemmed from people first playing Mario titles. Meaning no offense to you, my belief is that platformers owe to Mario their existance and much of their patronage and you'll have to look to other reasons as to why they were overlooked.