Mario has been invited to the castle by Princess Toadstool, but he arrives to find no one there. As he explores the deserted home, he hears the familiar voice of Bowser echoing from above. The path to the captive princess is barred by doors sealed by stars, but finding one unlocked he enters to see an enormous painting hanging on the wall inside. Examining it, he is sucked inside to another world, a world in which Bowser is using the power of the stars to unleash hordes of monsters.

And so Mario must recover the castle's Power Stars and make his way to the final confrontation with Bowser. The more stars he has, the more doors of the castle "hub" may be unlocked, leading to more paintings. Each painting leads to a large fully-3D level, with a star being rewarded for completing each of the scenarios therein. Enemies are many and varied in the levels, being disposed of via the standard bottom-bounce. Powerups come in the form of alternative hats, granting Mario abilities such as flight or invulnerability.

A near faithful port of the classic Nintendo 64 title. Super Mario 64 DS changes some things however, adding an extra star to each course and introducing multiple player characters (Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi) with their own quirks and special abilities. In addition, a special room in the castle provides access to a number of non-platform-based DS style minigames.

A port of Super Mario Bros. 2, with improved All Stars-style graphics and sound, and new minor challenges in the form of the now traditional red coins.

Often regarded as one of the finest platform games in existence, Super Mario Bros. 3 goes portable with this GBA incarnation. Using improved graphics and sound in the style of Super Mario All-Stars, the game is otherwise largely unchanged.

A compilation of the NES games Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and the previously unreleased Lost Levels, a hyper-difficult SMB1 semi-sequel. All have built-in saved game support, and greatly improved graphics and sound to reflect the power of the SNES, but are otherwise identical conversions of their 8-bit counterparts.

The peaceful Mushroom Kingdom has been invaded by a tribe of turtles called the Koopa. They used their black magic to change the people into inanimate blocks, and kidnapped the only person capable of undoing the spell: their princess. It is up to the Italian plumber Mario to rescue the royal and restore peace to the kingdom.

He does this by making his way through eight worlds of four levels each; three standard ones and a final castle. The levels are side-scrolling platform affairs filled with breakable bricks and large warp pipes, and populated by the koopa army. Collecting a mushroom doubles Mario's size and allows him to take an extra hit before dying, and finding a Fire Flower grants him the ability to shoot fireballs in addition to his usual disposal method of jumping on the bad guys' heads.

The land of dreams, Subcon, has been taken over by Wart, and its inhabitants have been cursed to obey his every command. They reach out to Mario in his sleep, calling for his help in saving their world. He and Luigi, along with Toad and the Princess, find their way into Subcon during a picnic the next day.

Twenty scrolling platform levels await the group, far from the Mushroom Kingdom they are familiar with. Each of the four characters have different statistics, and only one may be chosen at the start of each level. The possessed enemies they face there also pose a new problem, and cannot be disposed of by merely jumping on their heads. Instead they must be picked up and thrown at each other, or hit with a vegetable dug up from the ground. Magical doors lead into subspace, in which familiar mushrooms and coins may be found to boost their staying power.

Bowser has returned to take over the Mushroom World, and this time he has brought assistance in the form of the seven Koopa Kids. His children have run amok in each of the world's countries, stealing their kings' magic wands and turning them into animals. The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, the gateway to the Mushroom World, has no choice but to send Mario and Luigi to restore order.

Each of the eight countries has its own overworld map, filled with levels and attractions (such as Toad's House) on the way to the royal palaces. Completing a level removes it from the map, freeing up access to more. On reaching a palace, the Koopa Kid there flees on an airship and must be tracked down elsewhere on the map. The levels themselves are four-way-scrolling platform arrangements, filled with the standard Mario fair (bricks, mushrooms, shelled koopa) and the not-so-standard, such as moving lifts and time-limited switches. New costumes and abilities, available in-game or selectable on the world map, allow the Marios to swim with precision, turn into statues, or even fly to the clouds and hover long distances.

Novelty go-kart racing with a distinct Mario flavour. Lakitu has organised a series of GP races in and around the Mushroom Kingdom, and invited eight of its characters to compete. Taking up the role of the likes of Mario, Yoshi, or Bowser, you race your way around courses filled with pipes and piranha plants in pursuit of first place. Running over a question block rewards you with a random powerup which may allow you to fire shells or boost past your opponents. When the racing becomes too much, these items also serve in the multiplayer balloon-bursting arena battles.

The tropical Isle Delfino is the ideal place for Mario and Peach to rest, far from the bustle of the Mushroom Kingdom and the threat of the Koopas. But as the royal jet makes its way to the peaceful island, the princess notices a Mario-shaped shadow in the promotional video. They arrive to find a horrible pollution covering the island, and the inhabitants holding the portly plumber to blame. Tried and sentenced to clean up the graffiti using a special water cannon, Mario must also track down the real culprit and restore the island to its former glory.

The island plaza acts as a hub, with portals to the real levels elsewhere. The levels have a collection of "episodes," with different objectives for each. Completing an episode restores another of the Shine Sprites to the island, and may unlock new areas to explore. The sundrenched land is brightly rendered in full 3D using a floating camera behind Mario's back, which follows him as he leaps from platform to platform to complete his quests. His secret weapon is water, provided by the back-mounted Fludd device which allows him to spray a jet of liquid at enemies and the surrounding pollution. Extra nozzles provide additional functions, and Mario may also find the juice-spitting dinosaur Yoshi to aid him.