My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #1: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

One of my favorite games as a kid. As soon as I saw it on the back of my SNES box, I had to have it. I remember saving up at least $40 and being happy with every penny spent on it too. 

Even though it's not a hard platformer, there's plenty of chanllenge. Platforms are not your foe this time around, but other things are. But with Baby Mario, and some eggs you'll do just fine. 

I loved every single castle the game had to offer. Mini-Bosses were even epic in this game. 

Any gamer who hasn't played Yoshi's Island really needs to get their head out of the dirt and get a copy. One of Nintendo's finest masterpieces, and one of my favorite games ever made. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #2: Super Mario Kart

Even though it's the least powerful, and has no online play, I really liked Super Mario Kart the best out of all the others. 

Plenty of tracks, powerful but not game-breaking items, and none of that rubber band racing crap. Pure skill, and you will need it to win some of these championships. 

Rainbow Road for example in it's original SNES form is harder than you could imagine. It looks like a simple track, but trust me you'll fall off more times than you can imagine. Kinda sad how easy the Rainbow Roads in the later games had become. 

Also worth nothing is that Super Mario Kart had the best battle mode for some reason. I can't stand the other game's battle modes so much that I didn't even try it out on Mario Kart Wii. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #3: Mario Kart DS

I waited a long time for this game to come out. Not only was it a decent time gap since Double Dash, but it was a killer-app for the Nintendo DS not only as one of the first awesome games, but the first to really take advantage of online play through Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. 

Granted online play was slow to connect, but I had a lot of fun after the game was set-up. Then snakers cheated in every match a few months after the game came out, and it was no longer fun to play over the net. 

I guess it's not that big of a loss. It has plenty to chew on in single-player, and offline multi-player. Even if everyone doesn't own a copy they can still play in some limited modes and tracks. Such an awesome game, one of the best Mario Karts to come out in recent years. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #4: Paper Mario

Of all the Mario RPGs, I think the original Paper Mario edges out to be my favorite. 

The world was so big and massive. I liked the new additions to the combat, and the quest was a nice big size. 

Some very epic moments (either in a sense of cool or very humorous) as well. My favorite moment was the final fight against Bowser. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #5: Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

One of the best GBA games ever made. Easily one of the top Mario RPGs as well. 

I just loved the story and characters. It was like the person who wrote this was on mushrooms because of how just plain wacky and silly it is. Nintendo really needs to take notes from this guy with later Mario games. 

The Overworld was pretty cool, fast with no random battles. Plenty of jumping and puzzles in the mix as well. 

The battles were sweet. I think my favorite combat system in any Mario RPG game. The bosses kept getting more and more epic. Such a great game, too bad the sequel was rather disappointing. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #6: Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

This was rather surprising move between Square and Nintendo before they went sour and parted ways. It didn't sell too hot from what I hear, which is a bit of a shame. I actually remember seeing the game being promoted at Walmart or Kmart back in the day. 

It was the first of the Mario RPG games and all them owes it some credit. 

Though I admit it's more Final Fantasy than Paper Mario when it comes to the battle system. Unlike Final Fantasy though, 

It truly is an epic masterpiece of a game though. Actually not my favorite Mario RPG, but such a good game that held up really well. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #7: Mario Kart: Double Dash

I really liked Double Dash, it was really my first Mario Kart since the original. 

I really liked the 2-racer concept. Can't believe it was pretty dropped from every other future installment. 

It had really fun multiplayer too, it's a shame that it has such a little number of tracks to compete on. 

Regardless, it might have some flaws, but I played this game to death. I'm glad to see at least some track make a return in future Mario Karts under the Retro tracks. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-offs #8: Mario Party 4

I didn't attend many of Mario's parties, but I did happen to be invited to his 4th bash. 

The objective of Mario Party is really just a virtual game-board. You go around trying to collect as many coins and stars as possible. 

The main way to win is to play well at the mini-games. I thought most of them were pretty good. 

Granted you need to have real people playing with you to make the experience better. Still love this game though. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-offs #9: Super Princess Peach

Granted the cover probably pushed a lot of Mario fans away, because it is a bit too girly. Not exactly what a teenager buys in a Gamestop now is it? I doubt sales were good for it. 

Such a great concept though. Mario and Luigi have been captured (Was Bowser stupid enough not to kill them?), and it's up to Princess Peach to save them in one of the biggest role reversals ever. Now Mario owes her a cake. 

The game plays a lot like the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 on NES. Except with some super emotion powers and you can only play as Peach. Unlike SMB2, I actually enjoyed playing Super Princess Peach.

It's a fairly decent adventure, the only thing that might kill it is the Toad fetch quest. If you don't find all the Toads (and you can always go back to each stage) then you won't be able to face the final boss. Not too hard with a walk-through guide. It may be crap in comparison to other great Mario platformers, but I wouldn't mind playing a 3DS sequel. 

My Top Ten Mario Spin-Offs #10: Luigi's Mansion

Luigi's Mansion was a bittersweet treat for Nintendo fans. Our new GameCube was here and unlike every other Nintendo console before it, a major Mario game was nowhere to be found. Nintendo instead gave us a rather goofy spin-off to satisfy us until Smash Bros. Melee got here. 

Granted a game about Luigi being scared to death doesn't sound exciting in the slightest bit of the imagination. However it was a decent idea, just came out at the wrong time. Even the Ghostbuster-style vacuum cleaner didn't do enough to suck the dirt off of the GameCube's crappy reputation among angry video game nerds. 

I actually liked the game-play of sucking up ghosts. Sure it was probably too easy and a bit silly, but I had my fair share of fun with it. 

I just hated when the game turned into a crappy fetch-quest. I hope when Nintendo releases Luigi's Mansion 2 for 3DS that things might be a little better.