#25 — Scribblenauts Unlimited
These games were truly wild for what they set out to accomplish, where you could test your imagination by bringing anything to life. If for some reason, you’re uninventive and just thought of “Mario” because you’re playing on a Nintendo console, well, he’ll show up if you draw him! Only in the 3DS version, of course. He wouldn’t dirty his hands otherwise.
#24 — Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Samus can slap multiple different Mario bumper stickers onto her pristine-looking ship. She doesn’t care if it peels off the finish later on, or dulls the paint. As long as she can represent her buddy Mario while flying through space, that’s all that matters.
#23 — Nintendogs + Cats
Mario appears as a toy for your pets, driving around in his titular Mario Kart. Real pets could probably care less that it’s Mario, but as their owner, it’s more about you than them.
#22 — Rayman Legends
If you bought a WiiU and got this game, it’s your lucky day: Rayman could now dress up as Mario. Considering that this game was more inventive and exciting than New Super Mario Bros. U which released just around the same time, you could squint and pretend you were playing a Mario game if you dressed up Rayman this way.
#21 — The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Certain houses in Kakariko Village have paintings of Mario hung up on the wall. Perhaps to worship him, or honor him, I’m not sure. I remember my older cousin just dying to show me this cameo when I was really little, our minds couldn’t believe that Mario could somehow appear in a different game series. Oh, to be naiive…
#20 — Bayonetta 2
Nintendo was really flexing their exclusivity rights on this one, and they didn’t care who knew. Bayonetta could dress up as several different Nintendo characters, including– yes, you guessed it: Mario. This was a watershed moment in women’s rights – even girls can be Mario.
#19 — Yoshi
Talk about a real bait-and-switch. The game’s called Yoshi, yet you play as Mario, and Yoshi’s just… kinda there. Not the first time this has happened and it’s definitely not the most famous, but you gotta applaud Mario for just coming in and blowing up the spot.
#18 — F-1 Race
Mario will greet you before you begin the race, surrounded by beautiful pixelated babes in bikinis. There is absolutely no reason for this, and he really didn’t even have to show up. Seriously, he canceled plans just to be here. Win this for him. He believes in you.
#17 — Monster Hunter 4
Much like Nintendogs, you can dress your critter up like Mario. This time though, it’s actual armor, and it’s for your Palico! Head into battle with overalls and an oversized red cap. You’ll be granted all the protection you need, not to mention star power.
#16 — Nintendo Land
You could visit an in-game theme park, dress up like Mario, and play Mario mini-games for this WiiU pack-in exclusive. People were upset that this game never got ported to Switch, but they made a whole-ass theme park in real life. Which is, arguably, the best kind of port there is.
#15 — The Binding of Isaac
This may or may not be exclusive to the Switch version of The Binding of Isaac, but one of the “baby” costumes in the game is the “red plumber baby”. And, you guessed it, he’s dressed up like Mario. Poor bastard.
#14 — Animal Crossing
There’s a bunch of Mario shit you can buy in these games. Spend your hard-earned bells to buy items from the games, and even dress up just like him. This was no doubt conditioning us to do the same in real life with our actual bank accounts, but you know what, it’s still charming.
#13 — Super Scope 6
This game was bundled with the short-lived Super Scope for the SNES. Every so often Mario would fly by in a little plane, and you could shoot the bastard down.
#12 — Pinball
“Hey is that Mario?” “Oh yeah, I guess it is.” Playing pinball on your TV was new and different at the time, but Mario was there to hold our hands and collect our fallen pinballs for us.
#11 — SSX on Tour
Why buy SSX on Tour for GameCube over other consoles, you may ask? Well, because you can hit the slopes as Mario, of course! One of several uncanny appearances by the red plumber himself, where Nintendo was trying to straddle that line of relevancy while also sticking to their roots. The early 2000s were kinda weird like that.
#10 — Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Listen, nobody was buying the WiiU, okay? Especially at launch. This was one of Nintendo’s more desperate attempts to push units out, but it’s just so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh. I mean, Heihachi Mishima dressed as Mario? Super Mushrooms in multiplayer mode? Well, it didn’t help much and the system was a financial flop.
#9 — Tetris (Game Boy)
Tetris on Game Boy was a big deal. The falling blocks don’t exactly exhibit much “character” for players to pull from, so Mario himself appears as “player one” in multiplayer mode. He’s also there to congratulate you for beating the game later on. He’s like the supportive uncle who shows up to all your baseball games, just because.
#8 — The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Happy Mask Salesman has a Mario mask hanging off of his insanely large backpack. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it would have been cool if we could have gotten that mask in-game. Imagine Link putting it on and transforming into Mario, complete with his full moveset from Super Mario 64. Sure it would break the game entirely, but come on, it would have been fun!
#7 — Kirby Super Star
Mario appears in the crowd to cheer his friend Kirby on during the Megaton Punch mini-game– what a stand-up guy. Every once in a while when Kirby uses the rock ability, he will also turn into a golden statue of Mario, to say thank you to him for all the support he brings to their friendship.
#6 — Pilotwings 64
Mario’s face is on Mt. Rushmore. And you know what, this should be the case in real life too. Some of these presidents aren’t exactly worth remembering, and Mario has done more for the world than any of them combined.
#5 — The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
While there are several “vague” Marios on this list that appear in Zelda games, this one takes the cake. Talon is Mario through and through, and Mario’s father in the Mario movie looks just like him. As a bonus, Hyrule Castle has photos of Mario hanging on the wall for whatever reason– perhaps to represent diplomatic immunity between them and the Mushroom Kingdom?
#4 — Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Back when Nintendo and Kojima were tight– hell, back when Konami and Kojima were tight, the GameCube got an exclusive version of Metal Gear Solid that was plussed up with current-gen graphics and gameplay. As a little nod to the purple cube it was released on, Nintendo added Mario toys you could shoot in-game, hiding out on Otacon’s desk and stuff. Otacon would have absolutely been a staff writer at Hard Drive, let’s be honest.
#3 — Punch-Out!!
This is probably the big one that most people think of when they think of Mario showing up in other games. Can you imagine how hype that must have been, to spend hours and hours on Super Mario Bros., only to start up Punch-Out!!, a completely different type of game, where Mario is the dang referee? It probably had the same reception as a Smash Bros. character reveal would have today.
#2 — NBA Street V3
This is the most batshit “fuck it” crossover on this entire list and that’s why it’s up so high. Nintendo was likely feeling a little insecure about being family-friendly during the GameCube era, and in an effort to make their characters and brand seem more mature and “hip”, here’s Mario playing basketball with real human beings, with real human proportions. The streets of New Donk City ball hard, apparently.
#1 — Donkey Kong
This is the single greatest cameo appearance of all time. It was SO good, in fact, that Mario ended up stealing the franchise away from the titular character almost entirely. DK would have to wait until 1994 to get a proper game of his own, but until then Mario ran the show with an entirely different character’s name on the banner altogether. You can blame this game for inflating Mario’s ego to gargantuan proportions, but you simply cannot deny the man’s star power.
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