Every Nintendo Franchise, Ranked

by Jason Dietz — July 31, 2025 at 4:44 PM PDT

"Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" (Nintendo)

With the wildly successful launch of the Switch 2 earlier this year, Nintendo has once again reinforced its status as perhaps the preeminent gaming hardware company of all time. But what has enabled that multi-decade hardware success has been software: More than any other console manufacturer, Nintendo has long depended on exclusive, first-party titles to drive its hardware success, many showcasing the creativity, playfulness, and humor that Nintendo is known for. The result is that Nintendo has some of the most lucrative game franchises of all time, led by its iconic Mario and Legend of Zelda properties.

Which of those franchises have consistently impressed game critics, and which have failed to delight? Below, we rank every Nintendo-published game franchise from worst to best by the average Metascore for each franchise.

Some notes on our methodology:

Only franchises with at least 4 scored games were eligible.
For the biggest franchises, like Mario, we divided them into smaller lists of subseries (for Mario, that means separate listings for Super Mario, Paper Mario, Mario Party, etc.).
Though remakes and ports are included below, we excluded DLC, most multi-game compilations, games on non-Nintendo hardware (i.e., iOS games), arcade and Game & Watch games (which we don't have scores for), and Japan-only releases.
For some older pre-Metacritic titles for which we do not have Metascores, we substituted scores from our now-defunct sister site GameRankings, which used a similar 0-100 scoring system. (Those scores are marked with an asterisk below.)
Release years listed below reflect North American release dates. (Older titles were often released earlier in Japan.)

3. Super Mario

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Photo by "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" (Nintendo)

Average Metascore: 88.5

If you have ever owned a piece of Nintendo hardware, you have probably owned a Super Mario game. Perhaps Nintendo's most iconic franchise—Mario is literally the company's icon—the Super Mario games are also the first thing most people think of when they see the genre name "platformer."

Originating with 1985's Super Mario Bros. (itself a sequel to the Mario Bros. arcade game), the franchise consisted originally of side-scrollers in which you guide Mario as he runs and jumps though levels filled with coins, question-mark bricks, warp pipes, Koopa shells, and mushrooms. Many later games adopted a 3D format, some with open-world exploration and others retaining the linear nature of the 2D side-scrollers, as they introduced one creative scenario after another (including sending Mario to space in the Super Mario Galaxy games and plopping him into a semi-realistic human-filled setting in Super Mario Odyssey). Nearly half of the releases have scored 90 or higher, demonstrating incredible consistency for a 40-year-old series. Combined, the games have sold well over 400 million copies, making Super Mario the sixth most successful franchise in gaming history.

The games:
86 Super Mario Bros. (NES, 1985) *
81 Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES, 1988) *
78 Super Mario Land (Game Boy, 1989) *
98 Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES, 1990) *
94 Super Mario World (SNES, 1991) *
80 Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy, 1992) *
96 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995) *
94 Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996)
92 Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (Game Boy Color, 1999) *
84 Super Mario Advance (Game Boy Advance, 2001)
92 Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (Game Boy Advance, 2002)
92 Super Mario Sunshine (GameCube, 2002)
91 Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (Game Boy Advance, 2002)
94 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (Game Boy Advance, 2003)
84 Super Mario Bros. (Game Boy Advance, 2004)
85 Super Mario 64 DS (DS, 2004)
89 New Super Mario Bros. (DS, 2006)
97 Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)
87 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii, 2009)
97 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010)
90 Super Mario 3D Land (3DS, 2011)
78 New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS, 2012)
84 New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U, 2012)
93 Super Mario 3D World (Wii U, 2013)
88 Super Mario Maker (Wii U, 2015)
73 Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (3DS, 2016)
97 Super Mario Odyssey (Switch, 2017)
80 New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch, 2019)
88 Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch, 2019)
89 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury (Switch, 2021)
92 Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch, 2023)

2. Super Smash Bros.

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Photo by "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" (Nintendo)

Average Metascore: 89.0

Ever wonder who would win in a fight between Pikachu and Mario? Or want to see Samus battle Wario? Nintendo's crossover fighting series is here to help. Beginning with the 1999 N64 release Super Smash Bros. and only getting better with time, the Super Smash Bros. franchise consists of multiplayer platform fighting games with a huge roster of fighters—all drawn from other Nintendo franchises including many of the franchises listed above (and below). Once Bandai Namco took over development of the games with 2014's twin releases for 3DS and Wii U, the series has also included some non-Nintendo characters including Pac-Man and Mega Man. The result is one of Nintendo's most commercially and critically successful properties, with combined sales exceeding 75 million units.

The games:
79 Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64, 1999)
92 Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube, 2001)
93 Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, 2008)
85 Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (3DS, 2014)
92 Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U, 2014)
93 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch, 2018)

1. The Legend of Zelda

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Photo by "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" (Nintendo)

Average Metascore: 89.6

Was there any doubt about which franchise would land at #1? No list of the greatest video games of all time would be complete without multiple entries from Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series, first created by Nintendo's own Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka in 1986. Centering on the adventures of Link and Princess Zelda in the land of Hyrule, the often open-world action-adventure games have frequently wowed critics and gamers alike, with 13 different titles scoring 90 or above (and that's not even counting the many remakes of those titles). Is it any wonder that the series has sold well over 150 million units to date?

Zelda games have been released for every Nintendo platform since the original NES, frequently as launch games for new consoles (though not for the Switch 2, whose Zelda games so far have been limited to enhanced releases of Switch titles). Surprisingly, there have been two Zelda games with yellow Metascores. A 2004 Game Boy Advance remake of 1988's The Adventure of Link (already one of the least-liked Zelda games) was deemed inferior to contemporary titles, while 2015's Tri Force Heroes was deemed atypically shallow and unpolished and is widely considered to be the worst release in the franchise's history.