Let’s not beat around the pixelated bush: The games industry has a pro-Nintendo bias.
That’s the only reason games like Breath of the Wild can get perfect scores, and why aggressively mediocre games like Kirby Star Allies have a 73% on Metacritic. Nintendo simply gets a pass despite being stuck in the past, rarely crafting exciting new IP.
The best possible example of said bias is the company’s mascot, Mario. To be clear, almost all of the Super Mario games are great, they’re just nowhere near as good as youre led to believe. In fact, there are many better platformers out there, and many on the Switch alone that are better than any of Mario’s.
This isn’t some lame attempt at a hot-take to ruffle feathers, it’s simple fact based on pure gameplay experiences, as well as games that offer so much more as a whole package.
Mario is great, but once we take our Nintendo-coloured glasses off, we can see he’s just another cog in the platforming genre wheel. So what games are better than our favourite plumber?
