I love the title for this topic.
Anyway, welcome back to the wonderful world of video games. Things have changed. Nintendo was in third place in the console wars, but is starting to make a comeback with it’s newest console, the Wii. Here’s the best Mario titles for the GCN, DS and GBA (Though, I don’t recommend buying a Gamecube, as it has been succeeded by the Nintendo Wii, which is a lot better)
GCN:
Super Mario Sunshine
Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door.
Mario Kart: Double Dash!
DS:
New Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario 64 DS (Though, you shouldn’t really get it if you have the original, since it’s not much different)
Mario Kart DS
Mario and Luigi: Partners in time.
Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the minis
Wii (if you can find one):
Super Paper Mario
Super Mario Galaxy (coming later this year)
GBA:
Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
Any of the games in the Super Mario Adveance remake series
That’s about it. I didn’t really recommend anything for the GBA as the only Mario platformers for it are all re-makes (unless you count Mario vs. Donkey Kong. That was an original game, but it was light on platforming, and heavy on puzzles). If you’re really curious, you could check out the whole site at
www.themushroomkingdom.net (if you haven’t checked already) for a list of all Mario games on all systems.