9. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (SNES)

Up until this point, Super Mario games starred Mario and were largely linear affairs. Find some secrets. Survive. Get to the end. Yoshi’s Island switched the emphasis from simply getting from point A to point B to grabbing every collectible and solving every puzzle in-between. It had a playful, twee art style that would become a mainstay for Yoshi games moving forward, but still featured the titular hero in an origin story in which the fail state wasn’t getting hit too many times, but having your baby Mario abducted.

Some might consider Yoshi’s Island firmly in the Yoshi-game camp, but that subtitle stands, and a number of play mechanics, like red coins, went on to become staples of later Super Mario games. Even Yoshi transforming into vehicles like a helicopter hinted at Mario’s own transformations decades later in Super Mario Odyssey. From its level design to its boss fights, Yoshi’s Island remains one of the most beautiful Mario games ever made, and an oddly subversive, playful mashup that trades challenging platforming for deep exploration. — Ethan Gach

Read More: Yoshi Devolved From Babysitter to Baby