Board 8 > Which series has been better over it's entire lifespan: Mario or Zelda?

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NES: Mario >> Zelda
SNES: Mario > Zelda
N64: Zelda >>>>>>>>>> Mario
GCN: Zelda >> Mario
Wii: Zelda >> Mario (counting TP as Wii)

Zelda.

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Zelda has stuck to its roots without a truly terrible title.

Mario, on the other hand.. Mario Party.

Before 2001: Mario is great. Zelda is greater.
2001-2006: Mario's kinda sloppy. Zelda's still good but starting to sink.
2007 on: Mario is great. Zelda is okay.

Kuru posted...
Zelda has stuck to its roots without a truly terrible title.

Mario, on the other hand.. Mario Party.

and ignore stuff like Mario Party and the Zelda CD-i games.

And Mario Party is still a great game

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Uh, theres a lot more Mario games you guys aren't including

like Mario in Time, which was terrible.


though I guess if you count that you could count Wand of Gamelon.


hmm

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Mario.

I can name multiple Zelda games that I never want to play again. I can only name one Mario game that I'm not excited to play again.

There are specific Zelda games that are really good (I've played Link's Awakening start to finish more than any Mario game), but when you talk about the series as a whole, there are a lot of weak links.

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masterplum posted...
Uh, theres a lot more Mario games you guys aren't including

like Mario in Time, which was terrible.


though I guess if you count that you could count Wand of Gamelon.


hmm

Another person not reading the OP!

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Mario easily, though I haven't played Skyward Sword. Mario has just had so many titles, and so many of them are excellent, while Zelda has always been hit/miss.

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NES: Mario 1 > Mario 3 > Zelda 1 > Zelda 2 > Mario 2
SNES: SMW > LTTP
N64: OoT > Mario 64 > MM
GCN: Wind Waker > Mario Sunshine
Wii: Galaxy > Twilight Princess

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From: Kamekguy | #020
Zelda

NSMB drags down the whole Mario series. Zelda's worst game is... Oracle of Ages? I actually rather liked that one. Mario surely has higher highs for me, but as a whole, Mario's had greater missteps.

ORacle games are NOT the worst. Zelda II and FSA are considered the "least" popular games in the series.



NES is Zelda's strongest era,

MAybe for someone who stopped gaming back in 1990.

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From: The Mana Sword | #012
Mario is more consistently good.

Zelda has higher highs and lower lows.

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From: Kuru | #052
Zelda has stuck to its roots without a truly terrible title.

Mario, on the other hand.. Mario Party.

So should we include MArio KArt Mario Tennis and MArio Golf as well then?

Mario Party is a completely seperate Franchise. Nothing to do with the Super Mario Platform series.

If i had to rate gens then

NES: MArio > Zelda. Not even debatable.

SNES: Mario = Zelda if we only include World and LttP

N64> Zelda > Mario. 2 games vs 1 but Mario 64 was great.

GCN Zelda> Mario. 2 Games vs 1 and Sunshine sucked imo.

Wii : Mario > Zelda 2 games vs 2, Galaxy games are the pinnacle of the Wii. TP was also the worst 3D zelda for me, SS was really the only real wii zelda. Mario also had NSMB which wasn't as good but still.

So basically tied and it comes down to Handhelds

GB/GBC - Zelda by a mile. LA, Oracles > Mario Land

GBA - Zelda wins by default as there were no Mario games.

DS/3DS - Probably even.

Zelda wins based on it's handheld iterations. Console wise is close on balance. But I agree with the guy who said Mario is more consistent but Zelda has bigger highs and lower lows.

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Paper Mario 2 i my favorite game, but if we're only counting the platformers, I'd go with Zelda.

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Edit: ****!

How could I forget about the Paper Marios and SMRPG?

I change my answer to "indecisive"...

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NES: Mario >> Zelda
SNES: Mario > Zelds
N64: Zelda >>> Mario
GC: Zelda >>> Mario
Wii: Have not played SS yet but from what I have seen it seems about equal

GB(C): Zelda >>> Mario (Link's Awakening and Oracles SO GOOD)
DS: Zelda >= Mario (both series weren't too impressive here)

Oh and this only counts mainline series for Mario, so no Mario RPGs even though I love them.

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Zelda. It's close, but Zelda.

I haven't played Skyward Sword or 3D Land yet, so it's pending those two. Recently Mario has been better with Zelda, with the Galaxies being pretty sweet and the DS Zeldas being the only truly bad games in the series to date (with Phantom Hourglass being subpar and Spirit Tracks being f***ing atrocious). Prior to that though Zelda wins by a hair, mostly because it has the superior portable titles in LA and the Oracles. It's pretty close on every other system though. All of the NES games in both series are classics, even SMB2 and Zelda II, the SNES is about the same between LttP and SMW2 for me though I'll take both over SMW, and on the N64 I feel like SM64 hasn't aged as well but it's still good, but OoT has aged fine and MM has arguably gotten better with age.

From: The Mana Sword | #012
Mario is more consistently good.

Zelda has higher highs and lower lows.

more or less this

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Also, if we counted all of Mario's body of work and started including the awesome RPGs and the pretty sweet Karts and Tennises and Golfs and the okay Parties then we'd probably have something overall more worthwhile than Zelda, but I'm just comparing like, the significant mainline titles here.

Mario

I really don't like the 3D Zelda games much at all. I like Mario in both 2D and 3D, though I do like 2D Zelda more than any form of Mario.

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BT with the victory!

"Which series has been better over it's entire lifespan: Mario or Zelda?"

Its. A thousand times, ITS. Why can't you learn?

I think Mario, if at least because I've been rather underwhelmed by Zelda lately.

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Definitely Mario.

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