Percentage of the vote: 3
Release date: 1995
Place in the series’ timeline: Before the events of any other Mario game, back when Mario, Luigi, and Bowser were babies.
Staff Writer Mike Minotti: Imagine it’s 1995. Unbeknownst to you, Nintendo has released a sequel to the Super Nintendo’s Super Mario World, the 2D platformer that came with the system at launch. Filled with glee, you put the cartridge in, power up the system, and discover that you’re not actually playing as Mario. Oh, the red hat-wearing plumber is there, but he’s just a baby riding on the back of a Yoshi, a member of a race of cute dinosaurs introduced in Super Mario World. You may have freaked out. You may have even been angry. Of course, it’s actually 2012, and history has come to know Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island as one the greatest 2D platformers ever made.
Sure, Baby Mario may get a bad rap for his annoying cry, but Yoshi’s Island won over gamers with its beautiful, moving-painting-style graphics and clever gameplay. The title would inspire sequels, Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 and Yoshi’s Island DS for the Nintendo DS, but players never revered any of them more than the original.
Neat prequel fact: After the credits, we actually catch our only glimpse of Mario’s and Luigi’s parents…well, at least their legs and hands. The very last shot of the game shows the proud couple holding their babies in the air, proclaiming, “Heroes are born!!” while a version of the song you hear whenever you beat a level in the original Super Mario Bros. plays.
Percentage of the vote: 4
Release date: 2011
Place in the series’ timeline: Skyward Sword takes place before any other game in the series.
Staff Writer Mike Minotti: A lot of games in The Legend of Zelda series are prequels, but it’s hard to know exactly which ones are thanks to a confusing timeline that branches off into multiple universes after the events of the Nintendo 64’s Ocarina of Time. Still, it’s easy to place the Nintendo Wii’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in the timeline. It’s first.
Skyward Sword’s story deals with the founding of Hyrule and the forging of the Master Sword, the epic weapon that Link uses in many of the Zelda games. While the motion controls were Nintendo’s biggest selling point for this action role-playing game, fans were excited to see the origins of a world they loved.
Many considered Skyward Sword to be the Wii’s swansong, since sales of the once mighty console have cratered in recent years. With Nintendo’s next system, the Wii U, coming out soon, fans are anxious to see how Nintendo will top the beauty and innovation of Skyward Sword.
Neat prequel fact: The game’s final boss, Demise, bears a striking resemblance to Ganondorf, the series’ archvillian. After Link defeats him, Demise proclaims that he will be reborn and battle Link’s and Zelda’s descendants in an endless cycle, setting the stage for the struggles seen between Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf (and his other form, Ganon) in other Legend of Zelda games.