It’s no secret that Nintendo has had a profound impact on the history of the video game industry.

After an epic collapse of the video game industry in the early ‘80’s, which left retailers with absolutely no desire to have anything to do with any product that called itself a video game, Nintendo was able to single-handily resurrect home console gaming, through their sheer determination and moxie.

What was once an emerging art-form that was left for dead, was suddenly reforged into an activity synonymous with the name Nintendo itself; through the popularity and might of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

While those salad days didn’t last forever, as new challengers rose and eventually overtook Nintendo’s position of industry leader, the company has continued to pioneer; pushing forward our conceptions of gaming, the mechanics of games, and what products will be accepted by the consumer.

After resurrecting the home console, Nintendo was able to define gaming on the go, through the portable Game Boy line of systems. When Nintendo needed to rethink both portable and home gaming, they did so through the massively successful Nintendo DS and the Wii systems.

At this moment, we are on the cusp of Nintendo’s next console, a hybrid device between  a home console and a portable unit called the Nintendo Switch. Much like the launches of the Wii and the Nintendo DS, Nintendo is once again attempting to redefine the concept of what it means to play video games.

There is a huge potential impact that the Nintendo Switch may have on the market place if they are successful in their endeavors to marry home and portable gaming.

However, as good as the Nintendo Switch may or may not be, no console is going to be worth a single dime without good games.

Fortunately, Nintendo has often been at the forefront of redefining the art of gaming itself; having published numerous games that have pioneered new mechanics and established new genre’s.

With the launch of the Nintendo Switch on the horizon (March 2017 as of this writing) I thought it would be fun to take a look back through the history of Nintendo and pinpoint the ten games that in my opinion, have been the Ten Most Important Games Nintendo Ever Published.

Throughout the month of December, we’ll be counting down the titles in Nintendo’s vast history that have pioneered standards for the entire industry and laid the foundations for Nintendo’s success.

These games were the games that were often instrumental in refining the very notion of what video games are and what they can be.

We already counted down #10, #9, #8, #7 , #6, #5, #4, and #3 #2 on our list, so you should probably take a look at those post haste.

#1. Super Mario Bros.

The early 1980’s had not been kind to the video game industry’s home console market.

After a meteoric rise rise with arcade conversions and hits like Pitfall and Adventure, the home console market had become a barren wasteland in the wake of Atari’s spectacular flame-out.

E.T. was so bad that it precipitated a crash of the video game industry

Their home console, the 2600, had initially been a huge success, however, years of dodgy titles and primitive technology soon burned out their user-base.

The final blow came when the highly anticipation adaptation of the hottest movie in the world at the time, E.T., became the industry’s most notorious bomb, it didn’t take long for Atari’s 2600 market to implode, dragging the home console industry with it.

Years went by, and the home console market remained virtually dead.

So when a plucky Japanese company named Nintendo tried to make headway onto store shelves across America

Super Mario Bros was unlike any other video game seen at that time.

with their new console, the NES, they were met with an overwhelming dose of skepticism from retailers, who wanted nothing more to do with video games in the wake of the Atari 2600 debacle.

Nintendo’s past had included successful gadgets, such as their Game and Watch line, as well as a legitimate mega-hit with the arcade smash, Donkey Kong, but one huge arcade game was not enough to allow Nintendo to break into the home console market in the U.S.

Nintendo needed a bon-e-fide hit; something that would show the world that the NES was not the archaic console of the 2600 days, but the true evolution of video games.

In short, Nintendo needed to develop the greatest video game ever seen.

For that, Nintendo’s autocratic chairman, Hiroshi Yamauchi, turned to the same young designer whom he had tapped a few years prior when he had needed a hit to replace the flagging Radarscope: Shigeru Miyamoto.

According to author David Sheff’s seminal work on Nintendo’s rise into the game industry; Game Over, Yamauchi tasked the young Miyamoto (fresh off the development of Radarscope’s replacement: Donkey Kong) with that exact task.

Mario had better hope that the princess isn’t in another castle.

Miyamoto and his team’s efforts would produce more than just a mere video game, but the face for not only Nintendo, but for the entire industry at large for a time.

That result was of course, Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros, much like the NES system it was designed to sell, was representative of the evolution of video gaming itself.

Never before had players seen a game as visually rich as Super Mario Bros. The imaginative world that Miyamoto had created nearly burst forth from television sets, with its vibrant tapestry of bright colors and sound.

Mario’s stages would offer a virtual master-class in level design. Each stage was a digital playground, full of secret, shortcuts, and surprises that were well-beyond the experiences to which players had previously been accustomed.

Mario would have to traverse a variety of challenges in Super Mario Bros.

But it was Super Mario Bros bizarre, yet whimsical characters and game play that won the hearts and minds of players around the world. Miyamoto was able to create a delightful mix of movement and precision jumping that was paired with an intangible “it” factor that helped give birth to the platforming genre.

Super Mario Bros. provided Nintendo with the definitive hit the company was looking for; serving as the quintessential piece of evangelical software that perfectly made the argument as to why everyone needed to buy an NES.

Nintendo wisely chose to include a copy of Super Mario Bros with every NES console sold in the U.S. – and it wouldn’t take long before Mario-mania would sweep the globe, providing Nintendo with the flagship mascot that endures to this day.

It’s because of Super Mario Bros. that the NES eventually found itself inside roughly a third of U.S. households by 1990, making the machine, and its corporate namesake, synonymous with the very act of playing video games for many years.

Today, Mario remains as the ambassador for Nintendo.

It’s no hyperbole to say that Nintendo single-handily resurrected the entire home video game industry with the NES – and there is no way that any of that would have been possible without Mario.

Today, other companies have come and gone, and Nintendo no longer enjoys the stranglehold on the gaming

industry that it once had during the late 80’s/early 90’s, however, they are still a major industrial and cultural force.

Everything that Nintendo has become – all of the subsequent masterpiece franchises and icons of gaming that they have produced – are all because Mario led the way. Had Super Mario Bros not been the revolutionary turning point that it was, then it’s fair to say that Nintendo may have faded off into the night.

As we wait for the impending March 3rd, 2017 release of the company’s next console, the Nintendo Switch, it will once again be Mario helping to lead the charge.

It is for these reasons, and a multitude of others, that Super Mario Bros is without a doubt, the most important game Nintendo ever published.

I hope that you enjoy this look at the Most Important Games Nintendo’s Ever Published. Please keep an eye out at NerdBacon.com, or like our Facebook page as we continue the countdown!

We also want to know your thoughts on what games were most important to Nintendo. Have a disagreement with the list? Want to share a Nintendo memory? Just let us know in the comments section below.

Written by The Watchman

The Watchman is a journeyman gamer who has seen and played a good chunk of gaming history.
He’s also an actor, a reporter, a pro wrestling connoisseur, and some say he’s a cat whisperer.
If you have any questions or just want to drop me a line, hit me up at thewatchman@nerdbacon.com
Or follow me on Twitter @DavetheWatchman
You can also game with me!
Look me up on Xbox Live @ DJKhadoken
Or on PlayStation Network @ Eaglevision_dl