Nintendo is always accused of milking it's franchises and putting out the same games over and over. And while they do pump out quite a bit of Mario games, people often forget how robust a line up this gaming giant truly has to it's resume. I'm going to list the Nintendo franchises off the top of my head that I remember when I used Wikipedia to go through the NES to Wii U generations to see how many franchises they published and/or developed. It hovered right around the 50 mark. Im gonna bunch the games together to save some space, then list my favorites at the end. I also seperate 2d and 3d mario, as well as 2d Metroid and Prime because, well, it's ky thread and I wanna. Just kidding, it's cuz they offer different experiences.
2D Mario . 3D Mario . Zelda . 2d Metroid . Metroid Prime . Star Fox . F Zero . Punchout . Pikmin . Animal Crossing . Fire Emblem . Pokemon . Mario Kart . Smash Bros . Paper Mario . Mario & Luigi RPG . Golden Sun . Kid Icarus . Balloon Fight . Donkey Kong Country . Yoshi series . Mario Party . Kirby . Excite series (bike, bots, truck) . Wars series (advance, battalion) . Waverace . Pilotwings . 1080 Snowboarding . Wii Series (Sports, Play, Party- I'm using them as one, you can also or can differentiate your favorite) .
These are only probably half of what's in Nintendo's stable. Mine goes:
6 Punch-Out!!
Probably not even in most people's top ten, but man are these games fun. Once you learn the fighters' patterns you can dominate them easily, which causes the game to have pretty low replay value without a multiplayer mode(besides the Wii one, but i didn't care for the mode). But that first playthrough is always a blast. I will buy every one of these that are ever made.
5 TIE - Paper Mario & Mario & Luigi RPG's
Confession- I am making this pick having played less than half the games in this series, however I can already see the magic. Although my pick of which of these is better varies, my opinion tends to shift towards Mario&Luigi RPG series for one simple reason... It reminds me more of the original Mario RPG, which is within my top 5 games of all time. It came out at the end of the SNES' life and you could tell, they had MASTERED the system by this game's release. So, so, so excellent, this game was. These 2 series carry on the spirit. Neither are as good as their great grandfather here, but they'll have to do, as we'll likely never see a formal Mario RPG 2.
4- Mario Kart
There's nothing like a great multiplayer experience with friends. And for that reason, there's nothing like Mario Kart. I am not a fan of racing games in the least, so single player mode doesn't do much for me. This one would be cracking 2nd-1st territory for me if I was a racing fan and able to appreciate the single player mode as much as the multi play.
3- Animal Crossing
As I'm a stubborn old man, I'm not quick to pick up new things. However, I fell in love the instant I popped my first AC game (New Leaf) into that 3ds, and a day hasn't gone by where I haven't snuck off to spend some QT with the folks in my town.
2- 3D Mario
To be honest, if Mario 64 had been the only game to ever have been released in the 3D Mario genre, it still might rank here. I have memories of sneaking on the bus with my friends to play this at Toys R Us before it came out, and it literally blew my mind, and, embarrasingly as a nerdy kid who lived for video games, literally changed my life. Sunshine didn't do much for me, but over a decade later, the Galaxy titles reminded me just what was so great about 3d Mario. They are, possibly, the best games ever made.
1- The Legend of Zelda
When I mentioned earlier that video games were my life, Hyrule was my residence. I started right at the beginning, with numero uno when I was 5 or so. Lttp released when I was about 9 and I used to have friends fight over who was sleeping over for Zelda night, because my mom had a 5 kid limit including me. LA & Oot were just as great. Everyone has their own favorite titles & ranking system for this series, but I'll save that for another thread. My top 4 are consistently Lttp, Oot, LA, WW in that order, with the 5th changing around constantly. Im hoping ALBW takes that position or higher indefinitely.
You don't see many " Top 6"'s around, but hey, these were my top @icks and I didn't want to force anything. I loved my Super Metroid & Starfox 64, among tons of other Nintendo games over the years, but these are the series that stuck with me due to consistnt excellence. I hope you enioyed 
What's your list looo like? Any titles I didn't mention, or perhaps didn't even list as options?
NOTE: I have just started playing both Metroid Prime & Fire Emblem for the first time, and am really starting to like both, so it is very possible these will eventually take 1 or 2 of the slots on my list.
