Super Mario Bros 3 (NES – 1988)

Shigeru Miyamoto led Nintendo R&D4 to develop one of the best games on the NES and an amazing entry into the mainline Mario series, together with the Koji Kondo soundtrack and Hiroyuki Kimura designed characters, Super Mario Bros 3 became the highest grossing non-bundled console video game for decades with an estimated inflation adjusted revenue of $2.4 billion dollars. This success was bolstered by a games media reaction of nearly perfect scores and an appearance in the popular movie The Wizard, which was essentially a 90 minute advertisement for Nintendo and Super Mario Bros 3.