This should be a near-no brainer for you tools:

Super Mario Brothers 3.
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario 64

BING!

the man has it in one.

Yeah that is one of my favorites. I would have to say that my favorite one is Super mario 64

You can only choose one? Darn it, you make it tough for me. Well, I'd have to choose between Super Mario 3 or Yoshi's Island. Since Yoshi's Island isn't technically a Mario game, I'll go with Super Mario 3.

The only thing that would make Mario 3 perfect in my eyes is if it had Yoshi. Which leads to another discussion which I will not discuss or else throw off the topic.

At least Super Mario 3 has two racoon abilities.

I changed it to reflect the top 3 instead.

I looked up Mario games, and the man have over 30 games. Damn.

And actually Dray, go ahead and discuss it. I'm interested in what you have to say.

Yoshi should be in New Super Mario Bros.! The game looks like it will be a blast to play, but when I heard that Yoshi wasn't going to be in it (because they want it to be simpler like the original game was, as the Mario games after it "have become increasingly complex"), it suddenly went from "This game will be AWESOME" to "This game will be decent".

Anyway, now I get to choose best 3. That's simple enough.

In no particular order (though one could guess),
Super Mario Bros. 3
Yoshi's Island
Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
(I love adding the "!!" in that game's title.)