You know my wife loved Sonic Spinball as a kid...actually so did I, but we all had pretty bad taste in games as a kid.
I remember that PLOK game getting good reviews and that game sucked. But, I dunno people downplay Mario in a fight...
But the truth is Mario has some pretty amazing power ups that Brought into a fight could make him very formidable.
1)Cape Allows him to glide/float and reflect projectiles including bullets.
2)Fire Flower: Bouncing Fire Balls is pretty nice.
3)Giant Size increase and Invincibility.
4)Finally lets not forget all the cool suits.