First and Last Mario Games on NES

First: Super Mario Bros. (1985) — The game that defined the platformer genre and saved the video game industry.

Last: Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988/1990) — Widely considered the greatest 8-bit game ever made, pushing the NES to its absolute limits.

Context

• Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) / The Lost Levels: Famicom Disk System only (1986). The US "Super Mario Bros. 2" was a reskinned Doki Doki Panic (1988)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 released in Japan 1988, North America 1990, Europe 1991
• No mainline Mario released on NES after SMB3. The SNES launched with Super Mario World (1990/1991)

Two games. One defined the medium. The other perfected it.