I'll go with WK's suggestion as well and go with the Mario games in said order, Super Mario All-Stars, Super Mario World, and finally Super Mario Kart. All of the DKC games are incredibly fun, but DKC 2 is the best of the three. You could play the games in order, or go straight into DKC 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Secret of Evermore might be more up your alley since it's a RPG, but it's very different than your usual RPGs that you like. You don't have to worry about the Mortal Kombat games, you can always play them at any time for a couple fights and get back to whatever game you are playing.