On Bang for the buck probably the Data East Simpsons will win. Whereby individual preferences might differ.
E.g. Growing up with DMDs, I find it difficult to find my way into pre-DMD machines...

The theme on the Super Mario Bros. is nice and it's great to play once in a while, but it doesn't keep me personally too engaged.

As already said: Be prepared to spend time fixing the machine. Not playing excessively I needed to get into 2 of my 3 machines already (beside the regular maintenance like cleaning and waxing) within the first 6 months. These are physical demanding machines, things get bend, break, contacts and screws loosen and after a few plays you might see that something works differently than before and the real fun starts. I had that with a NIB with just a couple of hundred plays - it can and will happen...

I understand that you settled on the themes. Nevertheless I'd like to suggest to have a second look at machines like Judge Dread and T2, which are in the same price range like Super Mario, but might give you a bit more.