Super Mario Bros 3 was released in 1988 in Japan, 1990 in the USA and 1991 in Europe for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Many people consider it to be the greatest game ever made. This is due to, among other things, expanding on the legendary gameplay of the first Super Mario Bros (1985, 87 in Europe) and adding many new features such as world maps, bonus games and most famously, all new power-ups.
Story
Out for revenge on the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser has recruited his seven children, the Koopalings and sent them to steal the magic wands from the seven Kings of the Mushroom World.
Princess Peach (or Princess Toadstool at the time) calls on Mario and Luigi to retrieve the wands, drive out Bowser and his kids and restore peace to the Mushroom World.
Mario and Luigi are setting off on their biggest, most ambitous adventure yet.
Gameplay
As previously mentioned, the gameplay of Super Mario Bros 3 (hereafter referred to as SMB3) brings together all the best mechanics of the first Super Mario Bros and builds upon them for a fantastic plumber-platforming experience that you'll never forget.
There are a total of 8 worlds for you to play through, each with their own theme and gimmicks. These themes include Desert, Snow, Cloud and perhaps the most popular, the Giant World with giant enemies and item boxes. Of course, what would these creative worlds be without power-ups to enchance them? SMB3 has one of the widest power-up varities in Mario history (rivaling even the likes of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii). All the regular items are here, such as the Mushroom, Fire Flower and Starman, but this game adds such classics as the Racoon Suit which grants Mario (or Luigi) the ability to fly for a short period of time courtesy of a racoon tail. The Frog Suit allows the Mario Bros to swim with much more agility, while the Tanooki Suit, in addition to temporal flight, can breifly turn into a statue to avoid damage (it won't have this ability in the upcoming Super Mario Bros 3D Land for 3DS, unfortunately). These power-ups do a cracking job of enchancing the jump and run gameplay and will keep you playing for hours on end.
More on the basic gameplay; you run, jump, stomp and swim your way through the many well designed levels, and not two of these feel too similar or repetitive. One level has you exploring a vast pipe maze, while another has you fleeing an angry sun. You'll always feel constantly engaged. The level design is what solidifies this game as a gem; the little surprises and secrets along the way are what makes it immortal. You have high-jackable Goomba Shoes, a giant (and very hungry) fish that can swallow you in one bite, the aformentioned angry sun and a room in which all of the solid walls can be turned into coins. Most of these only appear in one specific level, but they're so charming, and you can tell the game designers went all out to provide a non stop fun-fest. There are so many secrets hidden away in almost every level and the sheer quantity of them is astounding, even by today's standards (I'm still only just discovering some of them for the first time now).
SMB3 intoduced the map-screen to the Mario series, in which you move across a small world map and select a level to play through. While you will intially have to go through the stages in order, there are points where you can skip levels by completing other ones. Toad Houses are scattered around the maps, and offer fun little bonus games, such as matching up cards or lining up a picture, as well as some offering free power-ups. These include the Cloud Block which allows you to bypass enemies that patrol the map. A Music Box will temporarily put them to sleep too. If you land one of these enemies without either of these, you must defeat them to gain an item and move on. Once you reach the end of a world, you board one of the seven Koopaling Airships and confront one of Bowser's troublesome offspring to retrieve one of the stolen magic wands. Thes battles are fun and varied and will keep you on your toes in some of the later worlds.
One final note about the gameplay, there is a 2 player mode in which you and a friend can play through the entire game together with player 1 being Mario and player 2 being Luigi. The Bros share the same moves and power-ups, as well as sharing the same item stash (which consists of all the items you have collected from Toad Houses). Once a player dies or completes a level , it's the other players turn. If the two players are on the same area of the world map, they can play a round of the original Mario Bros Arcade game. This is an interesting little feature in which players can either compete or co-operate. The 2 player mode is balanced and adds a whole new layer to the game, so if you have a friend who wants to join in, I reccomend it.
As with most of the Mario platformers, the controls are super simple. The D-pad will let you walk, the B button makes you run and use your suit's special ability, such as fireballs and finally the A button lets you jump and fly with your racoon tail. Less is more in this case; the controls are pretty much perfect and in combination with the great level design, cheap deaths will be virtually non-existent.
Audio
The music in SMB3 is charming, catchy and memorable. Kodji Kondo really pushed the NES sound chip to it's limits, with tunes that sound like there are two or three instruments playing at once. This makes it sound really smooth and when compared with the first Super Mario Bros, it really shows how far the series had come.
The athletic theme is still one of the most iconic songs in the series and every World Map has it's own tune, which greatly empahsises the different themes. The music is truly the icing on the cake and paved the way for the direction that Mario music would take.
Visuals
SMB3 is definately one of the best looking games on the NES, with graphics that are colourful and bursting with life. All the characters move smoothly and the environments almost look like you can taste them.
One feature I really like is the shimmering effect on the blocks; seemingly simple now, but 20 years ago this would have looked amazing.
History
If you were around for it (which I wasn't) , then you will probably know that SMB3 was promoted outside of Japan with a sneak peak in the film "The Wizard". Even after the films release it would be months before SMB3 finally hit the shelves. To this day, I can think of no other game that had a film made to hype it's release. This is truly a testament to the power Nintendo had at the time.
SMB3 is one of the best selling non-packaged video games in history, with over 18 million copies sold worldwide. This has only recently been surpassed by the likes of Wii Play.
Negative
I'm really scraping the bottom of the barell to find any real flaws in SMB3. The only real problem I have is the lack of a save feature on the original NES cartridge version; to see everything the game has to offer, you have to leave your system on or complete it in one sitting. However if you play this game on any of the many re-releases, then this won't be a problem. This includes the Virtual Console version.
I also think that some of the later power-ups, that I don't want to spoil, feel a bit under used. But this is a minor complaint and dosen't affect the game in the slightest.
Overall
SMB3 is an amazing experience and you should play it even if you are only remotely interested in Mario or video games in general. It's chock full of more levels, secrets, power-ups and memorable moments than you can shake a Fire Flower at. It's only 500 Wii points on the Virtual Console, so if you have the internet on your Wii, definately download it. It's one of the greatest games ever made.
9.8/ 10
