Super Mario Bros 3 was developed and published by Nintendo in 1988 in Japan, 1990 in North America and 1991 in Europe for the NES.
This is a game I remember playing at several friends’ houses back in the day, and was a game I was very fascinated with. I would later play it on the SNES as part of Super Mario All-Stars as I would later find that game, and it was always one of my favourites. I may have played Super Mario World more often, but I always liked this game much better.
The story is that the Koopalings, Bowser’s seven children has conquered that Mushroom world’s seven kingdoms, transforming its kings into animals. It’s up to Mario, and Luigi if playing multiplayer, to defeat the Koopalings. While they are busy doing that, Bowser kidnaps the Princess.
While the Western Super Mario Bros. 2 deviated from the first game, Super Mario Bros. 3 returns to a similar gameplay to the first game. It does however introduce several new ideas, such as being able to slide down slopes, being able to pick up Koopa shells, pick up and throw certain blocks. This is also the first Mario game with an overworld map.
The mushroom, fire flower and Starman returns from the first game, but there’s also a number of new power-ups. Collecting a leaf will give Mario a raccoon tail and ears, and will give Mario the ability to fly if he gains enough speed, as well as being able to float in the air for a while. There’s also a few power-ups that are a bit rarer to find. These include the Tanooki suit, which has the same function as the leaf, but will also give Mario the ability to turn into a statue for a short time. The frog suit, which makes you swim faster as well as just making it easier to control in underwater sections, and the Hammer Bros suit, giving Mario the ability to throw hammers, which can take out some enemies who are otherwise invincible. You can also find a Goomba’s shoe in one of the levels, which gives you the ability to jump on certain enemies you otherwise couldn’t jump on. The power-ups also gives Mario an extra hit compared to the first Super Mario Bros. In this game, if you get hit, you first revert to the Mushroom state, and not to small Mario, if you have another power-up. These new power-ups are really fun to use, but it is a bit of a shame that they are so rare to come across. I really wish you could find more Hammer Bros. suits since they are so fun to use. Tanooki suits are not as fun, and frog suits are really only useful on water levels, but the Hammer Bros. suit is just so awesome.
Apart from being found on levels, power-ups can also be found in Toad houses that are spread out all over the place on the overworld map, as well as won in memory mini-games that appear every now and then on the map screen, and from the Princess’ letters when you clear a world. You can also win items by defeating Hammer Bros. who walk around on the world map, as well as in certain types of levels. These items will then be accumulated in an inventory system, meaning that you can start out levels with any power-up you have in your inventory. Apart from the power-ups such as Mushrooms, Starmen, Fire Flowers, etc. There’s also some specific power-ups you can’t find in levels. These includes a cloud which lets you skip a level, the P-Wing which gives you the leaf power-up as well as unlimited ability to fly, an anchor which will make the airship stay in one place (more on that later), a hammer which lets you break a rock on the overworld, a music box which makes the Hammer Bros. on the map fall asleep and a flute which gives you the ability to warp to another world.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a huge game by NES standards. There’s 90 levels in total, spread over 8 worlds. The levels are generally quite short, but it still takes me around 3 hours to beat this game if beating every level and not using any warps. This game really begs for a password feature, to be honest. It is way too long to beat in one sitting, if you want to beat every level. Sure you can skip ahead, but then you miss out. Although if you are playing an emulated version of this game, you can use save states, making it much more manageable.
While the levels are short, they are really well-designed and fun to play through. The levels also feel distinct from one and another. Each world has its own theme. The first world, Grass Land is your typical, basic design, which might not stand out too much. The second world has a desert theme, the third one is full of water levels, in the fourth world, most things are giant, in the fifth you are in the sky, the sixth is an ice world, the seventh is pipe themed and the eight takes place in hell, where you must travel across tanks and battleships. They really went all in with making this game feel varied and it never feels like you just play through the same levels over and over again. The only levels I was not a fan of were the auto-scrolling ones, but even those were pretty well-made most of the time.
At the end of each world, except the final world, you go on an airship, to find the Koopaling and defeat him (or her). These Koopalings are a great addition to the Mario universe and I always found them quite awesome and as a kid I wished they would return in a future game, which they eventually did in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Apart from old enemies returning such as Koopas, Goombas, Bullet Bills, Lakitu and Spiny, and Bob-Ombs. This game introduces some new enemies that are now staples in the series such as Dry Bones, Boos, Thwomps and Chain-Chomps. I really like the Fire Brother as an enemy too, sadly that enemy rarely appears in this game.
Multiplayer returns from the first game, but once again you take turns playing the levels. There is however a minigame reminiscent of the original Mario Bros. arcade game, where you play a two-player battle mode against each other which can be quite fun.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is really the first Mario game where they got the controls right. The first game had a strange momentum, and while the second game was better, this is where the controls were really perfected.
As for the difficulty, it is a fairly easy game. There might not be any checkpoints in the levels, but the levels are quite short, meaning that dying isn’t too bad. You will certainly die many times in this game, but this game is also extremely generous with extra lives. Despite dying a lot of times I still finished the game with 40 lives to spare. The boss fights are generally jokes, since they are extremely easy, but some levels, especially later in the game can be quite tough. Some even require you to explore the level a bit in order to find the hidden way out, and some levels can be confusing mazes. Even if you would run out of lives, there’s unlimited continues here, but personally I was never even close to getting a Game Over.
Graphically, this game looks really good for NES standards. While there would be even better looking games later in the lifespan of the console, Super Mario Bros. 3 manage to look good with lots of variation in the level environments. It is a huge step up from the first game in the series. The game is however constantly glitching out on the right side of the screen, but I don’t really think this is a big deal. There were a few instances of slowdown which I’m not sure if it happened in the original NES cartridge, but it does happen on the NES Classic Edition.
Koji Kondo returns to do the soundtrack, and once again he manages to create a good and memorable soundtrack that has become classic by now.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a fantastic game. I personally consider it one of the best games of all time. The only real complaint I have is that there’s no password or save feature, but that doesn’t make the game less fun. Perhaps it might be a little too easy, but considering how fun this game is, I don’t mind. There’s still some challenge, there is so much content, and really, this is the prime example of how to make a platform game.
Is it worth Playing?
Yes, it is. Do I have to say more? It might be the best NES game ever made, and one of the best games of all time. What more should I say? Just play it!
Final score: 10/10
Screenshots via MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
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