[Review] Super Mario Bros. 3

REVIEW # 00000000 00011000

Oh, it’s terrible! The King has been transformed! Please find the magic wand so we can change him back.

No game has ever been so clese to the perfection as Super Mario Bros. 3.

Or better, maybe Super Mario Bros. 3 IS the perfection, at least for me. This is definetely the best NES game I ever had and the one that nowadays is still the most difficult to beat. I remember that after a few months spent playing it in 1992, one day I cried because I read on the handbook that was the last Super Mario game: obviously I didn’t think that Mario’s legacy woudl have been so long and knowing that such a perfect game was the last of its saga for me was depressing. I still keep (not only in my heart) the original SMB3 cartridge as a relic, as it was the greates gift of all my life: in a certain way, considering my relatioship with the video games, is really the greatest gift of all my life.

I completed this game 5 years ago on yhe NES I still have, perfectly working after almost 25 years and I almosta cried again when I finally defeated the very last boss. It was the end of an era started 19 years before.

SMB3 is perfect for a lot of reasons: it’ simple to handle but it’s very long, though it gives you the possibility to keep playing for a long time since it’s quite easy to collect ups, every world is never too short or too long, you have a lot of new power-ups, you can collect them and use them when you are in need, you have a bunch of sub-mini-games you can play to collect coins, points or lives, you have a lot on brand new enemies, an amazing graphics, a beautiful plot, great longevity, musics and sounds to lose your mind onto.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is THE game. No more words can describe it in a better way.

My heart says…

This was one of the NES game I owned during the early 90’s and the same day I got it I started to play only with it (or at least 99% of the time spent on NES). It’s by far not only one of the best games ever conceived, but also one of the games I cried when I completed it.

I don’t know what to say, really, it’s a PERFECT game…

Splash screen

Oh boy, seeing Mario coming to the screen along with his old enemies with that chessboard floor and starting to discover the new SMB3 features such as the Leaf it’s definitely an orgasm for the sight. Nothing can beat it.

Graphics

8-bit graphics at its best: we already know that Nintendo was a northern star for the graphic accuracy and for the magnificent use of the colors and in SMB3 I thiks the couple NES-Nintendo reached the highest point of its history. No other console could have beaten them and as far as I know, no console or computer have ever beaten this immense perfection, obviously in relation on the “limit” of an 8-bit one. Perfect.

Narrative

Following the plot already sketched out on the first episode, we have Mario busy trying to rescue Princess Toadstool. But this time he has to wander around 8 different worlds each one with at least 5-6 levels, each one with its particular environment, enemies, locations and power-ups. Mario have to defeat the 8 sons of Bowser with each one ruling on a different kingdom, in order to face the Koopa King and finally rescue Peach. I mean, the subject is more or less always the same but the screenplay is awesome!

Gameplay

Here’s the perfection, again. The gameplay follows thefootsteps of the first episode, but while in super Mario Bros. we had only three power-ups (Magic Mushroom, Fire Flower and Starman), the possibility to find the 1-Up Mushroom and several enemies (Goombas, two king of Koopa Troopa, Hammer Bros, all the enemies from the sea world and so on) here we have way more power ups and more than double enemies.

Since this section could grow too loong and I don’t want to you to fall asleep, I think I will dedicate a specific post to it. Mario deserves it.

In SMB3 is quite easy to collect extra lives, but even if at some point you’ll reach like 40-50 lives don’t count your checkens before they’ve hatched: in the last two world, especially in the very last one you will lose almost all of them.

Nintendo developers probably foresaw they made a game it was a bit long and difficult so they counterbalance the lenght with the possibility not to save but at least to restart from the beginning of the World Mario is in when he loses his last life. This avoid the players to die thinking to restart all over again since, trust me, it’s not too easy to reach level 8. Or even level 7 if you don’t use some tricks (only when I was adult I knew the location of the whistles)…

SMB3 introduces a lot of features such as the possibility to gain extra life during the level, when he hits the box in the end to collect Mushroom, Flower or Star; if he collects three of a kind he receives respectively 2, 3 or 5 extra lives, otherwise only one. In the overworld map Mario can also play against Toad in a slot machine-like game or in card game where he has to match two cards to earn lives, money or power-ups. Nevertheless Mario can enter in Toad’s hut and open one of the three boxes he finds where is hidden a power-up.

Sound

The 8-bit era was notable also for the wonderful sounds and musics of the games. The first chapter of the saga had the full potential to become a a masterpiese  Here is only a small sample of what your ears can be delighted of

Longevity

Despite of the Nintendo developers idea to give the player the possibility to restart from the beginning of the world you lose your last life into, SMB3 is not an easy game. Or better, it’s easy managing the control, as in other titles, but it’s hard to complete the game in a reasonable time, unless you don’t keep on your NES for days (a thing I couldn’t do in the past). For these reasons the game has a great longevity and is always wonderful to play it again, even if you know all the enemies and all the tricke. This is the most important thing for the everlasting success of a game.

Final score 100/100 cum laude

What more I have to say? Quick go get a NES and play with it!!!

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Year: 1988

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre: Platform, Horizontal Scroll

Games Mode: Single Player, Double Player

Original Platform: NES 

From same developers/editors:

• Donkey Kong (1981)
• The Legend of Zelda (1986) and sequels

Inspired to:

• Donkey Kong (1981)
• Duck Hunt (1984)
• Mario Bros. (1983)

If you liked you can also try:

• All Mario games!

Other chapters of the saga:

• Super Mario Bros. (1984)
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988)
• Super Mario World (1990)
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (1995)
• Super Mario 64 (1996)
• Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
• New Super Mario Bros. (2006)
• Super Mario Galaxy (2007)
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009)
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010)
• Super Mario 3D Land (2011)
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012)
• New Super Mario Bros. U (2012)
• Super Mario 3D World (2013)

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