Super Mario Bros. 3
23 Oct 1988
All releases
31 Dec 1990 - Arcade
23 Oct 1988 - Family Computer
26 Dec 2013 - Nintendo 3DS
16 Apr 2014 - Nintendo 3DS
01 Jan 2013 - Nintendo 3DS
06 Apr 2016 - Nintendo 3DS
29 Aug 1991 - Nintendo Entertainment System
12 Feb 1990 - Nintendo Entertainment System
29 Aug 1991 - Nintendo Entertainment System
01 Jan 1970 - Nintendo Entertainment System
05 Nov 2007 - Wii
09 Nov 2007 - Wii
09 Nov 2007 - Wii
26 May 2008 - Wii
11 Dec 2007 - Wii
26 Dec 2013 - Wii U
17 Apr 2014 - Wii U
15 Jul 1989 - Arcade
Tags
Time to beat
Main story
Main story + extras
100% completion
Super Mario Bros. 3, the third entry in the Super Mario Bros. series and Super Mario franchise, sees Mario or Luigi navigate a nonlinear world map containing platforming levels and optional minigames and challenges. The game features more diverse movement options and new items alongside more complex level designs and boss battles.
The Mushroom Kingdom has been a peaceful place thanks to the brave deeds of Mario and Luigi. The Mushroom Kingdom forms an entrance to the Mushroom World where all is not well. Bowser has sent his 7 children to make mischief as they please in the normally peaceful Mushroom World. They stole the royal magic wands from each country in the Mushroom World and used them to turn their kings into animals. Mario and Luigi must recover the royal magic wands from Bowser's 7 kids to return the kings to their true forms. "Goodbye and good luck!," said the Princess and Toad as Mario and Luigi set off on their journey deep into the Mushroom World.
| Audio | Subtitles | Interface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ✓ | ||
| English | ✓ |
Updated versions
Selectable stages in an overworld, Themed areas, Secrets and mini games galore, and plenty of wacky power ups. All of this started here.
While Super Mario Bros 3 is a legendary game amongst platformers, my god it is harder than I expected it to be, especially considering I can breeze through the NSMB series and Wonder.
Unless you've played this as a kid, coming to this for the first time after playing more modern 2D Mario games can be a bit jarring. The design philosophy of the levels here can be a bit more harsh than usual, even moreso than the original Super Mario Bros. You can't really speed through levels here unless you know the layout off by heart as a lot more enemies target you, as opposed to just wandering back and forth. You need to take your time and the run button isn't your best friend like it usually is.
Either that or if you know how, you can exploit the game with the P wing and just fly over most levels.
Super Mario Bros 3 is not the perfect Mario game, but it establishes all the great ideas to set up a perfect 2D Mario game.