Super Mario Bros. 3

23 Oct 1988

Wii U Wii Family Computer Arcade Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo 3DS
N/A rating
192 want
2137 played
76 playing
76 reviews
Developer
Nintendo R&D4
Publisher
Nintendo
Playtronic

Tags

Single player Multiplayer Side view 🎮 Platform 💥 Action 🐉 Fantasy
Summary

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.

Super Mario Bros 3 establishes the familiar 2D Mario formula that we will see for years and years to come and still know today.

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.
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25 Oct 2023
very impressive for a NES game. Big improvement on mario 1, but not the best classic mario game...
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10 Feb 2024
Good game, aged very well, but not perfect by a long shot. The physics are really slippery, most of the levels around midgame are too short and most of the levels around endgame feature bullshit puzzles that are impossible to beat without a guide. Very fun still though and very rewarding to beat.
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17 Jan 2024
best mario game, potentially of all time
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10 Jun 2023
This is such a staggering step up from the original, it's hard to believe that it even released in the same console generation. This improves upon the first game in virtually every way. The biggest leap here is the addition of a world map. This adds so much to the experience, allowing you to freely select levels and navigate the world. It's filled bonuses, mini-games, shortcuts, roaming enemies, and even branching paths (entire levels can actually be skipped thanks to this). The worlds actually have themes this time around too—like an ice world, desert world, or even a supersized world where everything is twice its usual size. There's also a whole slew of new power-ups. Some of these grant new abilities or attacks, and some can even affect the overworld. These power-ups can now be stored and used later as well. My main issue here is that all the coolest power-ups aren't even in the levels, and need to found on the overworld. This leads into another issue—some of these items fill niche purposes, like the frog suit, which is only really useful in water levels... and there's no real way to make an educated power-up selection because there's absolutely no way to tell what a level is going to be like. That, and the bosses are pretty bad—which is kinda just par for the course with platformers. The same two bosses are essentially copy-pasted throughout the whole game. They can all be felled in like less than five seconds if you time your jumps. The exception here is the final boss, which is actually kinda unique. Movement is almost unchanged aside from small additions like slope sliding. The biggest thing is now being able to pick up Koopa shells and throw them on command. This is fantastic, and offers a new offensive capability when there's no power-ups around. In fact, the enemy variety here is amazing, adding so many unique baddies that have even gone on to become series staples. There's some nice QoL stuff too, like advanced power-ups offering you an additional hit, and the ability to FINALLY go back left on the screen. Ultimately, the platforming is good, the levels are good, the obstacles in said levels are unique—it's just a fun time that SOMEHOW still holds up.
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05 Sep 2022
Man I don't know how Mario keeps being so good at platforms but here we are.
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26 Nov 2023
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