Super Mario Bros. 3

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.

best mario game, potentially of all time

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.

One of the best NES classics,i loved the tanooki so much!

Man I don't know how Mario keeps being so good at platforms but here we are.

One of my favorite games of all time

my favorite mario game of all time

Le Game-Changer absolu !

Game of the year 1988

My first mario game

play time: +20 hours

Nes (zerado) 7h19min 06/08/22

this is a great game but feels very overrated

One of the best 2d platformers

[NES] ᴹʸ ᴼᵇʲᵉᶜᵗⁱᵛᵉˢ • Story Mode ✓

Another one of my childhood games! I played the all-stars version of this game on the snes with my mom as a kid. Definitely not my favourite mario side scroller but it is amazing!

got damn it Made me frickin rage. i love it its a crazy mario game with nice and difficult jumpn runs! its a game for a long time range!

10/2021 - "masterpiece"

My favourite Mario Bros game!

Tried and played on the Switch!