OVERVIEW
 
The evil King Koopa and his new Koopalings are taking over the Mushroom World and the latter have transformed the seven kings into creatures and taken over their thrones. Princess Peach (Toadstool) sends the Mario Bros. out to restore all the kingdoms back to normal. The Koopalings are Larry (Cheatsy), Morton Jr. (Big Mouth), Wendy O. (Kootie Pie), Iggy (Hop), Roy (Big Bully), Lemmy (Hip), Ludwig von (Kooky von). The names in parenthesis are from the cartoon series. After you've defeated the Koopalings, you still got to deal with King Koopa who has kidnapped the princess.
 
Graphics - A+
 
Compared to the first two games in the series (SMB and SMB2 Japan, the graphics got a major upgrade especially the enemies. Mario and Luigi and all returning enemies have outlines to add more details to their sprites. The Goombas for example looked like walking mushrooms with eyes. Even though they still do, their faces are now more apparent where you can see their mouths and their heads are smoother. The Koopa Troopas and Paratroopas have shells that you can now carry their shells for attack other enemies in the level easier and even break bricks and hit coin blocks. You can also do the same with Buzzy Beetle shells. Speaking of shells, the upgrades to the graphics give the added detail that the shells actually spin while in motion rather than sliding across the floor as seen in the previous games. This is even more apparent when the Buzzy Beetles and Spinys are walking upside down and then come spinning at you while on their backs after dropping down. In some castles, instead of pits you will see lava boiling and it even gives a look that spells out danger. You would think that the spikes would be bad enough to kill you instantly but they only downgrade you if you are not small already. The lava on the other hand will be the instant death of you. Another interesting note to Game Genie users who use the start and stay codes: If you die via lava, timeout, or being pushed out the side of the stage then you will actually retain the colors of the suit during the death animations and on the game over screen.
 
The backgrounds of the map and in the gameplay are colored with style as you can tell what kind of level you are dealing with. Some parts of them actually play a role in some of the levels like ice physics, quicksand, and swimming. You can even tell what's supposed to be grass, wood, ice, and crystal (which one might confuse for ice but there is no slipping on those).
 
Gameplay/Controls - A+
 
Even though I said that things started getting innovative with Super Mario Bros. 3, there was some innovative stuff in Super Mario Bros 2. (Japan) like having one of the castles located in the sky in one level and giving each Mario brother a slight advantage/disadvantage over the other. SMB3 just took it a big step further by adding more content and gimmicks such as the ability to use special suits to further help you advance and some moving platforms move along a wire line. You also meet the Donut Lifts for the first time. Stand on them for too long and they begin to fall. Ice physics are introduced in this game (It was in the US version of SMB2 but that don't count as that game is a hack of Doki Doki Panic). If you run fast enough and stop then the inertia will carry you a distance further depending on your speed before pulling back. If you jump straight up then you will stop sliding.

Mario and Luigi go back to jumping the same way but they have also learned some new attacks. Whenever you come to a slope, you can hold Down on the D-pad and slide down it and kill all enemies in your way. Even though it is not really a new attack, if you are invincible, you can now do a front flip whenever you jump. It doesn't do anything special but it is just there for good measure. In addition to the Fire Suit which has been in the series to begin with, you now have four new suits with new powers. The most common one is the Raccoon Suit with the ability to attack with your tail and the ability to fly. With the P-Wing you can fly indefinitely with the Raccoon Suit. Tanooki Suit has the same effects as the Raccoon Suit plus the ability to turn into a stone statue that renders you invincible for up to five seconds. The Frog Suit is strange in the aspect that you move forward by hopping instead of walking unless you are holding a shell. The advantage of the suit is that you can swim in any of the cardinal directions without having to mash the jump button. Just push the controller in that direction and you are good to go. The Hammer Bros. suit is the best suit of them all. You can chuck hammers at enemies and while they arc instead of run along the ground like the Fireballs do, the hammers are extremely more powerful as you can kill enemies that normally only die when you are invincible (Boos, Twomps, and Hot Foots). You still can't kill the Jelectros or Munchers. However, an added perk to the Hammer Bros. suit is that you are impervious to fireballs while crouching.
 
Depending on if you are playing the US version or the original Japanese version, you will notice a couple changes that anybody who has played both versions can see that the US version's difficulty was scaled down from the Japanese version but at least they kept it the same game instead of the Doki Doki Panic route with SMB 2. In the US, if you are using a special suit, you will revert to Super Mario when hit but in the Japanese version you become small Mario immediately. Same thing when you are using Kuribo's show when still big. A couple levels were also altered before coming to the US. 4-1 in the US heads straight to the end of the level whereas the Japanese version had a wall with a pipe in it leading to the end of the level. In the World 8 ship, the ships hull was complete in the Japanese version and in the US, a piece on the upper right was removed to make it easier to jump out of the water and onto the ship if you decided to swim under both ships.
 
Sound/Music - A
 
The music got so much better with this game. Earlier there used to be a limited soundtrack with the player being able to count on their hands how many different songs there were but now there is a more distinctive soundtrack within the game as their are now more level types. While I won't say you will find yourself jamming to the tunes on your ipod or the like, the music in the game is done with better use of the FamiTracker. The music was so good enough that the creators of the cartoon series even included them within the episodes unaltered. Even the ending theme of the game was included to mark the ending of each episode.
 
Replay Value - A+
 
The replay value deserves an A+ rating because the game never gets old. The SNES version included on Mario All-Stars cranks things up a notch even further with graphics but gameplay is still the same. The main reason for a high replay value rating is because there are several secrets to uncover in this level that you will love to find. Some players will prefer to skip levels and others will prefer to play it straight to up the ante on their gameplay experience.
 
Overall - A
 
Super Mario Bros 3. was one Nintendo's greatest NES games going into the 90s although it originally came out in 1988. The music, graphics, sound, controls, and everything else were done almost flawlessly but there were some glitches to exploit though none them were really game breaking aside from the Japanese version glitch were if you warp while you are in a boat, you will be stuck inside the warp zone as you will be rowing all over the map with no way to get back.

I'll try the game out some time. You are doing a lot of great reviews keep up the good work, and soon you will be on the top 5 reviewers list.

This is a great review. Keep up the good work. I will probably try this game out, so thank you! And tiber1976 you said the same thing to me!

GREAT review i agree with you all the way!