Over in Japan in 1988, Nintendo was working on two new Mario games for the NES. Those were Super Mario Bros. 2 which would be released later that year in the USA, and the other game was the sequel to that game which was, of course, Super Mario Bros. 3. However, Super Mario Bros. 3 would not be released in America until early in 1990. It is considered one of the best games ever by the gaming community, and I have to agree with them. This game first appeared in the movie called "The Wizard", and it also spawned another afterschool cartoon I used to watch a lot that was also called Super Mario Bros. 3.

So, there was a lot of hype around this game. I ended up going to a Kmart store that was located out of town with my parents around Christmas in 1992 to pick out an NES and also the game SMB3 to go with it. I used to play it on my NES regularly throughout the first half of 1993, and I also played it with some of my friends that lived in my neighborhood at the time on their NES as well. This game was a big part of my childhood and so was the cartoon. I used to be a huge fan of both Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. This review focuses solely on what I liked about Super Mario Bros. 3 and what made it a great game for me.  

Graphics 8/10: You could tell that both SMB2 and SMB3 were being developed around the same time because the two games have about the same quality of graphics. I think SMB3 looks a little bit better, but the backgrounds are still not very well done. This is a very colorful game, and this is especially true when you take a look at the overworld maps. The sprites have about the same level of detail as those in the second game. The characters are pretty well drawn, and in some ways the Koopa kids have even more detail put into their appearance than they did in Super Mario World. I guess maybe that is an overstatement, but Super Mario Bros. 3 on NES doesn't look all that dated when compared to SMB2.

For an NES game, this is a great looking game. Nintendo was really pushing the system's hardware to its limits. The sprites look really good, but the backgrounds still feel like they are lacking. Some parts of the game look really good and other parts still look dull. Graphically, this game is kind of a mixed bag, but there are more good looking levels than bad ones.

Music 8/10: This is one of those games where you have a long list of songs that make up the soundtrack. Having a big song selection to a video game can sometimes hurt it more than it can help it. That is very true for Super Mario Bros. 3. The soundtrack for this game is huge, and there are a few great musical numbers. However, I found a good many of them to be pretty generic. Most of the songs are okay with the exception to the themes for: the airships, fortresses, and the Dark Land theme. Those were the only ones that stood out to me. The rest were okay, and some of them (mainly for the overworld levels) were just kind of dull and repetitive. The music is also a mixed bag with an overall good feeling but not a great one. 

Gameplay 10/10: The gameplay is the strongest part of this review, and Super Mario Bros. 3 is a game that is very well laid out. It consists of about 91 levels which can be beaten in only about 1 or 2 minutes. That's what I like most about it. You never stay hung up on one area, and players can also skip levels they don't want to play. This game contains overworld maps of the 8 worlds which give you an idea of what kind of stage you're going to be playing. New items like the Super Leaf turn Mario into a raccoon, and he can now fly over certain sections of the stages. I really liked this new item, and I picked up on the mechanics of it very quickly when I first started playing this game about 25 years ago.    

There are also other items such as the Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit, and Hammer Suits found in certain areas (mainly the Toad Houses) of Super Mario Bros. 3. There are also special items like the P-Wing that allow you to clear an entire level by flying over it. This comes in handy on some of the more difficult airship levels. The new Super Leaf and Tanooki Suit items help make your jumps easier. This really comes in great on areas where you have to cross large gaps. The Frog Suit also helps make underwater levels a lot easier, and the Hammer Suit can kill a lot of the tougher enemies like the ones found in the Fortresses.

Mario now has an item inventory that can be accessed by pressing the B button when he is on the overworld maps. Mario can only hold 28 items, and if he gets another one after getting the 28th item that item just gets replaced. You also have to be pretty selective about using items because once you use them, you can't get them back. Although, they can be won pretty easily in the N-panel matching games, found in Toad Houses, and won in the Hammer Bros. fights. There is also another panel line up game found on the overworld map where Mario can earn extra lives. He can also earn extra lives by getting a card at the end of each stage. I swear, there are so many ways to get all kinds of goodies in this game!!

The overworld maps are also a nice touch where Mario can navigate his way through the 8 worlds of the game and even skip over certain levels. There are a lot of levels in SMB3, and each one of them is going to have the same theme as the world you are playing. However, there are still a lot of other types of levels in these worlds as well. There are: overworld stages, underground areas, water levels, ice levels, fortresses, airships, tanks, desert levels, giant levels, cloud levels, pipe levels, you name it! There had never been (and this still probably holds up today with Mario games) this much variety to a Mario game. There are so many different types of stages, and they are all divided up into 8 main worlds.

Super Mario Bros. 3 has a lot to offer in terms of level design and gameplay. There is a huge selection of items in this game that Mario can use to help him get through the game easier. There are a lot of levels in SMB3 and not all of them have to be played. They are also short in length which keeps the game moving. There are also all kinds of secret card games where Mario can win a lot of cool prizes unlike in SMB2 with those crummy bonus games. Most of the levels have really cool themes that go along with the world you are playing, and this is one of the main reasons I like it so much. 

Story 10/10: The story of Super Mario Bros. 3 is that Bowser is once again trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. This time he has sent his 7 children (Larry, Morton, Wendy, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy, and Ludwig) to steal the wands from the 7 kings of Mushroom Land. The Koopalings use the magic wands to turn the kings into animals, and it is up to Mario to get back the magic wands and restore them to their original selves. While Mario is off doing this, Bowser kidnaps Princess Toadstool and takes her to his castle in Dark Land. This is the game that first introduces the Koopa kids, and I feel like this wouldn't be a Mario game without them.

This is yet another thing I like about this game. Nintendo had come up with a whole new concept in this game that would be used again in other games. However, it was SMB3 where this was first put to use. Bowser really came up with a great idea on how to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnap Princess Peach this time. This was something that would be carried over into the afternoon SMB3 cartoons. Although, I wished they hadn't have changed the names and personalities of the Koopa kids for that show, but I'm sure this was mainly due to copyright issues.  

Content 10/10: There is a lot of content to Super Mario Bros. 3. It has about 91 stages broken up into 8 separate worlds: Grass Land, Desert Land, Water Land, Giant Land, Sky Land, Ice Land, Pipe Land, and Dark Land. This game can take about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours to beat. Me and my friends would have to leave our NESs turned on until we could get time to come back and continue playing. Despite all of this, I think this game has a large amount of content that is very fun to play. Not to mention all the card matching games where you can earn extra lives and items. There are no secret exits to find, but I don't think this game needs any. It's fine the way it is, and SMB3 is more about content and levels that have very clear themes based on the worlds you are playing. It has a lot of levels that are very unique.  

Difficulty 8/10: This was a pretty hard game to try and beat whenever I was a kid. A lot of these levels have some pretty tricky platforming to them. It took me a while to get the hang of things, and once I did the game was still pretty difficult. However, I felt like world 1 was where I learned the ropes, then world 2 I put things into practice, world 3 even more practice, and so on, and so on. The difficulty just seems to get higher the more you keep playing, and that's the way it should be with any video game. There are some real puzzles with the fortresses that make things even more interesting. But with all the extra lives and continues, it is a fair and balanced difficulty unlike in Super Mario Bros. 2. As long as you are willing to keep playing, you will beat this game.

Overall 9.2/10: Super Mario Bros. 3 is a pretty good game. The graphics and sound probably hold it back from being all that great of a game, but it still has some pretty cool ideas. I loved how the game was split up into 8 different worlds with their very own theme. Bowser has now sent his 7 children to take over these 8 lands while he kidnaps the Princess yet again! The level design also rocks, and it has plenty of content that will keep players busy for a long time. I hated how it didn't have a save feature, but I still kept playing this game until I beat it. There were so many different kinds of levels to play. The card games were another nice addition as well as the new items that were unlike anything else in the whole classic Mario series. SMB3 hasn't aged at all! It is still just as much fun for me now as it was over 25 years ago when I first played it.