The game that I'm getting ready to talk about is a game that is a hack of a remake. That remake is Super Mario All-Stars. The hack is one of Super Mario Bros. 3. All the other games in All-Stars are the same ones from the original. It has only been the SNES version of SMB3 that has been modified. Although, not all the stages have been changed, and the overworld maps are exactly the way they were in the original game. I remember playing this ROM hack in my early days on Vizzed back in 2013 and 2014, so it brings back a lot of good memories for me re-visiting this game. I figured it was about time to give this game a proper review.

Graphics 10/10: All the games in All-Stars look fantastic, and that includes this hack of SMB3 as well. In the original game on NES, the sprites looked good, but the backgrounds were still pretty bland. Here, the backgrounds have been improved significantly with: waterfalls, clouds, mountains, trees, etc. It just feels like this version of SMB3 has more color to it also. Like I said in my review for Super Mario All-Stars, this game looks amazing!

Music 7/10: I can't say the same thing for the music in the All-Stars version of Mario 3. I didn't like the soundtrack much to start with because I felt like it had too much variety. You have the same problem here on the SNES, but a lot of these songs don't sound as good in this version. The Dark Land theme is a big disappointment. Nintendo basically just ported the tracks over to the SNES, and most of them sound about the same if not worse from before.

Gameplay 7/10: To start with, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a very fun game to play with lots of cool content to explore. The 8 worlds are very interesting and each one has its own theme. That's not all, there are also: matching games, panel line-up games, items, and new power-ups such as: the Super Leaf. In this version of SMB3, players now get a save feature which made things even better. In the original NES game, you had to keep the game turned on in order to keep your progress. This time, you could just hit Save and Quit and come back to it later. The updated graphics also helped improve an already great game.

For this hack, the gameplay contains all these same elements. You have the same items, mini-games, etc. You also get the same overworld maps from the original game which is kind of a disappointment. What's also a disappointment is how not all the levels of the hack have been changed. Only the first two airships are different, and once you get to world 8 it's the same game as SMB3 with exception of two levels. I guess, most stages have been modified to include some pretty interesting/challenging stages. For the most part, this does feel like a complete ROM hack of the SNES version of SMB3.

I don't like how the maps were not modified and how certain stages remained the same also. World 8 felt a lot like it did in SMB3 2nd Run but not entirely. It was still worth playing all the way to the end, and the mechanics that made the original game so much fun are still there. Most of the levels in worlds 1 -7 have been changed, and all of these levels are harder but still playable. Whoever made this hack put some effort into it, but they could have done more. I enjoy the game, but it still left a lot of stuff that could have been finished.

Story 10/10: The story for this SMB3 hack on All-Stars is the same as it was originally. Bowser has sent his 7 children to steal the wands from the 7 kings of Mushroom Land and turn them into animals. Mario and Luigi go after the Koopa kids on their 7 airships. While the Mario Bros. are off doing this, Bowser kidnaps the Princess and takes her to his castle in Dark Land. This was a creative storyline in its day and introduced the Koopa kids into the Mario series. This is where the idea for the afterschool cartoons of SMB3 came from as well.

Content 10/10: This game is only a ROM hack of Super Mario Bros. 3 which is a pretty long game on its own. You still get almost 3 hours worth of gameplay because the new levels feel pretty long when compared to the original game. Anyway, it still includes: Grass Land, Desert Land, Water Land, Giant Land, Sky Land, Ice Land, Pipe Land, and Dark Land. Most of the content in SMB3 is new with the exception being Dark Land. Although, two of the levels here are not the same ones from the original. It is worth playing all the way through despite how not everything was changed. This is mostly a complete hack with the same amount of content as before if not a little more.

Difficulty 10/10: The new levels of this hack are pretty challenging and can take some trial/error to get through. There are some that include the flying fish of doom but not all that many. I do have some trouble finishing this game. There are a lot of other obstacles that can really slow you down until you get the hang of things. The Boom-Boom fights are the first thing that comes to mind, and if you die on these parts, you have to go back and re-play the fortress stages from the beginning. This is a pretty hard hack, but the levels aren't badly designed like in some of the NES Mario 3 hacks. They're just really challenging until you get to world 8, but even the two new levels on that world are pretty hard. This is a legitimately hard game and will take up a good bit of your time.

Overall 8.8/10: This is a pretty decent ROM hack/remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, but it doesn't compare to the original game on NES. The hack basically copies the levels from the original game when you get to world 8. It also rips-off the airship stages too when you get to world 3. Everything else has been carried over from the All-Stars version of SMB3 like the: graphics, soundtrack, and story. This is a hack worth playing through to the end unlike some of the other ones I've played on NES. Players get an overall good game but not one that is all that wonderful.