Super Mario Bros 3 is a instant classic in which all Super Mario Fans should play and enjoy! Truly a timeless classic.
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
System: NES (Nintendo Entertainment System)
Total Score: 92/100
Value Score: 9.2/10
• Story: 8/10
o Super Mario Bros 3's storyline greatly improves from its predecessors, although Nintendo still at this time relied on storyline telling through their instructional booklets. It has been a long time since Bowser had kidnapped Princess Toadstool and peace had reigned in the Mushroom Kingdom for a while. However after a long time of peace, Bowser had finally come out again and kidnapped the Princess again, however this time he is not alone. He has his 7 children, the Koopa Kids with him to cause chaos and havoc throughout the region. Not only was the Princess kidnapped but the kings of each area have been transformed by their magic wands. Mario must now travel to each region and defeat each of the Koopa Kids to reclaim the forms of the Kings in the Mushroom Kingdom and finally rescue Toadstool from Bowser.
• Characters: 10/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 consists of a colorful cast of characters, both old and new return in this game. You have your goombas, koopa troopas, Whomps, Bo-ombs, Cheep Cheeps, and other enemies along with the return of the Hammer Brothers and with them introducing for the first time the Boomerang brothers and others. The Koopa Kids are a new set of characters and the Kings of the Mushroom Kingdom (even though they never appear again after this game) are some new characters. Luigi appears in 2 player mode only, Bowser is the main villain, Mario is the main character and Princess Toadstool of course appears in the game (along with Toad who is with each king). Fans of Super Mario will enjoy this game because the character cast has to be probably be the biggest in a Mario game excluding Super Mario RPG.
• GamePlay: 10/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 gameplay goes back to the old SMB style instead of the SMB2 style which a lot of players did not like. However instead of a flag pole as the end of the stage, you find a area with black background and a cube in a certain area flashing through different cards of Mushroom, Star and Flower which can be used to gather up 1-ups. A new addition to the gameplay is the feature to choose which levels you can go to with the introduction to the World Map feature which can allow you to skip certain levels and get across different parts of the game at any time as long as you have the requirements to do so such as the wind whistle. You also have the ability to use items which you can pick up from playing mini games, fighting mini bosses or finding toad houses. Each item can do several different effects, some items give you a power up, some affect the mini bosses on maps, some allow you to break through obstacles giving you a new path in the world map and some even allow you to skip levels or even worlds. There are fortresses now each containing a mini boss to defeat and a castle/airship level where you have to fight each Koopa kid to progress to the next stage.
• Graphics: 10/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 graphics have heavily improved from its predecessors using the maximum of what the NES video card can even process. The enemies have been redesigned to look far more cleaner than they did in the past games, enemies from the first game and the second game do appear as well with improved sprite designs. Along with that each level looks different in design unlike the last two games where almost all the levels looked practically similar or the same.
• Sound: 9/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 sound effects have changed but retain some of effects from the first game. The sound process has improved and goes well with the music. They've added several tidbits of effects for even the smallest of things such as running which is a nice touch. However some aspects which could of used sound effects are either sounding dull or non-existent.
• Music: 10/10
o The music in the game has heavily improved and there are far more tracks in this game than the last two games combined pretty much. SMB3 has probably one of the best orchestrated tracks in the NES era along with other classics such as Final Fantasy, Kirby's Adventure and other games that came out along the same time. You'll enjoy the memorable tracks especially the iconic Airship track which appears in other Mario games.
• Length: 8/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 consists of 8 main worlds with about 7-10 main levels, couple of sub levels, mini game spaces, mini boss battles which range from 2-3, 2-3 fortresses and sometimes one in some maps and a airship level. There is also a additional map which you can go to buy only via wind whistle, overall the game, you can also use the wind whistle to instantly finish the game by warping yourself to the last world (which of course is random). Overall this game should take you somewhere around 3-5 hours in total.
• Replay Value: 7/10
o The game's replay value closely depends on the player him/herself. You can use wind whistles to either finish the game immediately or even go back to older levels in other words playing the game endlessly. Other than that, there isnt much extra content in the game unless you count the 9th world which is a optional world which you can only get to via wind whistle. The game's nostalgic gameplay and atmosphere itself will entice you to play the game again.
• Player Value: 10/10
o Super Mario Bros 3 is one of the best platformers and one of the best Super Mario games ever made and paved way forth to another great classic which comes after it. If you are looking for a game with a rich level design, addicted gameplay and a huge world, you have to get your hands on this instant classic.