Positives:
- Cleaned up a lot of the issues that "Super Mario Bros. 2" had and improved pretty much the whole way.
- Set conventions and standards for the rest of the series (and other platformers) to follow.
- It's still an incredibly tight platformer with a lot of variation to the overall gameplay.
- Level design is as clever and inventive as it's always been.
- Controls feel a lot tighter than before.
- The return of power-ups (and the addition of new ones) makes for even more gameplay variation.
- Music remains every bit as lovely as "Mario" music has always been.
- Visually, it still looks great considering how long it's been out for.
- Plenty of levels, which creates an incredible sense of replayability.
Negatives:
- World 8, while cool in concept, got a little dull to me because some of the levels felt a bit too same-y.
Consensus: If "Super Mario Bros. 2" was a bit of a roadblock, "Super Mario Bros. 3" was the car just deciding to drive around it. In pretty much every way, "Mario 3" cleans up what "Mario 2" might have made a mess of, and it's still an incredible game to go back to today. Looking back, it's pretty amazing to see just how many conventions this title set that future "Mario" games (and other platformers, for that matter) would eventually follow up with. It's a trailblazer for a reason, and had it not been for the final world dragging a little, this would get my highest possible score. Nevertheless, it's a fantastic game that's still worth playing today.
Final rating: 9 out of 10 "Awesome"