I started to play Super Mario Bros. 3 seriously in high school, and I would say that it is without qualification one of if not the best video game of any sort ever made. Upon release, it made all previous Mario games (and probably all contemporary platformers) look totally out of date. The physics in SMB3 are perfect - flawless. The power-ups are fun and surprisingly rich. Enemy design is great. The level design is stunning. The graphics are fantastic. Super Mario Bros. 3 has no room for improvement, at all.
One of the most important things to keep in mind about Super Mario Bros. 3 is the limitations of the NES. Super Mario World for the SNES has the same style of gameplay as SMB3, but with better graphics, sound, level elements etc. However, SMB3 is remarkable in its use of the capabilities of the NES. No game like SMB3 had ever been seen on the NES before, in terms of graphics, game complexity and diversity of levels. Even Kirby, Nintendo's swan song for the NES, doesn't really seem much more technically advanced. The fact that a perfect game like SMB3 could be designed within the constraints of the NES only makes the game deserving of more praise.
The story of Super Mario Bros. 3 is, like all Mario games, totally stupid. Rescuing the princess is the kind of cliche that shouldn't be recycled under any circumstances. Of course, this kind of non-story that frames the game is most likely intentional. There are no goals in the game other than to get to the end of the level and occasionally defeat a boss, so no story is really necessary. Even putting bosses in at the halfway castle and at the end of every world, Nintendo's nod to a structure within the story, is not an important part of the game. Mario's trademark of insanely difficult levels and ridiculously easy bosses is really established here with SMB3.
SMB3 is a game that has held up through the ages. It is the definitive platformer, Mario, and Nintendo game. Its praises cannot be sung enough.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 31st, 2007 at 19:19:06.
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