"The Wizard never saw it coming."

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Today is a special themed edition of “Friday Old Games”. With our recent review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii now live, I’m taking this opportunity to talk about my favorite game in the franchise, Super Mario Bros. 3.

While the original Super Mario Bros. laid down an excellent starting point for the series, the sequel (known to us non-Japanese gamers as The Lost Levels) felt like more of an expansion than a new game. In October of 1988, Nintendo of America released their own Super Mario Bros. 2 (later to be titled Super Mario USA in Japan) at the same time that Japanese gamers were getting their hands on the revolutionary Super Mario Bros. 3.

Instead of feeling like another new level pack, SMB3 actually expanded on the old gameplay mechanics while adding new ones that would become a staple of the series. The game features a map-screen for each world, allowing different paths to be taken. All the worlds have a distinct theme and more levels than before.

The map also contains special event squares. Toad houses allow you to get a power-up (usable on the map screen at any time) from one of three chests, there is a couple matching games to earn extra lives, and you can also occasional run into a hammer brother who you can defeat to earn another power-up.

While previously there was only the fire-flower, SMB3 added a large variety of different power-ups to the mix. The most common of which is a leaf that puts Mario in a raccoon suit. This grants you the ability to fly (if you have enough room to get up to speed) and whack enemies with your tail.

The addition of the raccoon suit alone would have been enough to be a big game changer, but SMB3 didn’t stop there. Instead, it added several more items including the frog suit, the often coveted hammer suit, the tanooki suit (a variation of the raccoon suit that allows Mario to turn into an invincible statue temporarily), and a few map-screen specific items like the cloud, music box, and warp whistle.

The levels themselves were better than ever, making effective use of the themes present in each world. Each stage is so much more intricate than those found in previous Mario games. Though I love the original Super Mario Bros. for its simplicity, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a much deeper platformer and ultimately, feels more rewarding to play.

Why did I pick this game?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was released last week and our review went up two days ago. While the new entry borrows elements from various games in the series, Super Mario Bros. 3 is, by far, the biggest influence. Once of the more blatant examples is the koopalings.

While Bowser use to stand on an unstable bridge at the end of every world, he finally decided it was in his best interest to let others take on the “world boss” role. Each of the koopalings, though very similar, had a little something to spice up each boss fight. While hitting an axe on the right-hand side of the screen eight times has its moments, new bosses were a welcome change.

Really, Super Mario Bros. 3 marks a drastic evolution for the series. The amount of new features that were added between the second (The Lost Levels) and third game are truly incredible. It was everything a sequel should be. It was a completely new experience that managed to stay true to its roots the whole time.

How does it hold up?

Fortunately, it wasn’t just a conceptually good game. Practically everything in SMB3 is executed perfectly, making it as fun a game now as it was when it was released in North America almost twenty years ago. It remains not only one of the greatest games found on the NES, but one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time.

Tags: 2-D, Friday Old Games, Mario, NES, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Nintendo, platformer, Super Mario Bros. 3

This entry was posted on Friday, November 27th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.