Super Mario Bros. 3

"The Italian Stallion rocks the Mushroom Kingdom in his best adventure ever."

I've reviewed all of the SMB series so why not do the third. Super Mario Brothers 3 is one of the greatest games ever made, period. SMB3 is what we call a classic; the game just simply shines, even today. SMB3 goes back to the great storyline that Princess Peach has been captured by the evil King Koopa so Mario and Luigi must go out and save her from his clutches. The storyline seems much like the original Super Mario Brothers, but this time Bowser has children known as the Koopalings. Well to touch on every category a little bit I would like to say that the graphics in SMB3 are perhaps the best to ever grace the Nintendo Entertainment System. The graphics are nothing short of tremendous, the character models, enemies, backgrounds, foregrounds everything in this game seems to just be plain awesome!

These are up on the level of Super Mario World graphics they are just that good. The gameplay of SMB3 is what I would like to call ''Tremendous'' I am almost speechless on the greatness that this game has. The newly added power-ups, levels, worlds, bosses, everything just seems to have a certain ring that makes it simply great. The sound/music of this game is the best I have ever heard even surpassing that of even Super Mario Brothers. The music is so catchy that you'll find yourself humming a lot, I do mean a lot with these rhythms. Even the sound is so awesome, because when you're playing you can find yourself yet again humming even sounds because they are just so well crafted. Well enough of the introduction of this let me get on with my best review yet...

This part of the game is nothing short of perfect, yes perfect. This game set the stage for many more platforming games that would have power-ups and such a great feel of fun. In Super Mario Brothers 3 the first player always plays as Mario while the second player takes control of Luigi. The one great thing about this game is its millions of power-ups that you can choose from and they are the coolest things I've ever seen. They range from a Raccoon Leaf, Tanooki Suit, Hammer Suit, Fire Flower, Super Mushroom, etc. there are so many to collect in this game that you'll soon find a favorite in no time. Now like the game implies it is a platformer, meaning that you jump on multiple platforms throughout the many levels in order to reach your final destination at the very end of the level. Speaking of destinations, the game plays much like the previous SMB's, you have to get from point A to point B going through the levels in a 2-D format. The game also features a non-linear path which lets players go in many different directions instead of stuck on only just one set path by the game. Players have the ability to take many different paths in order to get through the world and reach the final boss in the last castle.

Now while there are many paths, there is usually an easy path and a path that lets you collect items. Both of which will help you to the end of the world. There are 8 worlds with a very large number of levels in each world. Unlike the past SMB's instead of just having 4 levels and a boss for the world, there are on average about 10 levels in each world depending on the size of the world depends on the number of levels that subsides in them. This is a truly big upgrade from the previous two. Now the one thing that really separates this SMB from previous ones is the boss battles, you will find that instead of fighting different animals or relatives of Koopa you'll fight more cunning bosses, his kids. The Koopalings, as they are referred to, are Koopa's kids who have stolen the wand from the King in each world and turned them into some kind of monster. When you reach the Castle the Toad there will tell you what has happened and you must face the Koopalings Doom ship each of them have their own specially designed Doom ship to fit their personality. These function like castles from the old games, you must go through them in order to reach the end in which you will fight the boss. The bosses are actually hard in this game and know how to avoid you as well as hurt you, that adds a feeling of difficulty to this game along with added fun.

One great thing about SMB3 is the added difficulty, this games difficulty is very high, even veteran gamers will find some of the levels quite hard and sometimes even losing multiple lives on one level. The great thing about this though, is while being difficult the game doesn't add so much as to be literally impossible or frustrating hard. Since this is a platformer once you see how things work it's just plain fun. One very cool thing about the gameplay is the 2-Player Mode. In this mode the first player will control Mario while the second player controls Luigi. This allows two people to go through the game and tackle things together, unlike previous SMB's the great thing about this is that the problem with someone taking control of the first player and getting through almost all of the game while the second player sits has been completely fixed. Now when one person beats a level or loses a life the other player gets his/her turn. It adds more fun to the game and allows two players to get to play equally. The nice thing about this though is that one player can take one path while the other player can take another path and both can meet up at the Castle this is another cool feature of 2-Player Mode. So overall the gameplay is the best aspect of the game along with many others.

The games graphics are something else! Unlike the two previous SMB's, SMB3 looks simply flawless in the graphical design. While Mario and Luigi have changed there overalls to red shirt and black overalls, green shirt and black overalls they are still looking better than ever! The character designs look alike but they are still very well done in the fact that you can see all of the facial features as well as the body. The greatest thing about the character models is that they are looking good, instead of looking really pixilated these actually look more smooth in texture instead of rigid with pixels, due to this the character models are one of the best on the NES. Something that cannot go without mention though the awesome, awesome level and world designs. The first level alone is filled with a great background and foreground along with different enemy designs. Even the Piranha Plants are looking better than ever, most of the game looks smooth in texture instead of rigid or bumpy.

The graphics are really, really pushing the NES's power because they use curves, circles, colors, and high-quality graphical enemy designs as well. The game itself it probably the best to ever hit the NES and is considered great by many people. Many, many of the graphics in later levels are awesome as well seeing sand in the desert, even sinking sand is added in this game. The effects of this game are really something else. One thing that really looks good is the levels in which you go through a long castle before coming upon the boss. Throughout the level you find many upgraded things from the past. Instead of spiked lava, the lava in this game actually looks very good; it even has Podoboos coming out of them, a nice little added effect. So overall the graphics in SMB3 are almost flawless and does not need to get anything lower than a 10 because of the tremendous amount of work put into these as well as the NES's ability to just run this game the way it does it amazing.

The sound/music of the game is the best in any Mario game. I may have said this before, but this one counts. The sound is just plain awesome, hearing Mario having a Raccoon Leaf and the sound of the tail swinging when he flies is awesome. But the sound that just doesn't lose its charm is the sound when you bounce on multiple enemies to give you a 1-Up ching after you do it. That sound alone is what makes Mario better than others. But seriously the sound in this game is really cool to listen to and never slacks up beyond your expectations for a game. While the sound isn't the best part of the audio area, the second part is the music. The music for SMB3 is something else, the great, catchy tunes that you hear while playing through the many levels of the game will leave you dazed. The great thing is that the music never gets repetitive, because in many games of this time the music tended to repeat itself and get bland, the music for SMB3 stays strong as some of the best music ever created. The multiple tracks you'll hear through the game really make you wonder how the game itself can handle such it. There is almost no track that you'll hate to hear, if there is then you really aren't into Mario music, because the music itself should not cause a problem for anyone! So overall the music in this game is excellent, the sound is great and the put them both together and you have yet another awesome feature added to this almost perfect game.

Overall the game is a masterpiece. It has very, very few cons if any major ones and still rests in many peoples heart as possibly the best game ever created, period. There is not a doubt in my mind that even as games advance further in technology this game will still remain as one of the best games ever made in gaming history. So the graphics are tremendous, gameplay is near flawless, the sound/music are some of the best ever heard. You put all of this together and you have yourself an above, above average game that is still going to remain one of the classics.

Final Score -- 10.0

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/02, Updated 11/29/06