Happy 20th Anniversary Super Mario Bros. 3

[VG_Maniac]

Ok, I know that Super Mario Bros. 3 is really 22 years old...as it was released in 1988 in Japan. However, today (Feb. 12th) marks the 20th anniversary of the game's release in North America.

So what are your Super Mario Bros. 3 memories? When was the first time you played the game, or even laid eyes on it? I'm willing to bet that most people probably either first saw it in The Wizard, or in the Nintendo Power Magazine preview in late 1989. I myself, first heard about the game and saw footage of it on the news when my dad was watching it and I just happened to be in the room (it was either December 1989 or January 1990). I remember they were showing some upcoming video games, and suddenly they showed Super Mario Bros. 3. That was the first time I ever laid eyes on it. We kept checking our local stores to see when it was going to come out. Finally, one of them called us back on Feb. 12th to tell us they had it in. For some reason, my mom didn't buy it for me right away...she just went to the local video rental store and rented it for me. However, as soon as I we returned the rental...she took me to Fred Myer to buy it.

[calgon]

I know this hobby carries a lot of nostalgia with it, so I will oblige. That said, I have fonder memories of acquiring the game than actually playing it. I was around 5-6 and stayed home sick from school with a fever. My mom took me along with her to Stop and Shop to pick up some groceries. During the late 80s/early 90s Stop and Shop had a small video rental section in some stores. While my mom was checking out, I wandered over to said area and saw for the first time Super Mario 3. I had no idea of its origin, and had only recently played and fell in love with SMB2. My mom allowed me to rent it, but was very sure to remind me that because of this favor, I would return to school the next day and the game would go back as well.

I played to my recolection, somewhere around an hour or so and managed to make it half-way through world 2. The next day at school, I tried to tell my friends about the game, the weird power-ups and the koopa kids. My six-year-old mind thought that the "P" blocks were cupcakes, and the musical notes were pianos. It seemed that no one believed me, until finally a few weeks or months passed and the mania of the whole thing sunk in. My friends would all soon buy and complete mario 3 on their own. I was left to wait until Christmas for my own copy. I played a ton of it with my sisters on Christmas day, and months after until I moved on to a new game. To this day, it is my least favorite mario simply because I've played it to death and feels more like a job to play through than anything else.

[joshnickerson]

I remember borrowing it from a friend of mine and getting to around World 2 or 3... naturally I pleaded for that game so much that I got it for an Easter present later on.

It was the first video game I ever beat... I remember beating it and shouting to my mom to come in an witness my accomplishment. She came in and watched the ending with me and basically said "Good for you". Obviously she wasn't aware at what an earth shattering event that was for me :)

I have played that game so much, from the NES version, to the All-Stars version and the GBA version, that I could probably play the game in my sleep. Quite possibly my most favorite game ever.

[retroman]

for me i first saw it in the wizard. Then my first time playing it was when i got out of the hospital for having my tonsles taken out. My parents got it for me as a sympathy gift. About 2 weeks after it came out.

[GameBoyGeek]

I first found this game in my local rental store and rented it. I almost took it back because I couldn't get it to work but my mom got it working. Anyway that year for my birthday I got the game and i've had it ever since. I love my smb3

[walrusmonger]

I begged my mom for months (it felt like years, might have even been a year) to get it for me since I played it at my cousin's house and loved it. My mom ended up loving the game and beat it before me and my brother did.

[JSoup]

I think the first time I saw Mario 3 was in The Wizard. At the time, the game was already available, but we were having money problems at the time. I went to the local video store a few days later, only to find that the two copies of the game they had were already rented out for the weekend. An older kid noticed me looking at the black and white placeholder for Mario 3, checked his copy back in and rerented it out to me.

Thus, I learned about honer among gamers.

Funny stuff, our TV was so bad, I played the game thinking the Boomerang Bros. boomerangs were socks and the Raccoon Leafs were hot dogs.

[BetaWolf47]

The only childhood memory I have of the NES version is my friends bringing over the game, popping it in the system, and having it not work. I didn't want to play it that bad, so it didn't matter to me.

My first real experiences I had were when I got the game on SNES as part of Super Mario All-Stars. Of course I played Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels the most, but we did get pretty close to beating Super Mario Bros. 3 a few times.

[todesengel]

I remember getting Mario 3 for my birthday when the game came out, it was one of those surprise gifts that was pulled out after everything else. Still my favorite Mario game after all these years and will probably be getting the Famicom copy for my birthday at the end of the month.

[exit]

I remember my sister getting it when we still lived in New York, I just can't believe it was that long ago.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I think I first heard about the game in gaming magazines. I was about 13 years old. Around that time (I believe) there was a so-called chip shortage. Even back then, me and my friends thought Nintendo was trying to manipulate the market!

So me and my mom were having trouble finding it. We went inside a Toys R Us and saw they were out of the Mario 3 slips. Back then, when you bought a game, you grabbed a paper slip for it and took it to a register, then you'd go to a booth where you actually get the game.

Anyway, they were out, but on the way out the door, I noticed that a cashier was ripping and sorting out some slips. Among them were Mario 3. My insides burst with excitement. I had it!
At last I stepped inside a Toys R Us

I remember enjoying every bit of it. I was impressed that the NES could produce such graphics, especially the flying ships and the "giant world."

[LiquidPolicenaut]

Wow, happy 20th b-day SMB3! I remember also seeing the game in a snippet from "The Wizard". My first real hands on experience with it was in an arcade in some third-rate theme park in upstate NY (something like Quassy or something). That was my first time seeing the PlayChoice-10 arcdae system and I was sooooo blown away by playing it but also by how different it looked compared to the others. A few months pass by and, after many months off drooling over random pics here and there in magazines, a video store I used to go to and was friends with the owner, his kid had the import version of it and he finally let me borrow it. SMB3 was also my first import and I loved every minute I got to play with it :)

To this day I still love playing it but I usually play the All-Stars version on the SNES....

[Smashed Brother]

We (my mother and I) were living in Cedar Rapids, IA at the time. Of course, the first place that I saw the game was in that awesome 'Wizard' movie. After it was released, my mom took me to the video store to rent it. I thought that the game was the greatest thing ever, and much to my amazement, my mom really enjoyed it too. Well, about a week after this, I had just came home from school and was watching cartoons when my mom came home from work with this look of mischief in her eyes. She pulled her hand out that was hiding behind her back and.....there was a shiny new copy of Mario 3 in it!! Yeah, at that moment I decided that she was pretty much the best mom ever made :)

I probably wore out the red on the NES controller buttons from all of the time that I put into that game. I even use to beatbox the 'underground caverns' tune while I was at school when I was bored!

[Bandicat]

Definitely one of the greatest games ever released on the NES. I got my first look at this game the same way many of you did. I saw it in "The Wizard" I remember seeing the Koopa Troopa shells breaking the breaks on level 1-3, and thinking that was amazing.

I remember the first time I beat it. I was up late (late for my age back then I guess). My parents were out somewhere and left me, my brother and my sister with a (cool) babysitter. She told me I could stay up as late as I wanted playing Super Mario 3, but I had to run upstairs to bed when we heard my parents come home.

The first time I got to Bowser it scared the crap out of me and the babysitter, which caused me to die really quickly. The second time I made it to him, I defeated him.

<<<Spoiler Coming up if you haven't beat the game yet>>>












I remember getting incredibly angry when the Princess Toadstool said "Thank You, but our princess is in another castle." I had worked my ass off the past few hours to beat the game, and for a split second, I thought my accomplishment was going to be ripped away from me.






<<<END SPOILER>>>

[buzz_n64]

Those were the days... I remember when my family got it too. We went to the official Nintendo store in middle of the mall to purchase it. My brother and I would battle for hours in 2 player mode.

[raptor94k]

I don't remember too much about getting the game originally. I was probably only 5 or 6. I do remember at one point we (my brother and I) had a babysitter that knew all the secrets. I thought it was amazing when she showed us how to fly up and get the warp whistle in the first castle and how to drop through the white block on 1-3.

On a slightly related note, she also taught us how to rub on the top of the NES and then bang on the side of it to get the games working when they were flashing the green screen of death. Even though it only worked like 15% of the time, I thought that was the secret way you got NES games to work until I was like 12 or 13.

[Push Upstairs]

I probably first saw the game in "The Wizard", but I have even fonder memories of going to a classmates b-day party and him having it setup there. I remember knowing after that visit that I wanted SMB3 for x-mas, and those commercials with people chanting "MARIO" didn't help matters either.

For the next two years (with bouts inactivity due to it being taken away for bad grades) I played the game until I was a SMB3 playing machine. I've lost some of my edge over the years (mostly due to lack of practice), but I can still play with near machine like precision. And oddly enough, I can now beat some levels I couldn't when I was younger. :?

[Bloodreign]

Still have my original copy 20 years later. My friend got the game, and we played it for a few hours, but my folks weren't rich so I had to wait awhile for the game. Lo and behold one day I came home from school, my mom said, hey check the pantry for something good inside. I checked it out and hidden behind something else was a copy of SMB3, I was so damned delighted (at the age of 15) that I felt like I was 7 or 8 again, very jubilant. Nowadays I have moved on to other games both before and after SMB3, but every now and then I fire up my original copy, or the GBA or All Stars version, mainly the NES one, and go for a fun romp once again.

[Sailorneorune]

I don't remember much about getting my copy of Super Mario Bros. 3. I do know that I got it from my dad as a Christmas present when I was 7 or 8. When I opened the box and saw Mario smiling back at me, I let out the biggest, toothiest little-kid grin ever to my dad, and may have had a hand in inventing the glomp.

This game is still amazing today, due to just how much fun it is. I have the original NES version, Super Mario All-Stars, and the GBA version. It's especially fun to play at work. :-D

[Dire 51]

Happy anniversary to one of the most overrated, boring games I've ever played. For years I have failed to see the appeal of SMB3. I loved SMB, I loved SMB2 (but not SMB2j, blah) and I even loved SMW, but SMB3 left me cold. That's not for lack of trying to play it - I rented it when it first came out and initially liked it, but as that week went on, my feelings changed from "this is a must buy!" to "I probably won't even rent this again." I have finished it, but only because I wanted to say that yes, I finished SMB3.

Right around Level 2, it starts slowing down. I lose any and all enthusiasm I have for playing it, and it just becomes a slog. Other parts of the game don't help: the autoscrolling segments, Worlds 7 & 8, the overall length of the entire game... you know how each world in the original had just four sub-stages? Those were just the right length.

But hey, that's me. I'm glad you guys (and about 80 million other people, judging by all the "BEST GAME EVAR!!!" threads I've seen on various forums and ultraglowing reviews of it I've seen) were able to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Although if given a choice, I'd much rather play SMB3 all the way through again than that annoying fetch-quest Super Mario 64.

[scooterb23]

I got it for Christmas the year it came out. I sat there and played through every single world in one sitting. I think it took me 6-7 hours. I then restarted, and played through the "quickest" way I could find (not knowing about warp whistles at the time). I've probably blown through the game 40-50 times since. One of my favorites on the NES.

[rgw825]

I first seen it in the movie The Wizard, but for some reason i didn't remember the exact name of it when the movie was over. I never owned an NES myself but my friend did and got to play it when he brought it over. I was never good at beating Mario games but watched as my friend did. He was a game master. Can you believe that even now i have never beat that game. I have never sat down long enough to try. But it's still not a top priority of mine.

[camarothunder]

I was probably around 11-12 years old at that time when SM3 was released. I was reading my monthly subscription of Nintendo Power when they had an article about upcoming release of Super Mario 3. I was amazed about this game, even I've not play it. I was pretty much disappointed about Super Mario 2 back then (but love it now) so I was really looking forward to buy me a copy of that game. I asked my parent if they could purchased one for me but it wasn't easy. They had me to do some certain chores to do for a whole month before I can get my hand on SM3. After a month of hell, my parent took me to Walmart to pick up a copy. It was a great ride of that time for me. But the only thing that disappoint me is that this game did not have a save feature so I pretty much have to breeze through the game in one sitting. :beaten:

[blue lander]

The school I was in at the time had a Japanese class, and I remember we did a Super Mario Bros 3 play for the whole school right before it came out.

[betamax001]

Being a much younger gamer, I first played this when it came out for the GBA. I wish I still had my copy because it was a fantastic game. Even though I rebought my GBASP and DS since I lost it, if they turn up with all those Game Boy games I will probably be ecastic and jumping up and down like a little 6 year old : )

[calthaer]

The GBA game had a lot of stuff added to it (like those colored P-blocks) through the cards that made it an interesting remix.

I remember reading about this in magazines before it ever came out. Anticipation for this game was high; I remember the commercial with Mario's face across America. Nintendo was the hottest thing at the time, and this game was the hottest game for the hottest system.

Didn't get it myself until around '91 or so; I didn't get an NES until then (was more of a computer gamer myself). Still, it was fun - a seemingly-endless array of Mario suits, each world was unique (unlike the rather cookie-cutter boards of SMB1, and the two or three somewhat-different worlds of SMB2), and it even had the Kuribo's Shoe, which was a nifty little doodad thrown in there just for laughs, it seemed. Great level design...this one was a lot of fun to play.

SMW was not quite as interesting to me because you only had two suits. Even the New Super Mario Bros. doesn't quite have the same magic to me that SMB3 does.

[kupomogli]

First time I saw it was also the Wizard.

When it came out, I didn't own it. My brother rented it at one of the local video stores. We actually didn't get the game until Christmas that same year. Opening the package, bright yellow with Mario on the front in the racoon suit.

The game itself is amazing. One of the best platformers ever made. Great level design, music, presentation. This is the game you had to own if you owned an NES.

*edit*

This is also a game you have to own if you still own an NES.

[ccovell]

I first saw SMB3 in maybe 1988 or 1989... There was a hobby shop that carried a lot of Japanese Macross models and stuff like that, near my home in Vancouver. In the display case, they had this weird, mysterious little white checkered box, and I asked the lady what it was. She said it was Super Mario 3. I didn't believe it, because the box was smaller than an entire NES cart, so there was no way I could play it on the NES, I thought.

Fast-forward to sometime in 1990, when I was at my friend's house, and one of his "rich" cousins came in with SMB3 for real. His parents had tracked down a cartridge in the first week of release, which at that time was often weeks or months later in Canada than in the U.S. At least that was my experience of it.

That summer I got a copy SMB3 of my own and played it until I was sick of it. :-D

[YoshiM]

Twenty years? I haven't beaten that game yet and it's been twenty years?! I remember I could get so close....so close to the end but I'd choke and lose my lives. I think it scarred me-I even have Super Mario All Stars and I still haven't attempted to play it, even though I can save my game now. I even bought the blessed official hint book and I haven't gone back.

I think I need to rectify this situation...

[Voliko]

Twenty years? I haven't beaten that game yet and it's been twenty years?! I remember I could get so close....so close to the end but I'd choke and lose my lives. I think it scarred me-I even have Super Mario All Stars and I still haven't attempted to play it, even though I can save my game now. I even bought the blessed official hint book and I haven't gone back.

I think I need to rectify this situation...

Time to unleash. Although I thought the difficulty in SMB 3 was just right...

[Steven]

Happy 20 US years SMB3.

My bro bought it back in the day and I remember (watching) him playing the crapola out of it. I didn't really play it myself until a couple years ago when I fired up the SM All Stars cartridge. I managed to beat SMB3, although ironically about a week ago my bro popped in the cart to play SMB. I played the last world of SMB3 and couldn't get much far.

Really got to play it over and over to beat it. I probably will never go through SMB3 again... although it was fun the 1st time.

Not to sidetrack but I prefer SMW to SMB3.

[Push Upstairs]

Twenty years? I haven't beaten that game yet and it's been twenty years?! I remember I could get so close....so close to the end but I'd choke and lose my lives.

I'm pretty rusty at World 8, and the last time I went into Bowser's Castle I died a lot (no real practice). Circa 1991, I could have beat the place in one-two lives *tops*.

But even today, it is damn impossible for me to run out of lives. I've never set foot in World 8 without at least 50 lives.

[pseudonym]

I never found world 8 hard except for a few levels, that damn fast airship and another level after that. I always found world 7 a lot harder.

[Baloo]

Not to sidetrack but I prefer SMW to SMB3.


Personally, I prefer SMB3 to World. I didn't like the graphics or sound as much really, and the suits aren't nearly as interesting or as plentiful as they were in SMB3.

SMB3 still stands for me as the pinnacle of the series. Super Mario World is great, but is only 2nd best. New Super Mario Bros/Wii doesn't have that same feel for me.

[TheRedEye]

Does anyone know the source of this February 12 date? I've looked through every U.S. gaming mag of that vintage and through several newspaper archives, and as far as I can tell that date just magically appeared on Wikipedia with no actual citation.

[Leo_A]

Personally, I prefer SMB3 to World. I didn't like the graphics or sound as much really, and the suits aren't nearly as interesting or as plentiful as they were in SMB3.

What suits? Are you taking about the cape? I never thought it was scarce in SMW, just the opposite. It's so widely available that I usually use it for just about the entire game.

[Baloo]

What suits? Are you taking about the cape? I never thought it was scarce in SMW, just the opposite. It's so widely available that I usually use it for just about the entire game.

I didn't mean plentiful as in how frequently they occur in the game, more plentiful as in the amount of different suits there are in SMB3.

[Push Upstairs]

I never found world 8 hard except for a few levels, that damn fast airship and another level after that. I always found world 7 a lot harder.

In my younger years, I always skipped World 7. I might play the first 3-4 levels or make an attempt to beat it, but I never really beat it.

I played "All-Stars" a few years ago and didn't have a huge problem getting past World 7. Either "All-Stars" is easier, or lady luck kissed me that night.

[BobaFettHotep]

got it for my 7th birthday right before i had to leave for school dang that was the longest day at school ever still my favorite mario game

[ryborg]

Does anyone know the source of this February 12 date? I've looked through every U.S. gaming mag of that vintage and through several newspaper archives, and as far as I can tell that date just magically appeared on Wikipedia with no actual citation.

I'm curious about this too. A number of sites (Gamespy, IGN, etc) have the release date as Feb 1. Feb 12, 1990 was a Monday while Feb 1 was a Thursday. Does anyone remember what day of the week games were released back then?

[YoshiM]

Time to unleash. Although I thought the difficulty in SMB 3 was just right...

The difficulty was fine but for some reason I'd just choke on World 8. I could play (with warp whistles) and not haven any problems until that point. I chalk it up to over excitement in my teenage years. Around that time I got a Genesis, so my attention was drawn to the 16 bit realm and never got back to it.

Someone mentioned playing it on All-Stars and getting through Level 7. Does anyone know if Nintendo toned anything down on this version or was it all just gussied up with better graphics and sound?

[Lady Jaye]

Here in Montreal, many people (including myself) played it several months before that release date, since there was an upsurge of pirate Famicom carts (with adaptors) that were sold in flea markets and the like.

That's how my best friend and I played it back in 1989. We had no idea what was said on the text screen, but since it wasn't a RPG, it was still more than playable. The one main element that we didn't quite understand then was the function of the Tanuki suit. We didn't really distinguish it from the Racoon suit.

[Lady Jaye]

I'm curious about this too. A number of sites (Gamespy, IGN, etc) have the release date as Feb 1. Feb 12, 1990 was a Monday while Feb 1 was a Thursday. Does anyone remember what day of the week games were released back then?

Feb. 12, 1990 is the date indicated on Nintendo Power's 2010 calendar.

[kupomogli]

The one main element that we didn't quite understand then was the function of the Tanuki suit. We didn't really distinguish it from the Racoon suit.

If you hit down and jump with the Tanuki suit Mario will turn into a statue that can kill any opponent(except bosses and indestructible enemies.) Also enemies will walk right past without damaging Mario as well. It's not that much better than the raccoon suit. More of a novelty item. You probably know all of this now, just replying in case.

Anyways. The reason I think Super Mario Bros 3 is so much better than Super Mario World is because the game has so many different and good level designs. Super Mario World just feels so flat. The great level design just isn't there. It's a good game and the level design is okay, but no contest to Super Mario Bros. 3. Also. Yoshi's Island is second best to me.

Late last year I replayed the game for the NES, also. Stage 7 was always the hardest for me when I was younger, but I hardly died when going through the game this time around. So it's not the SNES version being easier.

[fahlim003]

Just wanted to drop my two cents in this worthy topic. I just completed (without warps) Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time. Easily one of the most classic games around and one only until quite recently did I actually decide or care to try to fully complete. It's a long haul with lots of variety as mentioned by others.

While I was never and continue to be mediocre at this game, I have lots of respect and admiration for a game that was a real pleasing event back when I was a child. Everything from the box-art, the music, graphics, and bonus games all sit well with me and I don't see it changing for a long time.

I did complete this on Super Mario All-Stars however, and I used a guide, the original SMB3 NP guide no less. I found it more helpful than the SMAS guide upon brief inspection. I don't know if I'll ever have the patience do it on the original hardware on in emulation as it's a real marathon, but there's always time and getting that first clear under my belt is all that matters for now.

Here's to an excellent game!

(final note: used Jugem's Cloud to skip the final fortress in World 7, also put the 2nd giant piranha plant stage to sleep)

Did SMAS rename the worlds? Seems to me the names from the SMB3 guide for each world differs from the names in All-Stars.