Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) review "A brief bit of musing, amusing to no one if not myself, as it pertains to the great Super Mario Bros. 3."

For me, it’s about the simple marches, the repeating melodies, the whimsical tunes that the NES could pull off with such capability and distinction. It’s about the little ditties that'll find a place in your head even after a single playthrough. It’s how their aural presence complements a sense of wonder to behold. This is a score to be cherished.

Go ahead; play those tunes in your head as you read on.

It’s about the color palate and how some of the best tonal displays on the 8-bit NES can be found here. It’s about how the maroon and navy blue on Mario’s suit are perfectly distinct against each other and how Frog Mario’s green skin juxtaposes against the water stages in World 3. It’s how beautiful blue Thwomp looks crashing against a grainy black block that makes up part of a passageway in an imposing desert castle or how perfectly positioned each one of Dry Bone's fossils scatters to the ground after a stomp to its shell.

It’s about neon Fire Mario’s glowing orange aura and not wanting to lose that look even upon realizing there’s a better power-up to nab. It's how tossing hammers and turning into statues offers joy, but taking high to the skies with a wind-powered raccoon tail proves most exhilarating.

For me, it’s about collecting just the right number of coins in Stage 1-4 to ensure a white treasure ship will appear on the Grassland’s over-world map. Or it’s about holding Down on that one white block – you know which one I’m talking about – in Stage 1-3 so Mario can fall behind the background and gather a rare warp whistle that will surely help him on his way.

It’s about promising yourself that you’re going to play through each and every stage to beat Bowser’s forces all the way through . . . only to then immediately use that aforementioned warp whistle obtained from Stage 1-3 because you just feel like going straight to the giant lands of World 4.

It’s about seeing colossal sprite renditions of Goombas, Koopas, and Pirhana Plants and wondering why there aren’t more of them to behold. There are so many fleeting things in this wondrous world; it’s easy to take their inclusion for granted. The Karibo’s Shoe fits the bill; it’s such a strange and mythical contraption, allowing unhindered traversal atop ravenous plants and spikey foes alike. Its rarity and usefulness have no equal.

For me, it’s about the Hammer suit, the Frog suit, and the Tanooki suit. Costumes as strange as they are powerful, as convenient in their concept as they are useful in their utility. Why didn’t these become staples in every installment afterwards?

It’s about collecting coins, a key aspect to most Mario titles, but here the intrinsic value offered through gold and silver coins is more prized to me than any red or blue coin could ever hope to achieve. It’s about finding P-switches to turn bricks into bank or trying to go down each and every pipe, scouring every corner for gilded bits of metal. Money is plentiful in this Mushroom Kingdom, a far cry from what many of us experience in our lives . . .

It’s about crushing the Koopa Kids with three well-placed stomps to the head or a bevy of fireball blasts to the body, dodging Wendy O.’s candy rings and Lemmy’s circus balls, or avoiding Roy’s tremor-inducing stomps. It’s about kicking Koopa Troopa shells and breaking bricks, covering chasms with precision hops atop donut lifts and rotating spinners, risking falling into a bottomless pit with a mistimed jump. It’s about displacing the Hammer Bros. while dodging their namesake – a challenge far greater when there are two to face at once.

It’s about levels 8-1 and 8-2, the only numbered stages where Mario can encounter a Boo or an Angry Sun, and the only two numbered stages that make up World 8's dark and dreary inner ring of military formations offering a last ditch effort to protecting King Koopa's castle. It’s about making it through all the cannonballs, flame jets, and Bob-ombs and somehow setting a course through Bowser’s egomaniacal lair. It’s about making it to his throne room and tricking him to his own doom by having his massive force break through the floor below, rescuing Princess Toadstool, and immediately picking up the controller to do it all over again. And again. Again and again.

For me, all of that stuff makes Super Mario Bros. 3 one of my favorite experiences ever.

What is it for you?

Community review by Fiddlesticks (September 03, 2017) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.