Super Mario Bros. 3 is Harder than You Remember, and Other Insights
That World 7 is a real punk
Hey friends! This is a paid post, but fear not! The Sonoran Videogame Society is currently running a Monsoon Madness Summer Special. Through the month of July and August, all paid subscriptions are 40% off! Subscribe to the Society for $3/month, $30/year, or $60 a year for Founding Members! Monthly and yearly subscribers get access to 3-4 paid posts a month while Founding Members get exclusive goodies! Thanks for reading and for your patronage! Now, on with the post!
This is Part 2 of my Beating Every NES Game on Nintendo Switch Online series.
Be sure to read Part 1 for an explanation of this absurd task.
HOW MANY TIMES PLAYED PREVIOUSLY: Innumerable.
DID I ORIGINALLY ENJOY: Unless you hate fun, Super Mario Bros. 3 is impossible not to enjoy.
HAVE I BEATEN THIS BEFORE: Yes, an admirable amount.
HOW LONG TO BEAT: About 4-5 hours.
BEATING PARAMETERS: No warps, no whistles. Completed every stage, including Toad Houses, Minigames, Hammer Brothers, and optional stages. I did use save states at the end of each play session, so I didn’t have to play through the entire game again from the beginning every time I turned off my Switch (I am aware that Sleep Mode exists and I use it, but I don’t rely on it as a guarantee).
RATING: Original NES version: 10 out of 10. Switch version: 9 out of 10.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is often considered the Greatest of the original NES Mario trilogy, and for good reason. The game is stuffed full of ideas, ideas that would later go on to populate nearly every other mainline Mario game in existence.
The game features:
new power-ups, like the raccoon and tanooki suits, both of which let you fly (only the tanooki suit lets you turn into a weird statue, though).
New enemies, like the Angry Sun that flies down and attacks you, or the Boss Bass, a big fish that follows you and tries to eat you.
Eight worlds, all based on their own unique theme.
New secrets, like a memory minigame that appears every 80,000 points and rewards you with power-ups or hidden areas that can only be accessed with specific items.
Or how about Kuribo’s Shoe, a power-up that allows you to walk on anything and only appears in World 5-3?
Since Super Mario Bros. 3 is one of the most popular and influential games of its day, there’s a good chance you already knew everything you just read.
Rather than feed you more facts you already know, here are three revelations I received while playing through SMB3 for the first time in ten years.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Sonoran Videogame Society to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.