Super Mario Bros. 3, Again. Part One

For those of you who don’t know about the magic contained within this game, which is probably a very small number in the gaming community, do yourself a favor and play this game. With the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii coming in a little over a week (November 15 to be exact), I thought I’d play Super Mario Bros. 3 to try and subside some excitement. Playing through this classic Nintendo title did nothing but increase my excitement for the new Wii game. First let me talk about my very first experience with the game.

I remember being a small one at the age of 4 patiently (yeah right) waiting to get my hands on the newest Super Mario game. My first experience with the title was with a rental copy. It was overwhelming walking back from the video rental store with this game in hand. As soon as I came through the door I ran to my NES console and popped the game inside. I was met with a curtain. Then seconds later the curtain rises and I’m met with two of my favorite heroes ever. They start having a brotherly quarrel with each other which is very amusing to watch. I then couldn’t take it anymore and decided to press start.

As the first world appears you can clearly tell that you are in for a big adventure. Cheerful music is playing in the background as you move Mario around the map screen. The game was already a hit in my eyes. So I chose World 1-1 and started to play. It was soon that I discovered the first new power-up in the game. Theraccoon leaf. I was immediately smitten with Mario’s new look. I started to run and a P meter began to rise, then when I jumped I found out quickly that I could fly. Being able to fly was incredible. For the first time in a Mario game you could take to the skies and explore the heights of the level.

After awhile I was able to continue onto World 2 and dug deep into the desert. Eventually coming upon the quicksand sun level. I tried to complete that level but failing almost everytime. Before I knew it the time had come to return this game to the rental store. Fret not as I did end up receiving the game as a gift only a few months later. I was able to complete the quicksand sun level, and also complete the game. Which brings us to today, 19 years in the future. A 23 year old man still playing Super Mario Bros. 3.

I have this game downloaded on my Wii console. It only costs 500 Nintendo points so it’s really a great deal for this one of a kind classic. Once I finished the download I chose the game from the Wii menu and I was met with those curtains again. I knew I was in for another great ride. So I chose world 1-1 again, then world 1-2 and so on. As a kid I always wanted to be the cool guy finding the hidden whistles and warping my way to world 8, but not this time. I wanted to see more of the game on this play. So I continued forward, beating the dreaded sun, stomping goombas, flying to secret 1-ups and other secret areas. One thing that I can’t help but get excited about when talking about SMB3 is the suits.

Frog Suit, Hammer Bros. Suit, Tanooki Suit. What a variety of awesome suits. With the frog suit you are able to improve the swimming controls while in the water. This makes evil water levels much more tolerable. The Tanooki Suit is one of a kind. While gaining the ability to fly you also get the ability to turn into a statue, leaving Mario invincible for a few seconds. Playing the game 19 years later I realized that this suit actually turns up more than I thought it did, and it’s still really fun to wear. One of my personal favourites, however, is the Hammer Bros. Suit. I loved donning this outfit and throwing hammers back at those creeps. As a kid I hated these guys, more so in Super Mario Bros., but they came in a variety of different kinds in SMB3. So there were a few new patterns for me to learn. Well it was easy to trump any of these guys with an invincibility star power-up, so I decided to take the easy route then and now.

So we cross the grasslands, then the desert, then over water, then to world 4, Giant Land. This was so impressive to me when I was a kid. It’s good to see that years later it hasn’t lost its appeal. The giant enemies were amazing. Who didn’t have fun stomping the crap out of those giant goombas and kicking around giant koopa shells. Those were and still are the days. We also get the first appearance of a giant hammer brother, twice as big and twice as powerful. I was very frightened at the sight of these guys as a kid, but now I just make sure to bring along some fire flower power.

World 5 gave us the appearance of the now infamous Kuribo’s shoe. Kuribo’s Shoe is a giant green shoe that you can fit inside and jump around with, just in case you didn’t already know. This shoe was so much fun to play around with and it’s very rare as well as it shows up in only one level. Sky land was ok, but World 6 was even better and my personal favourite. We were able to finally get another use out of the fire flower. Now we can melt ice blocks. It sounds simple but I thought it was absolutely satisfying. You might be asking me why this world is my favourite. Well, I have always loved and will always prefer ice and snow levels. I love the atmosphere that these levels create, and SMB3 wasn’t short on atmosphere.

Beating World 6 meant that World 7 was just around the corner. I didn’t like this world much as a kid, probably because the difficulty started increasing rapidly. I still can’t find much about this world to like today, except level 7 and 9. Level 7 was still a great challenge today. Using the star power you had to run over a barrage of killer plants and be fast enough to trigger the next star. This is very tricky, yet very fun. Level 9 was like a maze as it forced you to find the tunnel to the end of the level, instead of just running to the far right.

Next we will find ourselves in World 8, the Dark World. A world I’m very familiar with, as I used to warp here directly from World 1, a lot. So i defeated the tank level and then the ship level. Then ran my way through the power-up levels, and on to the dreaded airship level. I usually use a P-wing, if I have one, to complete this level. This time, however, I decided to chance it without the help. To my surprise this level seemed a tad easier than before. Then we’re off to level 1. These levels all lack color and and are very remincisent of the end of each stage. I don’t have much trouble with these levels and find myself at the fortress.

This is where I stopped playing, for now at least. Please come back in a few days to check out part 2 of this article which is sure to have more Super Mario Bros. 3 fun!