Super Mario Bros. 3
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| Super Mario Bros. 3<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;">Image:Smb3.jpg The cover of Super Mario Bros. 3 features Raccoon Mario.</td></tr> | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Nintendo
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Nintendo</td></tr><tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Designer(s)</th><td>Shigeru Miyamoto |
| Release date(s) | JPN October 23, 1988 NA February 12, 1990 EU August 29, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer
<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>ESRB: Everyone (Super Mario Advance 4 re-release).</td></tr> |
| Platform(s) | Famicom/NES Re-releases: SNES, GBA, Wii Virtual Console <tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media</th><td>3-megabit cartridge</td></tr> |
Super Mario Bros. 3 (sometimes referred to as Mario 3, SMB3, or Super Mario 3) is the last major Mario video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released on October 23, 1988 in Japan, February 12, 1990 in North America, and August 29, 1991 in Europe. The game was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, with music composed by Koji Kondo.
Super Mario Bros. 3 introduces a number of advances to the Super Mario Bros. series: the addition of a map screen, minigames, many new power-ups, enemies, and level types. It also features the first appearance of King Bowser's children, the Koopa Kids or Koopalings. Unlike Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA), it remains true to the original Super Mario Bros. gameplay formula, yet it features a great deal more innovation and freshness than Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. It consistently places highly in lists of top games of all time.
Although widely regarded as being the best-selling video game of all time, the original Super Mario Bros. is actually the best-selling video game, at 40.23 million copies compared to Super Mario Bros. 3's 17.28 million (as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records [1], based on data given by Nintendo).[2] Many figures however, put the sales at over 18 million copies sold. Because of the confusion that bundling causes with sales figures, Super Mario Bros. 3's achievement is often given more weight. When combined with its Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 versions, Super Mario Bros. 3 has sold over 33 million copies. The game was on the NES Top 20 list in Nintendo Power from its release until the NES list was discontinued in 1995. Only The Legend of Zelda was on the list longer.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay is a return to the style of Super Mario Bros. after the vast departure of the North American version of Super Mario Bros. 2. The heroes can again jump on many enemies to destroy them, as well as take on many different forms by acquiring special items.
However, despite the familiar gameplay, Super Mario Bros. 3 is still a different game from its predecessor. More puzzles, enemies and secret areas were added to enhance difficulty.
Rather than simply move forward in the game in a linear fashion, Mario travels the Mushroom World via a map, which often splits into different paths, giving the player more of a choice of which levels to play. Now the player could know what to expect while entering a level: for instance, a level situated near or on a body of water would most likely have aquatic elements. Furthermore, the player could skip levels entirely, allowing there to be greater control over the gameplay. While on the map, Mario can acquire special items through "Toad Houses" and battles with Hammer Brothers, which are saved in an inventory, and can be used in between levels.
Furthermore, smaller mechanics are changed. For instance, as in Super Mario Bros. 2 but not the original Super Mario Bros., the player can travel backwards in a level in case he had missed a special area or item. Super Mario Bros. 3 introduced the further ability of the screen to scroll diagonally (in Super Mario Bros. 2, it can sometimes scroll vertically and sometimes scroll horizontally, but never in both manners at once).
Also, due to the increased difficulty, a luxury was given to the player in the U.S. and PAL releases: if he had one of the "special" powers (Fire Mario, Raccoon Mario, Hammer Mario, Tanooki Mario, etc.) and then took a hit, he would revert into Super Mario, allowing for an extra hit. This is contrary to the original Super Mario Bros. and the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 3, where if a player had been hit as Fire Mario (or any other power-up mode), he would revert to regular, small Mario. This game play mechanic was not used in the original Super Mario World, but it was used in the later Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World for the Game Boy Advance, and New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS.
A stripped-down version of the first Mario game in the series, the 1983 arcade release Mario Bros. was also included as a 2-player minigame.
[edit] Levels
| World | Original Name | Re-release Name |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grass Land | Grass Land |
| 2 | Desert Hill | Desert Land |
| 3 | Ocean Side | Water Land |
| 4 | Big Island | Giant Land |
| 5 | The Sky | Sky Land |
| 6 | Iced Land | Ice Land |
| 7 | Pipe Maze | Pipe Land |
| 8 | Castle of Kuppa | Dark Land |
| 9 | Warp Zone | Warp Zone |
The final island group in World 3 is shaped like the islands of Japan, with a gold coin in the approximate location of Tokyo and the castle in the approximate location of Kyoto, where Nintendo is based.
Note that the original NES release included the Japanese names. It was a re-release that came out slightly later that initially changed the names. The Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance versions also use the original names with the exception of World 3 and World 8. In both the SNES and GBA version, "Ocean Side" was changed to "Sea Side", even in the Japanese version. In both the English NES first release and the English SNES version, "Kuppa" in World 8 is changed to "Koopa", which is the more common spelling. The English GBA version renames World 8 to the generic "Bowser's Castle." Some versions refer to World 2 as Koopahari Desert[citation needed]. Also in the GBA version, "WELCOME TO WARP ZONE" is shortened to "WORLD 9 WARP ZONE" because of the Game Boy Advance's screen resolution.
If Warp Zone is excluded as a set of stages, the entire game has a total of 90 accessible levels (as well as fifteen "lost levels" only accessible by hacking the game). It is therefore considered the largest classic Mario Brothers game of all time, having more than Super Mario Bros (32 levels), Super Mario Bros. Special (32 levels), Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (also known as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan; 52 levels) and Super Mario World (72 levels). It is often mistakenly assumed that Super Mario World has 96 stages, but that number includes the 24 secret exits in the game.
[edit] Items
Like the original Super Mario Bros., Mario can use several different items to give him power-ups. These are acquired through various points in levels, Toad Houses, Princess Peach's letters and other events.
Items that returned from Super Mario Bros.:
- Starman: Mario gains temporary invincibility. He is impervious to death by any means except lava, bottomless pits, getting stuck in a scrolling-screen level, and running out of time.
- Super Mushroom: Mario doubles in size, can break bricks by hitting them from below, and can take one hit without dying.
- Fire Flower: As Fire Mario, he can throw fireballs that bounce across the ground.
- 1-Up Mushroom: At various points in levels, Mario and Luigi can find special mushrooms called 1-Up Mushrooms, which grant them an extra life. Super Mario Advance 4's e-Reader function also came with four 1-Up e-Cards - one for a single 1-Up Mushroom (only acquirable through Wal-Mart), another for a 5-Up Mushroom, another for a 10-Up Mushroom, and a special promotional card, the 100-Up Mushroom.
- Coin: Worth one point apiece. Collect one hundred for an extra life.
Items and forms new to Super Mario Bros. 3:
- Super Leaf: A Super Leaf transforms Mario into Raccoon Mario. He can use his tail to bat enemies. This power-up, like the "Tanooki" suit, is based on the Japanese tanuki. By wagging his tail, Mario can descend slowly from a jump and by getting a running start, Mario can fly briefly. It also grants Mario the ability to break bricks, activate question mark blocks and defeat several enemies that cannot be stomped, such as Spinies and Piranha plants.
- Frog Suit: Transforms Mario into Frog Mario. Movement on land is hindered, but swimming is greatly facilitated and accelerated. Also allows Mario to swim against the current and into secret underwater pipes. By holding an enemy shell or item, Frog Mario can walk normally, circumventing the land movement hindering.
- Tanooki Suit: Mario will turn into Tanooki Mario. In this form he can fly, just like Raccoon Mario; Mario can also become a statue of Jizo while in this form, rendering him temporarily invincible by pressing down and B. This suit is based on the Japanese tanuki. "Statue Mario" can be activated in midair and thus stomp many enemies that cannot normally be defeated, such as Lava Lotuses and Thwomps. "Statue Mario" can also defeat enemies that take multiple hits, such as Koopas, in one stomp.
- Hammer Brothers' Suit: Mario transforms into Hammer Mario and can throw hammers, just like the Hammer Brothers. (The hammers are far more powerful than fireballs, as they pass through walls, and virtually any enemy can be killed by them.) Also, when crouching, Mario retreats into a shell, rendering him invincible to fireball attacks from above.
- Goomba's Shoe (or Kuribo's Shoe, after Goomba's Japanese name): A giant, green boot, Mario can jump inside and stomp on Piranha Plants and Spinys to kill them, and walk across Munchers (long rows of indestructible Piranha Plants). His jumping ability is also augmented. This is available only in level 5-3, and is lost when the player clears the level. The only way to acquire this item is to punch the block the Shoe-wearing Goomba is standing on from underneath to force it out; stomping the Goomba will make both Goomba and Shoe fall off the screen.
- P-Wing: Short for "Power Wing", the P-Wing turns Mario into Raccoon Mario and keeps his power meter (normally filled by a running start) constantly filled. Its most basic use is allowing the player to fly over entire levels unthreatened. If Mario is hit by an enemy while in P-wing state, he will lose both the Raccoon power and the filled power meter. The power meter is only filled for one level, but he will keep the Raccoon power even after the level.
- Jugem's Cloud (after Lakitu's Japanese name) (Map-only item): Using this item changes Mario's icon on the world map into a Lakitu cloud. Mario may now move past one uncompleted level. If Mario dies in the next attempted level, he will be sent to the previously completed spot on the world map, and the Lakitu's Cloud will have been wasted. However, should Mario have to travel through a world-map pipe to reach the level after the skipped level, Mario will only be sent back to the exit pipe. Levels which the player automatically enters simply by passing over them on the map, such as Hammer Bros. battles and the tanks in World 8, cannot be bypassed by Lakitu's Cloud; Mario enters the level anyway, and the item is wasted.
- Magic Whistle: (Map-only item) Using a Magic Whistle takes Mario to the Warp Zone (World 9) map, where he must then choose a world to warp to. There are three Magic Whistles to be acquired in Super Mario Bros. 3: one in 1-3, one in World 1 Minifortress, and one in a World 2 Fire Brothers duel. Using the whistle from World 1 allows access to Worlds 2, 3 and 4, using it in Worlds 2 through 6 allows access to worlds 5, 6 and 7 and using the whistle in Worlds 7 or 8 or the Warp Zone (World 9) allows access to World 8. Using a whistle in Warp Zone (World 9) instantly transports the player to World 8 regardless of the previous world.
- Anchor: (Map-only item) Anchors can be found in even-numbered worlds' hidden white Toad houses (except world 8). When a player dies while attempting to complete a Koopaling Airship level, it relocates itself to a random vacant spot on the world map. If a player has skipped a level in the world (using Lakitu's Cloud or otherwise), the Airship's new location might be inaccessible without fighting the skipped level. Using an Anchor prevents the Airship from relocating.
- Music Box: (Map-only item) This item changes the overworld music to a different theme, a shortened version of the original Super Mario Bros. theme, and puts all the Hammer Bros. and the Piranha Plants (in World 7) on the map to sleep for 2 turns, causing them to remain in the same place on the map. Mario can walk past the Hammer Bros. or Piranha Plants while they sleep without being taken to a battle scene with them.
- Hammer: (Map-only item) This hammer can break impassable stones on the world map. A buzzer will sound if Mario attempts to use a hammer at a place without a rock.
Note that the only purpose of World 9 is to get to the other worlds, and players can only get to it by using one of the Warp Whistles.
According to Nintendo Power, the first person to find all three magic whistles was Anuj Shah.
[edit] Minigames
Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) featured a slot machine minigame, and Super Mario Bros. 3 built on this by featuring several different minigames which can be accessed from the map screen. There are two different game show-style bonus games, both hosted by Toad, which consist of a sliding matching game and a memory game where the player has to match up two of the same card without missing twice. Though not games per se, there are also "Toad houses" which give the player free items, as well as coin bonuses similar to those found at the end of beanstalks in the original Super Mario Bros.
A cut-down version of Mario Bros. is also used as a two-player mini-game in Super Mario Bros. 3. In two-player mode, either player can initiate the mini-game when both players are at the same place on the overworld map. The two players compete to earn five coins; the first one to get five wins the mini-game and gets to continue in the main game, although the loser can still rematch if they quickly react before the winner moves to a different spot on the overworld map.
[edit] Development
[edit] U.S. and Japanese version differences
While Super Mario Bros. 3 was in development in Japan, rather than directly porting the exact game code, Nintendo of America took the time to alter the game by enhancing it somewhat and adjusting the difficulty by either adding or removing some elements of the game. The following table is a mostly complete list of differences between the U.S. and Japanese versions of Super Mario Bros. 3.
| Japanese version | U.S. version |
| When a level is selected on the Map screen, the screen fades out to black. However, there is an extra fade-in to the level. | This fade-in was omitted. |
| In the World 1 Fortress at the end of the room with the falling spiked ceiling, four higher spikes are located below and to the right of the lower two. | These four spikes were removed, the wall was extended two blocks to the left, and the door that goes to Boom-Boom's room was moved one block to the right. |
| The castle throne room has three columns, the column shadows are to the right of the columns, the column beside the King is behind the stairs, Mario begins the level standing on the left side of the screen, the edge of the throne and tops of the stairs are light blue, the stairs are shorter, and the background is greenish-blue. | There are only two columns, the column shadows were switched to the left, the column beside the King is in front, the chair edges and tops of the stairs are gold, the triangles in the background are a different size, Mario begins near the center of the screen, Toad has moved back a little, the stairs are longer, and the background color has changed colors slightly to light blue |
| Mario will revert to small Mario after taking a hit, no matter what power-up he has. | If Mario has a Fire Flower, Raccoon Leaf, etc. and takes a hit, he will return to being Super Mario rather than small Mario. |
| At the end of World 5-1, Mario reaches a wall with a pipe sticking out of it. Mario must enter this pipe to reach a different part of the level containing the goal card. | The end of World 5-1 now contains no wall or any pipe. The dark ending portion of the level was moved to the spot previously occupied by the wall. This particular change was made in response to an unusual but harmless glitch that occurred when Mario reached the area containing the goal in the Japanese version and proceeded to fly over the left-hand wall in this area. |
| The Kuribo's Shoe will turn red if Mario runs into an enemy, and Mario will be reduced to small Mario if he is Super, Fire, Raccoon, or is wearing any of the suits. | When Mario runs into an enemy, he will only lose the shoe and still remain in the power-up condition he had when he got into the shoe. Also, the shoe does not turn red. |
| In the first ship encountered towards the beginning of World 8, if Mario drops into the mud and manages to do a trick to swim all the way to the right of the final pipe, he will not be able to get back up without a P-Wing because the wall is a single block too high. | A block was removed at the very top of the right wall. Thus, even if Mario falls into the mud, he will be able to get back up and continue on. This change was not done for the version featured in Super Mario All-Stars. |
[edit] Lost levels
There are about 15 "Lost Levels" that are in the game, but they are inaccessible through normal means. They can only be accessed through a ROM patch for SMB3. However, the levels can have one or more of the following: no exits, no enemies, can be short, or are early versions of other levels.
[edit] Graphics
Although technology was primitive at the time of the game's release (1988), the developers were able to implement some pseudo-3D effects into it. Various sprite rotation effects were made such as Mario moving his head from side to side when he is walking and Bowser turning around. There is also some moving cloud sprites in the airship levels, and when Mario falls out of the sky with a wand after beating a world which tries to "simulate" parallax scrolling.
[edit] Music and sound
The theme music during most of World 8 (as well as the Airships) is an arrangement of Mars from Gustav Holst's The Planets.
The tune which plays when Mario uses the whistle is identical to the melody used for the Recorder in The Legend of Zelda, and in both games it summons a tornado that sweeps up the hero and dumps him elsewhere. Koji Kondo composed the music for both franchises.
[edit] Critical reception
With its expansive gameplay, Super Mario Bros. 3 is often considered to be Nintendo's true masterpiece for the NES, and is commonly referred to and voted as one of, if not, the greatest video games of all time.
Several months before its North American release, a "sneak peek" of sorts was given to the American public in the movie The Wizard (1989), where the game was featured as the final lap of a video game competition.
Well before its American console release, Super Mario Bros. 3 was made available for play on the PlayChoice-10 arcade machines.
[edit] Remakes
[edit] Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement
In 1990, three of id Software's founding members, Tom Hall, John Carmack and John Romero, then working at Softdisk, used a new smooth-scrolling game engine of their own devising to recreate the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3 on the PC, replacing Mario with their previous character and creating Dangerous Dave in "Copyright Infringement". A project manager approached Nintendo with it, but Nintendo was not interested in entering the PC market. As Softdisk was unwilling to use the engine, the three struck out on their own, resulting in the creation of id Software and the Commander Keen series.<ref>A Look Back at Commander Keen. 3D Realms Official Site. Retrieved on 2006-07-19.</ref> Additional information, as well as the demo itself, can be found on Romero's website.
[edit] BS Super Mario Bros 3
In 1995 Nintendo released an add-on for the Super Famicom called the Satellaview, also known as the "BS-X" in Japan. One of the games for this system is a demo version of Super Mario Bros. 3, with enhanced graphics just like in Super Mario All-Stars. The game is not a copy of the original. It features some new features like "flower icons" and cartoon style pictures that appear every now and then, among other things.
[edit] Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario Bros. 3 received a graphical and audio facelift for the Super NES (SNES) (and in Japan, the Super Famicom) in the Super Mario All-Stars (also Super Mario Collection) cartridge of 1993. On the Super NES version, the Spade panels on the map are animated. The action scene (numbered) panels sparkle. The airships have thunder effects and they are all the same color. The king transformations have also been changed, mostly to popular creatures from other SMB games. When Mario became Fiery Mario he was previously orange where in the updated version he resembled Fiery Mario of the original Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World (Red and White). Most notably, the king of World 7 was transformed into a Yoshi in the Super Famicom/SNES version of the game, but he was transformed into a Piranha Plant in the Famicom/NES version. A save feature was also added for the Super Famicom/SNES version. For the aforementioned world name table, Super Mario All-Stars uses the original world names.
[edit] King Transformations
| World | NES version | All-Stars/GBA version | Alleged variants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dog | Cobrat from SMB 2 | Turtle |
| 2 | Caterpillar | Hoopster from SMB2 | Spider |
| 3 | Kappa turtle (Koopa) | Dino Rhino from SMW | Lakitu/Spikey |
| 4 | Dinosaur | Donkey Kong Jr. | T-Rex |
| 5 | Bird similar to Albatoss | Albatoss from SMB 2 | Vulture |
| 6 | Seal | Monty Mole from SMW | Walrus |
| 7 | Piranha Plant | Yoshi | None |
[edit] Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
A similar version appears on the Game Boy Advance as Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3. It includes the updated original Mario Bros. and the ability to connect with the link cable for multiplayer battles. Newly created levels based on Super Mario Bros. 3, and demonstrations of how to complete certain levels can be downloaded through e-Reader cards. However, this feature was not very popular. Furthermore, the e-Reader was discontinued in the U.S. not long after the game came out. This rendered some of the games features, such as the Super Mario World cape, inaccessible to most players. Some levels were changed in the new Game Boy Advance version to make the game easier.
The kings originally thanked the player by saying, "Thank Heavens!" In keeping with Nintendo's policies on religious references, this was removed in the Super Mario Advance 4 version and replaced with "Oh, Splendid!". In the original game and Super Mario All-Stars, Mario and Luigi do not appear to be wearing gloves except in most closeups. This was changed in Super Mario Advance 4.
[edit] See also
- List of Mario games
- List of best selling computer and video games
- List of NES games
- List of Famicom games
[edit] References
<references />
[edit] External links
- Super Mario Bros. 3 at MobyGames
- Nintendo Power Special: The making of SMB3
- Super Mario Bros. 3 information at The Mushroom Kingdom
- Super Mario Bros. 3 at GameFAQs
- Super Mario Bros 3 NES review from The Mean Machines Archive
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