He'd eaten mushrooms to grow in size. He'd picked flowers to throw balls of flame. And just when you thought Mario's powers couldn't get any weirder, along came his tail – a raccoon's tail that made him fly. Wagging his ringed rear end must have worked, because Super Mario Bros. 3 flew off the shelves. Arriving in American stores for the first time in February 1990, Mario's third adventure was Nintendo's first Megaton release. It sold millions in its first year, and has gone on to become the best-selling non-bundled video game of all time. Now, as the superstar, Koopa-stomping plumber once again arrives on store shelves in an all-new adventure that's guaranteed to become a best-seller itself, should you spend the time and the 500 Wii Points required to add to the lifetime sales total of this past NES adventure? The answer, absolutely, is yes.
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Bowser has become a father. His seven children, the Koopa Kids, have invaded the lands neighboring the Mushroom Kingdom – attacking their castles and casting spells on their kings (who have been transformed into animals). It's up to Mario and Luigi to travel through these worlds, teach the Koopas a lesson, and reclaim the magic wands that have the power to reverse the transformation curse.
It's an epic undertaking, especially from the NES era – and it's a blast to play every step of the way. The gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 3 is built on the foundation of Shigeru Miyamoto's original side-scrolling, platforming design, but it's expanded in every aspect. Venturing through levels is more open than ever, with no restriction put on exploration. Map screens are introduced to give players a choice of where to go next, including non-action locations like Toad's Item House and card-matching mini-games. A reserved item menu is even available, letting gamers save key power-ups to use later on.
And there are plenty to choose from. Though the newly-released Super Mario Galaxy is once again replete with fresh new upgrades and suits for our hero, it still doesn't match the sheer amount of items included here. Super Mario Bros. 3 more than quadrupled the number of obtainables from the first game's simple trio of Mushroom, Flower and Star – there's a freshly-added Leaf that transforms the plumber into Raccoon Mario, giving him a whip-around frontal enemy attack and the power to fly; a Frog Suit that makes land travel cumbersome but swimming a cinch; and a Hammer Bros. Suit that lets Mario play the villain, throwing arcing hammer projectiles and crouching to gain resistance to fire.
Further, there are several items that can be activated only on the game's maps, and trigger interactions with the environment there – a Hammer that clears away rocks and reveals new paths to travel, a Music Box that lulls wandering enemies into blissful sleep, and the famous Warp Whistles that summon up a whirlwind to carry you away to the secret "World 9," home of Warp Pipes that can send you to any of the game's other worlds.
It's an expansive adventure, full of action and tons of secrets. And now, over 17 years after its original release and standing alongside more modern contemporaries like Galaxy, Sunshine and Super Mario 64, Super Mario Bros. 3 still holds up perfectly. It's just as accessible as it's always been, and continues to be one of the best 2D platformers ever made.
Playing Super Mario Bros. 3 emulated through the Virtual Console reveals, of course, some subtle imperfections that you might not have noticed in the early '90s – specifically, its graphics engine. A thin vertical strip of screen real estate remains blank on the left side of the viewable area in SMB3, an artifact of its original 8-bit programming that wasn't as noticeable when it ran off of a cartridge and NES hardware. You might notice flicker in the graphics from time to time, especially in levels with forced environment scrolling like the world-ending airship stages.
Also, gamers used to the SNES era control scheme of Y Button running and B Button jumping will be disappointed to hear that the SNES-styled Classic Controller doesn't work that way for this VC edition of Mario 3 – which is completely normal for NES titles on the VC and nothing new at all, but feels like a fresh issue because Super Mario World is, by contrast, perfect on the CC. You'll likely just want to use a sideways-held Wiimote for this game.
But it's really a stretch to call either of those issues issues at all. You'll be mildly distracted at worst, but quickly recaptured by the magic of stomping foes with Kuribo's Shoe, leaping over the quicksand of the Koopahari Desert and taking out the enormously oversized enemies of Giant Land. You know you're going to warp straight there and check out those gigantic Goombas on your new big screen HDTV, aren't you?
