Conquered : Super Mario Brothers 3

Sweet. Super Mario Brothers 3 is freaking amazing. I grew up with a Sega Genesis, so my gaming started with platform video games. Since I've moved in to "bigger and better" gaming systems, I've always held classic platform games in a negative light. When I decided to take SMB3 I was a little weary. I expected an unbeatable game (when you're 5 years old, any game on Genesis is pretty much unbeatable), that would offer little diversity and seem never ending. I was totally wrong. Playing through SMB3 was a completely unique and fun experience. The reason this update took so long to come about? I beat it three times. Yes. After going through it the first time, I loaded up the first map, and told myself I would go through the first few levels just for fun. The first few levels turned into the first few worlds, turned into the entire game again, turned into let's just see how high of a score I can get by beating it a third time. Not only that, SMB3 offers players the opportunity to explore worlds, and find crazy secrets in almost every level. I'm pretty sure my childhood desire to beat old school Genesis / NES games came through these past few weeks, and I'm more than happy about it!

Way happier than you, Mario, you f*ck. "Shows emotion while saving a princess".

The Story :
Really? It's Mario. You have to save the princess. But really, I've played the first two Mario Games, and SMB3 has a lot of conspiracy behind it (maybe I'm an idiot and what I'm about to say isn't conspiracy but is, in fact...fact, so I'm wrong). But the game starts off with a curtain coming down, and a lot of people say that you aren't actually rescuing the princess, but you are putting on a play. Maybe, but this game still f*cking rocks, and I'm going to insist on the fact that it f*cking rocks a lot throughout this review.

Mario. Fucking. Rocks.

Graphics, Sound, Atmosphere and the Likes :
I never thought an old school platform game can create an overall awesome experience, but SMB3 did. Without further a-do (wtf does that even mean?), let's break it down...

The graphics were actually surprisingly good. They are basic, yes, but they are easy on the eyes and enjoyable. They don't work to blow you away, but they work to make you happy. They are enjoyable, simple, entertaining, and lots of other things. It's not like developers had a lot to work with, but they still managed to give some enjoyable look-ats. The game was a pretty good fusion of "modern for its time" graphics that provide a minimal amount of detail as well as the old school video game strategy of making tons of colorful shit flash in your face to get you excited.

Sound, oh sound. Of course, I recognized the infamous Mario theme song. But seeing as this is the first Mario game I've played through, or for that matter, the first Mario game that I've gotten through the first world in, I was happy to hear a lot of familiar tunes and actually get a grip on their roots. I'm talking about the music, of course. The music is great, for tons of reasons. The biggest reason being that Mario is iconic in video games across much of the world, and a lot of people recognize the music. The language may be different, but anytime someone heres that "DA DA DA da da DAAAAA da" (you know what I mean) they almost always think Mario, and that's awesome. The music in SMB3 makes the game feel like a true adventure. Even with it's limited-of-the-time-technology it was still good and extremely enjoyable.

Atmosphere? Hell yea, atmosphere. Mario travels across tons of different themed worlds, and they all suck you in. Whether the theme be ice, desert, sky....cloudsishness, or hordes of tanks / naval battle ships intent on blowing you to hell, SMB3 will lasso you like Wonder Woman and force you to admit you're immeresed. I always thought it was hard for platform games to give gamers a diverse gaming experience, but I was wrong, every world, and every level in a world, was different. It faced the player with a different challenge. Whether it was making a sure a player could stop short on an icy platform or making sure a player could time their jumps perfectly to earn boxed - stars (invincibility) so they could sprint across a never ending line of deadly flowers, SMB3 sucked you in. It had the looks, the sound, and the gameplay to offer players a diverse and immersive feeling at each and every level.

The limited technology in SMB3 creates more atmosphere than the entire movie this screenshot comes from...whatever movie it may be...

Controls and Gameplay :
For my past few articles, Controls and gameplay has been a worthy amount of reading. For SMB3, all I have to say is simply controls. Left, right, jump, duck, that's it.

Well, that may be it, but SMB3 is more than left, right, jump and duck. This is where gameplay comes into view. SMB3 actually involves strategy. There are times in SMB3 where your movement and choice of action are very particular, and this helps make the game awesome and challenging. You can't barrel through every level (at least not until you learn said level) and expect to win. SMB3 requires timing and expertise of Mario's abilities. Throughout the game, you can collect certain items that give you abilities, such as the ability to fly, shoot fireballs, or hop like a frog and only be helpful on water levels (for the record, I fucking hate water levels, no matter the game). But anyway, SMB3 is a game of strategy, no doubt, and the items you can collect only add to that strategy. At times, you have to be particular about your use of ability, your choice to jump, when to duck, strafe either way, ahh it blows my mind. A platforming game that actually makes you sit down and think out your strategy. No doubt plenty of platforming games are like this, but please keep in mind, this is the first old school platforming game I've actually beaten, under the assumption that all platform games only consist of jumping and running, so this blows my mind. But every level in SMB3 challenges you to find different ways to use Mario's controls and abilities to overcome any obstacle...and each obstacle can be overcome in many different ways, which is why Mario is awesome. So awesome! The gameplay is just great, this game did not become one of the greatest video games of all time for no reason. If you haven't beaten it yet, stop reading this garbage and go grab a (virtual) copy so you can. You will not regret it, and you will understand my limited ability to put it into words.
 

Maps (Worlds) :
As I stated before, each world (and every level in every world, for that matter) is very unique, Each world is themed, and there are 8 worlds. I can't name every world off the top of my head, but the range from desert, ice and sky to shit I can't even really explain, but consists of a lot of pipes, flowers and tanks, (yes, tanks. I never knew there were tanks in Mario).

Only Stalin-Mario can really beat those tanks.

Characters :
Well, you have, of course, Mario....you know, THE video game icon. It's crazy to think about it, but one video game icon that any gamer would recognize is Mario. Aside from the red-overalled plumber, you have Luigi, who can be used by the second player in 2 player mode (he never got as much recognition. Luigi's Mansion?.....uh, right), Toad, Bowser, Goombas (and every other iconic Mario baddie), the Princess (I might be wrong, but was the princess not Peach in SMB3? Looked like Daisy), and, of course, my most favorite baddie of all time, BOWSER! Characters for SMB3 are easy, because they are iconic. So you know, Mario characters.

Summary :
Like I stated before, I had a ton of fun playing SMB3. This game offers so much, for so many different ranges of gamers. For example, for those who like to explore, almost every other level has secrets and can only be reached by exploration. For high scorers, you can finish this game with a score of almost nil (as I did the first time around, because I died in Bowser's castle and had to use a continue, thus bringing my final score down to 0) to a score in the millions (by the third time I beat SMB3, I had a score of 2.5 million, holy moly). For die-hard gamers, you can make your own challenges in SMB3. Try to get through the whole game by beating every level in every world (which is not required), or without using special items, or any other challenge you can think of. SMB3 is really just a ton of fun. It has tons of replay value, and what's cool is  the replay value is totally up to the player. Each time you play, you decide how worthwhile you want to make the game. You can make it challenging or easy, crazy or.....sane?

A true gamer could actually make SMB3 this intense...

Favorite World : The desert world. I remember that flying sun tormenting me when I was little. Being able to best it in a matter of seconds was such an awesome feeling. When you're young, that stupid Sun can look invincible. Once I realized all I had to do was jump to avoid it, it felt so great. Fuck you, desert sun thing.
Most epic moment : This may sound corny, but my most epic moment was anytime when I first discovered and "iconic" Mario World attribute. For instance, from the Super Smash Brothers games, I knew all about the flying boat type levels, but all my knowledge came from those SSB games. So the second I got to my first flying boat map (the ending of every world) in SMB3, it was pretty awesome. I heard that iconic music, and played through those legendary levels, and saw those video game roots for everything they were worth.
Biggest Annoyance : Really, I only have one complaint about SMB3. Bowser's Castle is actually kind of challenging the first few times through, but Bowser himself is not. You don't have to hurt him, or attack him in any way. All you have to do is dodge his fireballs, and let him break through the floor so he falls to his death. So the entire last battle consists of dodging. He basically kills himself. Beating any mini-boss at the end of one of those flying ship levels was more challenging than that. Honestly. His fire balls move slow, so they are easy to avoid. When he tries to jump on  you, his hand time is like 5 seconds, so you can move out of the way at your leisure. The game was insanely fun, the final battle was the boring part. I wish it were more epic and fulfilling.
Favorite Weapon (err....item) : This was a struggle. Everytime I played SMB3 I was always hyped about the flower that let you shoot fire balls, then I made myself look at the game realistically. The fire ball was cool, but the weird leaf thing that turns you into a flying raccoon (wtf, for real) was way better. It let you find tons of secrets and in some cases beat certain levels, whereas the fireball let you kill (some) enemies from a distance, and that's about it. Flying Raccoon leaf for the win.

Raccoon Leaf is awesome. This picture is scary.

 
Favorite Character : I really liked frog-suit mario. It was funny to watch. Mario wears a frog suit and hops. Also, I hate water levels in any video game, and the frog suit let you easily navigate any water levels in mario.



Final Say :
If you haven't played and beaten SMB3 yet, do it, now. NOW! It is actually a ton of fun. Play through it a few times, and you will feel like a real gamer. *Note, this game will have an affect on me. Expect to see an onslaught of Mario game challenges in the future.

Play. This. Now.