96
MobyRank
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
4.2
MobyScore
5 point score based on user ratings.

Description

Bowser is back, and along with the Bowser kids, he's out to spoil Mario's day once again.

This time, along with nabbing the Princess, the Bowser crew have also taken the magic wands from the Kings of each land and turned them into creatures. It's up to Mario and Luigi to get back the magic wands, defeat Bowser, and save the Princess all before the day is done.

Old and new power-ups abound in each level for the Mario Brothers, including the return of the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower, plus the new power-ups including the frog suit, the warp flute, and the most important of all, the leaf, which allows the player to fly and attack enemies with your tail.

Alternate Titles

  • "Super Mario Brothers 3" -- Alternate spelling
  • "Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3-e" -- e-Reader title
  • "Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3" -- GBA title
  • "SMB 3" -- Informal title
  • "スーパーマリオブラザーズ3" -- Japanese spelling
  • "スーパーマリオアドバンス4" -- Japanese GBA spelling

Part of the Following Groups


Merchant Title Platform Price  
Amazon
Super Mario Bros. 3 NES $5.00  
ebay.com
Super Mario Bros. 3    
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User Reviews

I remember the original commercial for this game... STU2 Bronze Star Contributing Member (72) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
Simply Flawless 10/10! Alex Mills (3) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
A must-have for all fans of Mario! Dark Cloud (35) unrated
The closest to perfection ever darthlobos1182 (9) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
A masterpiece among Mario's. MegaMegaMan (1546) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
My favorite platformer on the NES Pixelspeech (888) 4.6 Stars4.6 Stars4.6 Stars4.6 Stars4.6 Stars
One of the worst platformers I recall ever playing. CKeen The Great (158) 1.8 Stars1.8 Stars1.8 Stars1.8 Stars1.8 Stars

The Press Says

Nintendo Life Nov 06, 2007 10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars10 Stars 100
Total! (Germany) May, 1995 1 out of 6 100
The DOS Spirit Aug 17, 2012 6 out of 6 100
The Video Game Critic Dec 13, 2003 A+ 100
Computer and Video Games (CVG) Nov, 1991 98 out of 100 98
Power Play Dec, 1991 95 out of 100 95
Video Games Jun, 1991 95 out of 100 95
Game Freaks 365 2006 9.5 out of 10 95
GameCola.net Dec, 2008 9.2 out of 10 92
N-Force Dec, 1992 74 out of 100 74

Forums

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Trivia

Language

On the map screen, the treasure ship icon features a symbol on its sail. The symbol is the Japanese word "takara", which means "treasure".

References to the game

In the movie "The Wizard", which is about a seven year old in a videogame competition, Super Mario Bros 3 was featured as a "brand new game" which none of the contestants had gotten a chance to play before.

References

During the game, Mario can find a Warp Whistle, which will take him to a new area of the game. When using the Whistle, the tune played is the exact melody used from the Whistle in The Legend of Zelda.

Sales

The game sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide.

Speedrun

As of 2010, the fastest run through the the game is under eleven minutes (0:10:48 as conventional speedrun and 0:10:25 tool-assisted).

Version differences

The Koopa Kids were only named in the North American and European versions. The Japanese version completely omits giving them names.

At some point, Nintendo re-released Super Mario Bros. 3 with a couple of text changes:
  • If you picked up a copy close to its release date, you may have noticed that Toad ends his N-Spade game instructions with "Miss twice and your out!", which is incorrect, as "your" should have been "you're". However, you also may have noticed that there was no more room in the text box to include an apostrophe. In the new version, Toad says "You can only miss twice!" instead of "Miss twice and your out!". Instead of resizing the text box so they could include an apostrophe, they just rewrote the last sentence using the same amount of characters.
  • Another change was to Princess Toadstool's letter to Mario after beating World 2. Instead of "Kuribo's shoe," she now says "Goomba's shoe." Kuribo is the Japanese name for Goomba.
  • As for the credits, the level names were changed to less-creative titles in the new version. Basically, all the names were changed to "Something Land". The changed names are in parenthesis: Grass Land (Grass Land), Desert Hill (Desert Land), Ocean Side (Water Land), Big Island (Giant Land), The Sky (Sky Land), Iced Land (Ice Land), Pipe Maze (Pipe Land), Castle of Koopa (Dark Land).

Awards

  • EGM
    • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #14 on the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #8 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #9 Game Boy Advance Game of the Year
  • Retro Gamer
    • Issue #37 - #3 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll
Information also contributed by Big John WV, CaptainCanuck, Guy Chapman, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, Ryan Hopson, Torgospizza and WildKard


This entry was contributed by Michael Cassidy (1646), Kartanym Bronze Star Contributing Member (10796) and gamewarrior (5078)
 

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