MobyRank MobyScore
Wii
...
3.8
NES
96
4.2
Game Boy Advance
91
3.5

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  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 Game Boy Advance $12.00  
ebay.com
Super Mario Bros. 3    
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User Reviews

MAMA MIA!!! What a game this is! Just the perfect Gameboy game. Game Boy Advance Rensch (203)
I remember the original commercial for this game... NES STU2 Bronze Star Contributing Member (72)
Simply Flawless 10/10! NES Alex Mills (3)
A must-have for all fans of Mario! NES Dark Cloud (35)
The closest to perfection ever NES darthlobos1182 (9)
A masterpiece among Mario's. NES MegaMegaMan (1546)
My favorite platformer on the NES NES Pixelspeech (888)
One of the worst platformers I recall ever playing. NES CKeen The Great (158)

The Press Says

HonestGamers NES Jan 07, 2004 10 out of 10 100
Pixel-Heroes.de Game Boy Advance Dec 21, 2008 10 out of 10 100
Game Informer Magazine Game Boy Advance Oct, 2003 9.75 out of 10 98
Netjak Game Boy Advance Nov 12, 2003 9.7 out of 10 97
Deeko Game Boy Advance Oct 20, 2003 9.5 out of 10 95
Power Play NES Dec, 1991 95 out of 100 95
Video Games NES Jun, 1991 95 out of 100 95
Nintendo Official Magazine (NOM) UK Game Boy Advance Oct, 2003 92 out of 100 92
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) NES Dec, 1991 11 out of 12 92
Game Freaks 365 Game Boy Advance 2003 7.5 out of 10 75

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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