Super Mario Bros. 3 feels like a better sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. than Super Mario Bros. 2 (The Lost Levels) ever was.
The overall presentation of the game has improved significantly over the last two Japanese titles, and also looks better than the American Mario 2.
On the topic of Mario 2 USA, Mario 3 decides to continue with that game's choice of environments, and make it so every world you visit has its own theme, like the Desert World, the Water World, the Ice World. And we even got new world aesthetics as well, like the Big-Small World and the Pipe World, which is totally not a crack joke, no sir.
The music itself is also pretty good. A lot of the tracks from this game have become quite iconic in the franchise, such as the Athletic Theme or the Airship Theme. Maybe they've been remixed a bit too much throughout Mario's history, but it isn't this game's fault.
In terms of gameplay, it feels like a natural evolution of the concepts introduced in Mario 1, with new power-ups for players to try, like the iconic Racoon Leaf or the funny Frog Suit.
The Racoon Leaf even allows Mario (or Luigi, I won't forget him) to fly temporarily, thanks to the new P-Meter this game has, which is built up by running for a bit.
The Frog Suit, while pretty funky to control on land, is extremely useful underwater... although the amount of levels that take place mostly in water is small compared to everything else, sooooo... I guess the Frog Suit can be good if you want to challenge yourself?
There are also other power-ups like the Tanooki Suit, or even the oh-so-rare Hammer Bro. Suit, which is so rare, I remember I couldn't really use it much on my original playthrough.
Just like the USA Mario 2, Mario 3 also has a wide variety of bosses, but none of the ones from Mario 2 return. Instead we have Boom Boom, who is pretty easy, and the Koopalings, which are totally Bowser's kids, I'm sure of it.
But they are fun to fight, each of them having their own moves, which brings more variety to the game, overall.
I would say my biggest gripe with Super Mario Bros. 3 would have to be the difficulty. It's all over the place, as some Worlds are definitely easier than others, like how I found World 4 to be easier than World 3.
The difficulty doesn't flow as well as Mario 1 and USA Mario 2, but at least it doesn't get as bad as the Lost Levels, so that's nice.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a great evolution of the 2D Mario Formula, and I understand why it gets a lot of praise. It was definitely one hell of a way to end Mario's journey with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The overall presentation of the game has improved significantly over the last two Japanese titles, and also looks better than the American Mario 2.
On the topic of Mario 2 USA, Mario 3 decides to continue with that game's choice of environments, and make it so every world you visit has its own theme, like the Desert World, the Water World, the Ice World. And we even got new world aesthetics as well, like the Big-Small World and the Pipe World, which is totally not a crack joke, no sir.
The music itself is also pretty good. A lot of the tracks from this game have become quite iconic in the franchise, such as the Athletic Theme or the Airship Theme. Maybe they've been remixed a bit too much throughout Mario's history, but it isn't this game's fault.
In terms of gameplay, it feels like a natural evolution of the concepts introduced in Mario 1, with new power-ups for players to try, like the iconic Racoon Leaf or the funny Frog Suit.
The Racoon Leaf even allows Mario (or Luigi, I won't forget him) to fly temporarily, thanks to the new P-Meter this game has, which is built up by running for a bit.
The Frog Suit, while pretty funky to control on land, is extremely useful underwater... although the amount of levels that take place mostly in water is small compared to everything else, sooooo... I guess the Frog Suit can be good if you want to challenge yourself?
There are also other power-ups like the Tanooki Suit, or even the oh-so-rare Hammer Bro. Suit, which is so rare, I remember I couldn't really use it much on my original playthrough.
Just like the USA Mario 2, Mario 3 also has a wide variety of bosses, but none of the ones from Mario 2 return. Instead we have Boom Boom, who is pretty easy, and the Koopalings, which are totally Bowser's kids, I'm sure of it.
But they are fun to fight, each of them having their own moves, which brings more variety to the game, overall.
I would say my biggest gripe with Super Mario Bros. 3 would have to be the difficulty. It's all over the place, as some Worlds are definitely easier than others, like how I found World 4 to be easier than World 3.
The difficulty doesn't flow as well as Mario 1 and USA Mario 2, but at least it doesn't get as bad as the Lost Levels, so that's nice.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a great evolution of the 2D Mario Formula, and I understand why it gets a lot of praise. It was definitely one hell of a way to end Mario's journey with the Nintendo Entertainment System.