Super Mario Bros. 3 NES Review - A classic for all-not just the NES

In 1985, just as the home video game market was dead, a little italian plumber jumped from a sleek-looking console to televisions everywhere, a plumber who's name alone garners as much of a legacy as that of Mickey Mouse or Superman. His games were revolutionary, and the third game in the series took the revolution to a new level. SMB3 combined the classic platform action and challenge of the original and the wierd yet incredibly imaginative weapons, enemies, and worlds of the second one. The plot is fairly simple: Mario's longtime enemy, Bowser, has once again kidnapped princess Toadstool, but this time, he has stolen seven wands from the seven lands of the mushroom kingdom and given them to his seven ugly kids, who cruise around the seven lands in seven airships. Keep it simple like that, and you've got more to work with. In 1988, when SMB3 was first released, it had incredible graphics, giving new detail to the background. These graphics allowed new worlds and situations that would blow your mind. One minute your running through a grassy plain blowing up turtles with a flower, the next you're grabbing a leaf that gives you a raccoon tail and ears, allowing you to fly and avoid the sun (which now has a face and chases you through the desert). To hear something like this,but not actually see it, would sound nonsensical, but to play that environment in an edge-of-your-seat platform world shows how much that nonsense was a creative pioneer. Today, there are hundreds of games that copy off of SMB3's many elements in an effort to make it as endlessy fun and varied as the original. But if you want pure, mysterious fun, check out this game or its Super-NES adapted version on Super Mario All Stars. If you play it for five minutes, I guarantee you'll see where I'm coming from. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this game a perfect ten, and for anyone who does'nt, I'll give their address to a goomba.

-gnrchild