The Discussion Thread: The Greatest Games Event 2017 - FINISH YOUR LISTS

[The_Liquid_Laser]

#6 Super Mario Bros. 3

Why did it make the list?
Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best platformer game ever made.  Some people even say it is the best game ever made, period.  I can’t really argue with these people.  I can only say that platformers are not really my main genre and that is why I can only put this at #6.  But to really explain why this game is so awesome, I will have to go back to the original experience.

Original Experience:
Please humor me for a moment.  I would like you to think about your favorite game of all time.  Think about what it was like when you first played it.  Perhaps this was a game you played as a small child or a teenager.  Think about how you felt playing this truly amazing game.  Now imagine that another game came out that was a lot like the first game only far better in every way.  That is what it was like to play Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time.

In order to understand why Super Mario Bros. 3 is so great, you first have to understand why Super Mario Bros 1 was so great.  Super Mario Bros. 1 was the best home console game ever when it was first released.  It blew away every Atari 2600 game.  Pitfall was the best-selling Atari 2600 game.  Try playing it and SMB 1 back to back, and you will see what I mean.  Super Mario Bros. 1 resurrected console gaming from the dead.  That is how good it was.  Also, everyone who owned an NES in the 80’s played SMB 1.  It was the symbol for both the NES and home gaming in general.  Then Super Mario Bros. 3 came out.  It blew everyone’s mind. 

It definitely blew MY mind.  When SMB 1 came out it seemed huge.  SMB 3 was bigger.  SMB 3 had 8 worlds, but with a lot more stages per world and bonus levels and an overworld map.  You could even skip stages on the map if you wanted to, and that was fine because there were just so many stages.  SMB 1 had really fun power ups.  SMB 3 had more power-ups, better power-ups.  You could friggin’ fly for the very first time.  Then later in the game you can get the Tanooki suit, which is an even more powerful flying suit.  And there are even one time power ups like Kuribo’s shoe.  SMB 1 was a game full of secrets, like hidden blocks and vines and warp tunnels.  I would spend hours in SMB 1 just looking for all of the secrets in each stage.  SMB 3 had even more secrets, far more secrets and better secrets.  It still had hidden blocks and vines, but now you could fly into the sky and find even more secrets.  And you have to even go a very good ways into the game to even discover that there is Hammer Bros. suit power-up.  For all the time I spent looking for SMB 1 secrets, I spent so much more time looking for SMB 3 secrets.

All of this is here to try to put to words how truly amazing Super Mario Bros. 3 really is.  And yet words cannot fully describe it.  They made an entire Hollywood movie theater film just to market this game, and somehow it still seemed under hyped. 

With all this praise I am giving SMB 3, someone may wonder how I only rate this as #6 on my list.  All I can say is that my top 5 games are more personally tailored to my tastes.  If I were to judge solely by objective standards, I think I would have to put SMB 3 at #1.


How does it hold up today?
Graphically, the game uses dated 8-bit NES graphics.  The gameplay, however, is unmatched.  Games just do not get better than this.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 26 December 2017