The pinnacle of platforming
Super Mario Brothers 3: One of the greatest Famicom/SNES games of all time was made by Nintendo and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the epic side scroller which provided us with hours and hours of fun.
There are few things yet to be said about Super Mario Bros. 3; receiving global acclaim from the videogames press, critics and fans alike. The game brings you back to Mushroom Kingdom but now you will go through all of its lands, 8 in total, plus a special 9th world.
Video walkthrough
A full walkthrough of the entire game by none other than our retro videogames master, Benni Castellanos Ruiz.
Gameplay
Mario gives us again the same gameplay that works, move with the D-Pad, use left and right to move to the sides. Press Up to go up pipes or vines or to enter doors, press down to go down pipes or vines. Press B to shoot fireballs or hammers or to hit enemies with your tail. Press A to jump, swim up or jump, hold B to run to the sides, and when your p-meter is full press a repeatedly to flap your tail and fly upwards.
There is also a map mode in where you select a stage, move with the D-pad and
press A on top of a black square with a number, a castle, a spade square or a
pipe to enter that stage. There are some stages that force you to enter if you
are on top of them like tanks, ships, hammer brothers and plant stages; there is
a special Spade with an N stage and a gold ship that will force you to start
once you are on top of them. Beware of these stages.
Powerups
There are a lot of power ups in this game. Infact it had the most powerups of any Mario title (nine) up until Super Mario 3D World got released in 2013. Lets take a good look at them:
- Mushroom: There are two kinds of these, the red one will make Mario turn into Super Mario, making him bigger, and the green one will provide Mario with a 1-up
- Fire Flower: The Fire flower returns, it engulfs Mario in flame and gives him the power to shoot fireballs, along with a nice orange tincture all over him.
- Power Leaf: The leaf transforms Mario into raccoon Mario. While Mario has the raccoon ears and tail he may flap it to attack enemies or flap it after filling up the p-meter to fly for a brief time.
- Starman: The reliable starman returns, if you touch it you will become invincible for a brief amount of time.
- Frog Suit: Mario gets inside this frog suit and is able to swim better, however, just like real frogs he has a hard time while he is on dry land, you may get this suit from huge “?” boxes or on special mushroom houses, we will discuss them later on.
- Tanooki suit: Mario turns into a raccoon fully with this suit, it works just like the power leaf but you may transform into Statue Mario by pressing down+b You will be invincible while you are a stone, just beware of where you use it because you will not be able to move.
- Hammer Mario: The strongest suit, you will be a hammer bro, and will be able to throw hammers in a nice arc. You may also press down to protect inside your shell from fireballs and most projectiles. You can’t slide when you are Hammer Mario.
- Hammer: Sometimes you will find hammer bros that will leave a chest with a hammer, you may break some blocks on the map to access special areas.
- Cloud: Lakitu will lend you a cloud to go through one level. Select it and Mario will transform into a cloud, you will be able to skip a level, it doesn’t complete it though.
- Music Box: The music box will play a familiar tune while you are on the map, it also makes the hammer bros and plants sleepy so you may pass through them without entering their stage.
- Flute: The magic flute will take you to world 9. From there you may enter any other world. You can go to worlds 2-3-4 from world 1, to worlds 5-6-7 from worlds 2-3 and 4, and to world 8 from worlds 5-6-7-9. World 9 Is the warp zone itself.
- Anchor: After going to the castle to help the ruler of the land, you will face a SkyShip, the sky ship may be too tough for you if you lose a life you will be sent back to the map and the ship will go randomly over the place. The anchor will make it sit in place.
Stage Types
- Black boxes with numbers: They are the regular stages, after you pass them you will see a huge M or L depending on which brother passed the level.
- Fortresses: There is a fortress on each level that will break the “No entry” yellow sign found in most lands. If you beat the boss, the sign will be broken, if you somehow pass the level without beating the boss, the sign wont be broken.
- Mushroom houses: The mushroom house has a Toad waiting inside, he has a magical treasure for you to choose among three chests.
- Pipes: The pipes have small stages that make you go to one side to other on a big level, it helps you save time.
- Spade: the spade holds a roulette mini game where you may win lives.
- Spade with N: Sometimes the spade will have an N, and it will come out.
The first two worlds of Super Mario Bros. 3 - check out our Maps & Worlds section for more info.
The Worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom
- Grass Land: Grass land is full of grass, no really, the world is green and beautiful, there are goombas, koopa troops and Piranha plants here, The king has been transformed into a Dog by Larry Koopa so get onto his ship and demolish him.
- Desert Hill: The sun is really hitting hard and heavy on this one, You will see some oasis but goombas are getting a hard tan here so are troopas and paratroopas, you may run into dry bones when you get to the fortress, there is even an special quicksand stage, featuring an angry sun, and a pyramid to get into. The King here has been turned into a Spider, so go and beat Morton Koopa Jr. to get him back to normal.
- Ocean Side: Down from the Hill we get to the ocean on mushroom kingdom, there are many fish and flooded fortresses, every level is soaked here in some way or another, the fortress is there on a far away island, guarded by cheep cheeps and bloopers, the king was turned into a Spike, so make sure to beat Wendy O. Koopa to bring him back to normal.
- Big Island: We may think that Mario got small here, but everything is huge! Pipes, hammer bros, even the piranha plants are big here, levels are simple in design but the huge enemies can be a trouble here, the king has been transformed into an Orange dinosaur, so defeat Iggy Koopa and get the wand back.
- The Sky: The only world featuring the Kuribo Shoe, first you start on the ground-based stages and then you climb up a spiraling tower that will bring you up the the clouds, where the rest of the levels will take place. The Para-Beetle appears here, he is an ok set of dudes who will help you as long as you don’t stand up on them for too long. The king has been transformed into a Condor, so make sure to get Roy Koopa to bring him back. Make sure to get Roy on your first time or the ship may go back to the first part of the world and you will have to come back through the spiralling tower again.
- Iced Land: Everything is freezing here, frozen plants, enemies, and coins. Even Goombas are frozen being Firey Mario will surely be great here, you can set ablaze the ground to melt it and you can unfreeze coins and enemies trapped this way. The King was turned into a Fur Seal, so go and get Lemmy Koopa in one of the biggest worlds on the whole game.
- Pipe Maze: This has to be considered one hard world for many, but with patience you’ll be through without an issue. Hammer Bros are no longer anywhere nearby, they are replaced with Nipper Plants that will come at you and reward you with prizes if you complete their levels. The king was transformed into a Venus Fire Trap, so go and defeat the mighty Ludwig Von Koopa to bring him back to normal.
- Castle of Koopa: Koopa is deep into Dark Land surrounded by war machines, tanks, ships and even floating fortresses. The tanks are not the problem but the actual extra-long ground levels, the second one features a sun! Defeat Bowser and you’ll be rewarded with the ending, right after saving Princess Peach.
- The Warp Zone: the warp zone is world 9, is accessible with the warp pipe item that you can obtain in worlds 1 and 2. Here you may select any world to go to.
THE EXTRA GAME
Mario Bros. Can be played in 2-player mode at any time. Whenever some of the Mario Bros. beats a level, their Initial will appear, get on top of it with the opposite brother and press A, the battle for the cards each brother has will begin, the game is similar to Mario Bros, defeat enemies and defeat the other player to get cards and get more lives.
There is also an added mode where a Pipe shooting out enemies and coins will
come out. Grab a lot of coins and enjoy this special feature game, unique to
Super Mario Bros.
3
Our adventure is on another castle:
Super Mario Bros 3 is one of the best games out there, grab a copy, a remake,
and get into adventure. What is your favourite power up from this game? Let us
know on the forums!