SMB3 is a game you can play when you have nothing else to play and it never gets boring, as someone who never grew up with the NES, i can confirm this game is a timeless masterpiece and i think it's even better than Mario 64
I’m impressed by how thorough and detailed this review is. I was so engaged by the review, that I forgot this review was 49 minutes long. And you weren’t afraid to say the remakes were an improvement over the original. Much like how the AVGN went original and took the conspiracy route with Super Mario Bros. 3, you took this game that’s been praised by hundreds of thousands, and did your own way of reviewing it. Which isn’t an easy task that I appreciate greatly. I’m also happy that you touched upon the negatives like the auto scroll levels, and I’m especially happy you talked about the E-Reader levels, and not holding back at how unfair the e reader levels tend to be, which not many reviewers talk about, but when one rarely does, they only mention how much of a fail the E-Reader was at the time. Overall, one of the best Super Mario Bros. 3 reviews I have ever watched.
Thanks! I think people who grew up with the originals tend to dominate discourse about the game and as someone who thinks the gba versions don’t get nearly enough attention, I wanted to give them a spotlight, both the good and bad, and offer a fair comparison between every version. Glad you enjoyed it!
I would love for someone to bake a cake off the eight world teams in this game. Also, one of my marketing strategies is to have RU-vid channels promoted on channels that aren’t relevant to them like, for example, a channel about baking could bake a cake based on your RU-vid logo, what flavor would it be?
Somehow I truly like the NES graphics better because of how crisp it is with its black lines that makes it cartoony, and the colors are more extreme that it resembles some geometric modern art from the 1950s.
Playing this game for the 1st time when it came out, it felt game changing ... extremely well-made mechanics, completely fresh and new atmosphere, excellent music, wonderful enemies ... only a handful of games had that feel for me, like the 1st Borderlands, 1st Bioshock, etc. Very rare feeling in gaming experience something fresh and new, yet extremely well made.
This is like the Pokemon Ruby of Mario, perfect vanilla Masterpiece, BANGER Music and Iconic characters. I never grew up with the NES era but Mario 3 is my favorite 2D mario game
My first experience with SMB3 was in a bowling alley in a town most of you have never heard of. It was in a Playchoice cabinet before it was released on console and while the Wizard was being advertised but didn't premiere yet. In short this felt like some outlaw experience I never knew existed. I thought when I saw it it was some bootleg that somehow made it onto nintendo hardware, at least until I actually played it, because how could I not. Once I started playing it, everything fell into place and I felt at least a bit naughty playing a game that as far as I knew, really was an outlaw experience. But it was just too good not to be official so I got a thrill.
This is probably the best review of Mario 3 on the internet. I don't think I'm saying this without hyperbole either, you didn't cover the level design in depth as much as I wish you did, but you did pretty much everything else justice, especially the two other versions of the game and actually gave thoughts on how good the e-reader levels were. Also, I wish the footage wasn't as blurry, it worked against you when you wanted to point out the difference in Sprites between Mario wearing and not wearing gloves. It's a shame this video hasn't gotten more attention.
That's a huge honor to hear that! Definitely agree on the video (and audio) quality, as my video upscaling capabilities for original hardware improved pretty much right after I finished this marathon. Some day I'd like to remaster these Mario videos with higher quality footage, improved audio, and better writing to reflect how my style and opinions have evolved, but at the moment I'm focusing more on new videos.
On another note, I played this a few days ago, and it felt so good to relive that nostalgia, even if there were a few weak parts *cough* Ice World *cough* Truly a legacy that is hard to match these days
Nostalgia as a factor will always defeat re-releases. It may look better, have better quality music…but it doesn’t transform me back being 8 years old in 1991, waking up early to play SM3. For some, this isn’t a factor. But I’d wager a significant portion of gamers will always prefer a game as it was in their younger days vs. with improvements.
I love well done autoscroll levels. As I played these games a lot, having to wait force me to explore more and appreciate it instead of rushing through it like other levels.
It's kinda cool how one of the remakes was how you first played this masterpiece. I played this game over and over when I was 10, 11 and somehow it never got old. Part of it was being forced to start at the beginning, so I'd be working out the strategy to progress, save items, and survive to the end. PS I had a glitch in my SNES that let me change powerups by hitting select, at any time, on the SMB3 all stars. It had to be my SNES because I replaced it recently and the same cart doesn't do that.
Excellent breakdown of SMB3. I myself am partial to the OG NES version, which was my introduction to the game over 30 years ago as a 10 year old. Nostalgia aside, it remains my favorite version for the following reasons: *The soundtrack. That chip tune music was flawless, and I especially love how sinister the fortress and airship themes sounded on NES. The music on the SNES and GBA versions were too “cute”. And the remakes butchered the World 7 theme! *Visuals. For an 8 bit game, a premium was placed on singularity of level detail I love how on NES each airship had its own individual color and some sky’s were bright, some were dark, some were dreary looking, there was variety. On SNES and GBA all airships are brown and the sky is dark and stormy. It gets monotonous. Again, the remakes looked too cute at times. The stark black background and solemn grey blocks of world 2 fortress on NES is way more menacing than the more ornate backdrop of the remakes.
SMB3 is a game that anyone any age can play and have fun. If your a casual or a hardcore gamer you can enjoy it. The replay value is just insane. Ive played it once a year for over 30 years and still have fun playing it. Revolutionary for it time. There aren't many games you can say that about. To me its the GOAT! You have to play the OG NES version, its the best. It has a certain charm that the graphically superior SNES and GBA versions dont have.
28:14 WHAT?! THAT EXISTS?! I've played this game so many times for years (and have even used a Super Leaf in that exact spot to fly) and have never seen that P-switch once, had no idea it existed. Wow.
I always loved how strange and magical the cave levels looked in the original, so I can't stand what the remakes did to them. It was a totally unnecessary change.
You forgot about the secret ghost ship and all those extra levels on the gba game are actually unused and unfinished levels still found inside the nes smb3 rom You are absolutely correct,you painted mario 3 exactly how I feel about it,to me it is the best 2d mario game,smw is good but not as good as smb3
I don't understand the disliking of the e-Reader levels. You literally got like 40-50% additional content compared to vanilla SMB3 since vanilla has 90 levels and there are 33 e-Reader levels (excluding the first five levels since they're SMB1 rehashes). 33 is 36.7% of 90 but, like you said, the levels are a bit longer so you probably end up getting an experience that's about 40-50% as long as regular SMB3 from the e-Reader levels. I'm not solely arguing quantity as their basis for worthiness either. The new gimmicks were quirky, fun, and interesting imo.
They're super interesting and I love how many new ideas they bring, it's just that large, nonlinear levels with collectables that you have to get in 1 go on a short time limit with no checkpoints doesn't work with Mario 3, making a select few of them really annoying. On their own as side content they're what make the GBA my favorite version but as Mario 3 levels they don't meet the same quality as what's in the main game and are limited by not being in something like Mario World or NSMB DS with checkpoints and a better system for collectibles. They don't bring down the game at all for me, but they could have been better is all with some simple fixes.
@@PixelPowerstarWhen it comes to your criticisms towards this game like (some of) the visuals of the NES version (which makes sense, but I love how they look in their own ways, especially the SNES version which would inspire Luigi’s Adventure OSE and other Super Mario World hacks to look as great as they are with its style and substance), the 16-bit music of the SNES version (I personally really love the soundtracks of every version of SMB3 except for the bootleg version for the GBC but then again, while it's unofficial, it's still the only version of SMB3, even when compared to the hacks with non-custom music, which sucks the most, so I felt like sticking up to how the music of SMB3 for all versions sound) and the e-Reader levels of SMA4, and with that said, I will also applaud ExoParadigmGamer (via ROR: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES Vs GBA) and AntDude for having a blast with world e no matter what. Maybe the levels themselves aren’t the best for completionists, but l think they are better for casual runs, which is a very similar charm to Pac-Man World 2 for sixth-gen home consoles even though the Super Mario Advance Games have 2D gameplay, which like with the originals, are platforming bliss), I will praise just about everything Mario 3 in general has to offer to the high heavens for more reasons than just nostalgia for a game pretty much everyone praises the living daylights out of.
The only other game with enough hype to rival FFVII in my lifetime was Mario 3. It's hard to describe just how massive the anticipation was for this release, my Dad even spoke about buying me this at the time for my birthday, he had zero interest in video games but he knew about Mario 3. Cheers.
Ok ill watch 1 video, so far you dont have that memorable vocal presence but thats ok you can manage it ... your content and editing is nice, the background music is something others dont use much...not being a hater, decent work keep it up. Excited to see whats next-siskel ebert
The giant sprites in World 4 in the NES version being just chunky blown up versions of the low resolution sprites, was EXACTLY what was cool about them. I don't wanna see polished, completely separate giant sprites. Where's the imagination in that?
I guess they look unique but the entire world looks inconsistent. You could also say it’s more imaginative to have the unique 16 bit sprites since special care was put into them to make them look unique which better develops the atmosphere of the world. I wouldn’t call the NES one imaginative. It was the best they could do on limited hardware but nowadays the different pixel densities look inconsistent.
@@PixelPowerstar When I said "Where's the imagination?" I wasn't referring to how imaginative it was on the part of the game makers but rather the imagination that it sparks in the player. Mario games should never look or feel "real" (whatever that means) and the giant pixelated sprites is, for me, an extension of the weirdness of the Super Mario universe. The weirder and more inconsistent the better. Having large pixelated sprites alongside normal smooth ones in the same level? Awesome.
@@SummerBayJournal I see what you mean now, my bad. However, I must respectfully disagree. While I agree that Mario does not need to be realistic, I don't think that's the problem between the two versions. I'd also like to quibble with your use of "real". While yes, Mario does not need to resemble the real world, I think believability is an important factor in any visual medium that depicts a world and characters, which includes visual consistency. I think there are ways to evoke imagination (like the subtle stage theming embedded in the levels) and there's benefits to abstraction to develop identity. But one major part of Mario 3 is how it tries to expand on its world, characters, and environments. Visuals that are not believable (not necessarily not realistic) are visually jarring, thus taking away from the world that is being portrayed. I do not think that Mario is a game that the player needs to imagine what they are looking at either. I think that this game is a major step forward in visual worldbuilding for the series, which substitutes imagination for immersion, enhancing the experience. Requiring the player to stop and think about a sprite inconsistency in a fast-paced platformer is jarring and removes them from the experience. The 16 bit version irons out the inconsistencies, gives the game a richer sense of color, and uses more detail to create believability and visual appeal. This pushes the game forward stylistically and does not take away anything for me. The only example where I could say that the 16 bit version takes away the imagination would be World 9 in the 16 bit version of the Lost Levels. It reuses assets that take away from the abstract and surreal style of the Famicom version. But that game is surreal and abstract whereas Mario 3 is more grounded and believable, so its an upgrade rather than a downgrade.
I swore SMB3 had a stand alone cartridge on SNES before the all stars.. the 8bit was favored because the 16 bit one patched out some of the “bugs” like the level where the sun was chasing you, there was a glitch spot at the end you couldn’t to in the 16 bit. There were a few more things like this that people favored the 8 bit. I don’t think i realized that sun could be beaten by throwing a shell at it, until i watched this video.
The Left Bros version of Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES has the same names for the worlds in the credits sequence as the snes and gba versions. The Left Bros version was an earlier version of the game, with the right bros version (the version you used for the nes in the video) being a later revision which changed the names.
World 8's autoscrollers aren't bad (the airship is great, and hard as hell too), but there are too many of them. I wish there were more stages like the numerical levels. Still, not a bad world. I really love all autoscrollers in Mario 3 from before World 8. The two autoscrollers from World 5 are the best ones! This game is awesome, with worlds 5 and 6 being its absolute peak in level design!
I will never forget my cousin getting this for his birthday. We completely skipped the cake. What kid does that? We would sneak down in the middle of the night just to play it. You seem a bit pretentious but you're obviously younger and didn't experience this in the moment. And it's ok. You're forgiven.
35:01 What's goin on here? I went back to see if Mario was invincible but he wasn't. I also thought maybe the Dry Bones' crushed form fell down due to a Donut Block falling but that wasn't the case either. So, how did Mario manage to eliminate the usually only partially beatable enemy?
Yeah wait what the heck? I have no clue how that happened. It seems like maybe the block being about to fall doesn't have collision with the collapsed dry bones. It's the only explanation I can think of. I would go back and check the footage but unfortunately I don't have it any more.
Pixel Powerstar. Wrong. absolutely none of the levels are underdone and there are absolutely no boring or tedious levels anywhere in the game whatsoever. It is 100% THE PERFECT VIDEO GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Even though I grew up with the GBA version, I actually prefer the NES version because its movement and physics feel better and more satisfying to control in that version, plus it's the most challenging version of the game and I like how its artstyle looks like a 1950s cartoon.
I might talk about it someday but since this marathon was about the mainline 2D Mario games, it wouldn’t be fair to review Yoshi’s Island as a sequel and compare it to Mario World than to talk about it as it’s own game since it would just highlight all my issues with the game. I might talk about it at some point on its own in the future though.
I have it #2 of the old school Marios: it was super fun, but all of the powerups make it too easy. Also, W8 seems underdeveloped. I think SMW was better for these reasons. You cannot just load up on powerups and the later game is completely done. The sound on SMA annoys me, but I did grow up with the original! But, you noticed that, too, though you said you did not grow up with it...
SMW has some problems, it was too easy and short and it feels too much like a kid's game, i know that's what it is but SMB3 didn't feel like a kids game that much, still a 2nd when ranking all 2d Mario games, SMB3 is perfectly the best 2d Mario game, if someone asks Me what Mario game to start with, i'll tell them to start with SMB3
@@SMCwasTaken SMB3 was far easier. Even if you point to the cape and Yoshi, there are still hard areas and very hard areas where they do you no good or it's very hard with them(like the secret Fortress in Bowser land). And, SMB3 has the powerup collections(×28), so many 1UPs, and the levels are not nearly as hard as SMW in total! 7-7 is a hard level, but--if you are big--you'll pass it. That's if you cannot do it any other way. Then, every other level a power-up will help you beat it. SMW is not that easy. In addition, both are fun. SMBW is funner, though...Then, there's the 70s hippy levels: most of which are harder than SMB3 hardest levels! And, some of the castles and fortresses are harder than anything ON SMB3!
Honestly. Looking back at the level design, don't you think it could've been better? I die many times an I always think I'm bad at the game-apparently level design is unpredictable when you've barely played the game in long periods of time.
