Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in North America on February 9, 1990. Developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Mario Bros. 3 is acclaimed by many critics (myself included) as one of the greatest video games of all time. It was a huge success, partly because of its promotion in the 1989 film The Wizard (Thanks for that one Alex). It went on to be the third-best selling NES game, having sold over 17 million copies worldwide. The popularity of the game also inspired a short-lived animated television series (which was pretty terrible).

Pros:

This NES game really showed what the NES could do. 8 worlds, each with around 10+ levels, boss battles, awesome power-ups, secrets, and great graphics for its time, all set in the established and loved Super Mario universe. You could play this game several times and still not catch it all. Each world is dynamic, ranging from something as small as quick sand and a sun following you around to a whole world where everything is gigantic. It’s fun, it’s challenging and holds up surprisingly well over the years.

On a fun little side note, my friend Tommy and I used to speed run this game. With warp whistles we got to and beat Bowser in about 18 mins. Here is a guy who beats it in just over 10 mins… though I think there is some minor tampering involved here.

Cons:

I really don’t have much bad to say about this game. There are a few specific levels that are kind of annoying, and I still don’t think I have cracked the roulette minigame to this day. But any minor annoyance I have with this game is completely outweighed by its awesome success and the undoubted legacy it left for not only the Super Mario series, but the NES, Nintendo and maybe even the video game industry itself.