Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 is the sequel to Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, and the 3rd game in the Super Mario Bros. series in North America after Super Mario 2. The game was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Super Mario Bros. 3 featured major graphical and gameplay updates from the original 2 Japanese titles, and was a return to form from the Super Mario Bros 2 that was released in North America. 

Super Mario Bros. 3 was developed over a span of two years. Miyamoto worked closely with the designers and developers and encouraged them to come up with unique concepts and ideas that was the foundation for the new gameplay elements. Miyamoto also balanced the game for all types of players by providing more items, coins, and extra lives in the earlier stages and less in the later.

In order to achieve the level of graphics, the character sprites were created using a special graphics engine called “Character Generator Computer Aided Design” that generated a collection of all the graphical shapes used in the game and assigns them at runtime. The game also used an MM3 chip on the cartridge which allowed for animated tiles, extra ram and diagonal scrolling.

The story of the game involves Mario and Luigi who are trying to save the rulers of seven kingdoms from Bowser and his children. The game features 8 worlds of 6 numbered stages, several mini-games a castle, and an airship stage which ends in a boss fight against one of Bowser's kids or Bowser. After each boss fight the player collects a magic wand which restores life to the ruler of that land and allows the player to move onto the next world. Each world is based on a different theme including desert, water, ice, and a giant world.

Bowser's children were designed to be unique and were created by Miyamoto based on seven of his programmers. The Koopaling's names were localized as names of Western celebrities. The Koopa Kids included: Larry, Morton Koopa Jr, Wendy O'Koopa, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy, and Ludwig Von Koopa.

3 special flutes are hidden in the game that allow the player to access the warp screen and move ahead in the game. The tune played is the melody from the whistle in The Legend of Zelda.

A big addition to the game is a world map which allows the player to choose several paths to progress and allows access to different mini-game areas. When the game is played in two player mode, the players work together in order to progress in the game. The players take turns playing levels and clearing locations from the map.

At the end of each stage the player hits a spinner to get an item icon, collecting 3 earn the player that item. Items collected can be used before starting a stage on the map screen and consist of all the regular power-ups found in the game.

Mini-games include choosing an item from 3 random chests, flipping over cards to find matches, and a slots game to win extra lives.

Gameplay is similar to the original title where Mario or Luigi can run and jump on enemies to defeat them. A new move allows the characters to slide down slopes and defeat enemies they come into contact with. The usual cast of enemies return including goombas, koopa troopas, and hammer bros.

Quite a few new powers-up were included as well as the original mushroom, star, and flower. These included a leaf that gave Mario or Luigi a raccoon tail which would allow them to fly in the air temporarily. The player needs to get a running start before they can take off into the air. There is also a frog suit which allows the character to swim better, a Tanooki Suit which allows him to change into a stone statue, and a hammer bros. suit which allows him to toss hammers.

When the game was set to be released in 1988 a shortage of ROM chips forced Nintendo to hold back several titles including Super Mario Bros. 3 and Zelda 2. During this time Nintendo struck a partnership with Tom Pollack of Universal Studios to create a motion picture inspired by Nintendo video game competitions. The film, called The Wizard, featured Fred Savage and followed two kids travelling cross country competing in video game tournaments and Nintendo games were heavily featured. The final game was also Super Mario Bros. 3 and the film was released in theatres months before the game was released building hype for the title. The movie also showed viewers the placement of the first hidden warp whistle.

Super Mario Bros. 3 was a critical and commercial success and became one of the video game industry's best-selling games. Many players consider it to be the best in the series. The game sold over 18 million copies worldwide and the Virtual Console version has sold over a million copies. The only critique of the game was the lack of a save or password system meaning the lengthy game had to be completed in a single session.

A 16bit version of Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES. It was also re-released as Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Gameboy Advance. 

The game also launched a new North American cartoon series entitled The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

After Super Mario Bros. 3 many spin-offs were created for the NES including Mario's Time Machine, and Mario is Missing. The next game in the series is Super Mario World.