Super Mario Bros. 3 is a legendary title, and one of the most well loved games from Nintendo. Released 3 decades ago, it is still held up as one of the all time greatest 2D platformers ever made, and a game that has been cloned repeatedly by other developers. Personally, I do not have the same nostalgia for this title that many others do, as I always felt Super Mario World was the superior game. That being said though, Super Mario Bros. 3 definitely changed the game ( pun intended) for the Mario series going forward.
While the game was still a linear platformer, there were far more secrets to discover and more power ups to find. The game started off with a bang in the first level by showing you new versions of older enemies and a brand new power up in the form of Racoon Mario, whose ability to fly opened up an entirely new way of exploring levels. Things just built up from there, with powerups like the frog suit, tanooki suit and more, all while giving new and exciting enemies to fight. New minibosses in the form of Boom Booms and end stage bosses in the form of the Koopalings were also welcome, as they added a new type of boss encounter. Yes they were defeated in a similar manner, but the fights themselves were different due to how the bosses acted. There is a reason these characters became well loved by fans for years.
There was also the matter of the new worlds in the game as well. Whereas we had water levels and underground levels before, now we had ice worlds, worlds where everything was giant, and fire worlds. The game felt new and creative and was so much bigger compared to the first game, a breathe of fresh air compared to the second in Japan, and had more familiar ideas compared to the second western entry. Graphically, the game also pushed the NES far more than Nintendo had done previously, and gave Mario and friends their established looks that remain now. The game even had more of a story than any previous entry, and it managed to keep players engaged.
Super Mario Bros. 3 has been re-released numerous times, but my favourite has been the re-release of Super Mario Advance 4 on the Wii U. Super Mario Advance 4 had additional levels added via the e-reader peripheral and many of these levels had remained Japan exclusive until the Wii U re-release. I would love it for Nintendo to bring this version to the Switch, as these levels actually had a lot of new content, and new ideas, that Nintendo would later incorporate ideas from into later 2D Mario games.
All in all, Super Mario Bros. 3 is a game that many should play, whether the original, or one of the remakes Nintendo made over the years. It is truly remarkable.
In addition, I would like to add that there is an active Nintendo retrogaming Facebook community group you can join at https://www.facebook.com/groups/nintendoretrogamers/
For more, visit Retro Gamers Hub (www.retrogamershub.com) for their extensive collection of retrogaming interest groups to choose from.