I'm a bit too young to have enjoyed the NES at the peak of it's popularity in the late '80s, but it still remains the first video game system that I ever played in the early '90s. And out of all the awesome NES games I've played this game has to be just about my favorite.

Now, as much as I love the other 2 games in the original Mario trilogy(esp. Super Mario Bros.), I just really feel that this game was the pinnacle of the original series. Almost every individual level within every world is expertly designed, the difficulty is perfectly paced getting just hard enough by the end of the game, and the music, of course, is excellent.

Since it's release on February 12, 1990 it has sold over 18 Million copies, making it the best selling game to never be bundled with a console. I consider this game to not only be one of the greatest NES games ever made, but one of the greatest video games ever made period. Just wondering if you guys agree.

Yeah, this is even more of a classic than the original SMB (I've played both since the beginning), even if it doesn't have the novelty SMB1 had back in 1986.

Even now, it's still challenging for me, which means it's a good game. I can do Worlds 1-5 pretty easy, but once it gets to the Ice World in Level 6, I'm always glad I have all those items/extra lives saved up. I think I've only actually beaten the game a handful of times.

P.S. I always play the travelling card game when it appears (this extra stuff comes in pretty handy on the last couple levels!) and track my progress (the same version only appears twice).

Yeah, this is even more of a classic than the original SMB (I've played both since the beginning), even if it doesn't have the novelty SMB1 had back in 1986.

Even now, it's still challenging for me, which means it's a good game. I can do Worlds 1-5 pretty easy, but once it gets to the Ice World in Level 6, I'm always glad I have all those items/extra lives saved up. I think I've only actually beaten the game a handful of times.

P.S. I always play the travelling card game when it appears (this extra stuff comes in pretty handy on the last couple levels!) and track my progress (the same version only appears twice).



Yeah, once you get past the Sky world the game gets really challenging. World 6 is pretty hard and World 7 and 8 are killers. I love the travelling card game too. It's pretty fun(and challenging) to figure out, and you can get some useful items.

Yeah, once you get past the Sky world the game gets really challenging. World 6 is pretty hard and World 7 and 8 are killers. I love the travelling card game too. It's pretty fun(and challenging) to figure out, and you can get some useful items.


Yeah, I always slip on stuff in the Ice World (feels like virtual ice skating ;D ), get dizzy from the Pipe World, and just plain killed by World 8. But that's the fun of it, lol.

P.S. Funny story: When I was a kid, the Giant World (# 4) used to scare me a little bit because the pirahna plants won't stay in their pipes like they otherwise can if you're standing next to/on top of it. The idea of them coming up from below me was creepy for some reason, so I made sure to always jump over the pipes. ;)

I LOVE this game. I liked World 6 because you could get the Hammer Bros. costume to wear. Then if you ducked down, you turned into one of those little beetle things.

And I always enjoyed being Tanooki Mario. :)

I'd consider it the greatest Mario game for NES. Super Mario 2 was fun, but disgustingly hard.

Super Mario 3 was the best!  Each level in each world had a 1-up and I was so good at this game, I found every single one of them, and though I have not played this game in years, I can still remember where most of them are 8)

Even that secret trick in World 2 where you use the hammer to break that rock on the map to reveal a new section of the map

Ah yes, classic Mario, indeed it is and always was my favorite NES game. I remember grabbing all three flutes in the first world so that I could instantly travel to world 8, although practically unarmed since the final world barely offers any items.

Ah yes, classic Mario, indeed it is and always was my favorite NES game. I remember grabbing all three flutes in the first world so that I could instantly travel to world 8, although practically unarmed since the final world barely offers any items.


If you knew all the tricks though, you could get the magic house, the coin ship, and the N-Mark Spade all in World 1 and with the two flutes, travel to World 8 with atleast 3 items and 99 lives 8)

Yeah, I always slip on stuff in the Ice World (feels like virtual ice skating ;D ), get dizzy from the Pipe World, and just plain killed by World 8. But that's the fun of it, lol.

P.S. Funny story: When I was a kid, the Giant World (# 4) used to scare me a little bit because the pirahna plants won't stay in their pipes like they otherwise can if you're standing next to/on top of it. The idea of them coming up from below me was creepy for some reason, so I made sure to always jump over the pipes. ;)



Yeah, that was always the hard thing about World 6. On it's own it wasn't too hard, but the fact that you'd be sliding all over the place made it alot harder. The pipe world is the first really hard world, and it used to really confuse me when I was a kid. World 8, well it speaks for itself ;D

I was wondering if any of you guys still actually have your NES's. I still have mine(along with alot of other classic systems). I know that emulators are really popular today, but to me there's nothing like playing the game on it's original hardware.

If you knew all the tricks though, you could get the magic house, the coin ship, and the N-Mark Spade all in World 1 and with the two flutes, travel to World 8 with atleast 3 items and 99 lives 8)


Which I could do. I still remember how, even though I haven't played it in awhile.

If you knew all the tricks though, you could get the magic house, the coin ship, and the N-Mark Spade all in World 1 and with the two flutes, travel to World 8 with atleast 3 items and 99 lives 8)

Can you share some of those tricks with me? I still have my system & have only beaten it once.

Your Pal,
Doc
8)

Yeah, that was always the hard thing about World 6. On it's own it wasn't too hard, but the fact that you'd be sliding all over the place made it alot harder. The pipe world is the first really hard world, and it used to really confuse me when I was a kid. World 8, well it speaks for itself ;D

I was wondering if any of you guys still actually have your NES's. I still have mine(along with alot of other classic systems). I know that emulators are really popular today, but to me there's nothing like playing the game on it's original hardware.


Yeah, nothing beats the original. I still have our old family one that my dad bought back in 1987 (it's been pretty used over the years, but still works pretty smooth). But I don't want to wear it out, so it's in the closet and I currently use a NES I got at a garage sale back in '01. It's pretty much in "new" condition (I remember the guy told me he played it a little when he first got it in the late '80s but it basically sat unused for years).


BTW, I can't even remember how to get the magic house with 99 lives. Now I want to try and figure that out. ;D

Can you share some of those tricks with me? I still have my system & have only beaten it once.

Your Pal,
Doc
8)


I still remember a few of the tricks.  In World 1 ...

To get the Magic House, you have to get every single coin (including the hidden ones in the bricks) plus all of the hidden 1-ups on Level 4

To get 99 lives, get yourself the raccoon suit and on Level 2, go to the area where the goombas fall out of the pipe.  Jump on one, and use your tail to suspend yourself in mid air long enough until another goomba appears.  Land on him, and repeat this process.  For each goomba you jump on without touching the ground, the point value increases until you get a 1-up, and from then on with each Goomba you jump on, you get a 1-up each time.  This also works on the mid-castle in World 2 with the skeleton turtles

To get the 1st flute ... Just before the end of Level 3, find the white platform, and crouch on it until you fall below it.  Then run to the end, and you will go behind the black screen to get the flute

To get the 2nd flute, at the end of the mid castle before you enter the door, use your raccoon suit to fly up where you will eventually find a hidden walkway above the bricks that takes you to the room with the 2nd flute

To go straight to World 8, use 1 flute, and when you land on the Warp screen, immediately use your 2nd flute

If you want a third flute, in World 2, get yourself a hammer, and when you get to the other end of the map, use your hammer to break the rock at the top right to reveal a hidden portion of the map

I was curious to see if I could still do these tricks, so I downloaded Super Mario Bros. 3 and though I was a bit rusty, I did manage to get both flutes, over 30 lives, plus the magic house 8)

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4223/mariobros3re4.png

I was curious to see if I could still do these tricks, so I downloaded Super Mario Bros. 3 and though I was a bit rusty, I did manage to get both flutes, over 30 lives, plus the magic house 8)

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/4223/mariobros3re4.png


If you had beaten one of the worlds with a coin count corresponding to a multiple of 11, the tens digit in your score matching the multiple of 11, and the time matching the tens digit, you can turn the Hammer Brother into a coin ship.  Pretty difficult trick to do, and only available on 1, 3, 5, and 6 I believe.

The 99 lives trick is easiest on World 3-5 or 3-6, forgot which...just throw a Koopa Troopa shell between two blocks and let Lakitu kill off his Spinys.  Hehehe.

I played this game for like two weeks straight one time because I was really bored.  I beat it something like 50 times in a row while getting all the items and secrets and such.  Great game.

If you had beaten one of the worlds with a coin count corresponding to a multiple of 11, the tens digit in your score matching the multiple of 11, and the time matching the tens digit, you can turn the Hammer Brother into a coin ship.  Pretty difficult trick to do, and only available on 1, 3, 5, and 6 I believe.


I actually just remembered how to do that lol
I don't remember how to get the N-Mark Spade though, but after I got all kinds of 1-ups on Level 2, it just appeared after I completed the level :D

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/5015/supermariothreecd3.png

N-card appears every 80000 points.  There are only 8 possible patterns.

Yeah, nothing beats the original. I still have our old family one that my dad bought back in 1987 (it's been pretty used over the years, but still works pretty smooth). But I don't want to wear it out, so it's in the closet and I currently use a NES I got at a garage sale back in '01. It's pretty much in "new" condition (I remember the guy told me he played it a little when he first got it in the late '80s but it basically sat unused for years).


BTW, I can't even remember how to get the magic house with 99 lives. Now I want to try and figure that out. ;D



Yeah, I've had my NES for over 10 years now and it still works fine(even though the A/V cord for the system is pretty crappy).

Btw, in case no one's seen it yet here's a video of someone beating SMB 3 in a little over 11 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz3BuYYhnn0 The guy says it's legitimate, but after watching it I don't know...

Yeah, I've had my NES for over 10 years now and it still works fine(even though the A/V cord for the system is pretty crappy).

Btw, in case no one's seen it yet here's a video of someone beating SMB 3 in a little over 11 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz3BuYYhnn0 The guy says it's legitimate, but after watching it I don't know...

Just watched the video and I don't know what to make of it either. The comments also are split and undecisive as to whether it's fake or not. The score was the same all the way through, so that points to it being real. People were saying he used an emulator to slow it down, than sped it back up, which sounds the most accurate to me.

I could buy Level 1 being genuine since he basically just breezed through the first three levels and the mini castle. But how the heck does he not get hit even once? Also, on Level 8, watch when he's on the scrolling tank around 6:25, he does a lightning fast jump back to the platform on the left side of the screen a couple times to jump on the wrenches before getting out of there.

Actually, I never realized you could fireball the mini Bowsers (I always just jumped on them), so I did learn something. 8)

Just watched the video and I don't know what to make of it either. The comments also are split and undecisive as to whether it's fake or not. The score was the same all the way through, so that points to it being real. People were saying he used an emulator to slow it down, than sped it back up, which sounds the most accurate to me.

I could buy Level 1 being genuine since he basically just breezed through the first three levels and the mini castle. But how the heck does he not get hit even once? Also, on Level 8, watch when he's on the scrolling tank around 6:25, he does a lightning fast jump back to the platform on the left side of the screen a couple times to jump on the wrenches before getting out of there.

Actually, I never realized you could fireball the mini Bowsers (I always just jumped on them), so I did learn something. 8)



Yeah, this run is tool assisted. I just watched it again, and if you look really closely you can tell where he dies and edits the video to make it look like he didn't.

Here's another tool assisted video of someone beating the whole game in 48 minutes. He cheats but it's still impressive: http://www.gametheater.org/detail.php?video=296

Yeah, this run is tool assisted. I just watched it again, and if you look really closely you can tell where he dies and edits the video to make it look like he didn't.

Here's another tool assisted video of someone beating the whole game in 48 minutes. He cheats but it's still impressive: http://www.gametheater.org/detail.php?video=296


If you do nothing but warp, and without assistance from Jugem's Cloud to get past some of the levels, you can beat the game in about 15 minutes.

But doing everything in the game?  48 minutes is pretty impressive...I can't do it in any less than 2 hours.

I still remember a few of the tricks.  In World 1 ...

To get the Magic House, you have to get every single coin (including the hidden ones in the bricks) plus all of the hidden 1-ups on Level 4

To get 99 lives, get yourself the raccoon suit and on Level 2, go to the area where the goombas fall out of the pipe.  Jump on one, and use your tail to suspend yourself in mid air long enough until another goomba appears.  Land on him, and repeat this process.  For each goomba you jump on without touching the ground, the point value increases until you get a 1-up, and from then on with each Goomba you jump on, you get a 1-up each time.  This also works on the mid-castle in World 2 with the skeleton turtles

To get the 1st flute ... Just before the end of Level 3, find the white platform, and crouch on it until you fall below it.  Then run to the end, and you will go behind the black screen to get the flute

To get the 2nd flute, at the end of the mid castle before you enter the door, use your raccoon suit to fly up where you will eventually find a hidden walkway above the bricks that takes you to the room with the 2nd flute

To go straight to World 8, use 1 flute, and when you land on the Warp screen, immediately use your 2nd flute

If you want a third flute, in World 2, get yourself a hammer, and when you get to the other end of the map, use your hammer to break the rock at the top right to reveal a hidden portion of the map

Thanks, man. I just have one question: If I've already used 2 flutes to go right to World 8, what would I do with a 3rd? Would that take me straight to Bowser's Castle? & as I recall, knocking off 8 of anything in a row will get you 1up, then a 9th gets you 2up, and so on!
BTW, while that YouTube video may be faked, at least it shows how to accomplish some of your tricks, so we can thank the guy for that!

Your Pal,
Doc
8)

The 3rd flute might actually send you back to an earlier warp zone (sometimes it's a bit glitchy) so you probably don't want to do that.  If you're already warped to world 8, you can't warp anymore anyway...you have to play through most of World 8 to get to Bowser's castle, and you can't Jugem's Cloud past the tanks or airships either.

Thanks, man. I just have one question: If I've already used 2 flutes to go right to World 8, what would I do with a 3rd? Would that take me straight to Bowser's Castle? & as I recall, knocking off 8 of anything in a row will get you 1up, then a 9th gets you 2up, and so on!
BTW, while that YouTube video may be faked, at least it shows how to accomplish some of your tricks, so we can thank the guy for that!

Your Pal,
Doc
8)


From World 1, it only takes you two flutes to get to World 8, but if you wanted to advance on to World 2 to try and collect more power-ups, you would need the third flute to be able to get to World 8 from World 2

Yeah I remembered playing  this game in 1991 . I was about 4 years old and I still remember XD . yeah good times I used to get mad when My tail fell off  :\'(  YES SIR GOOD TIMES ::)

Here's a legit speed player of SMB 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8M7fuWjod0

Here's a legit speed player of SMB 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8M7fuWjod0


I never trust anything that tells me to turn up the speakers.

It is a classic game.

Here's a legit speed player of SMB 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8M7fuWjod0


You suck.

I never trust anything that tells me to turn up the speakers.



Yeah, luckily I read the comments first so I wasn't quite as freaked out as I might have been.

Oh man I miss this game. I could never get passed the 3rd world (my mom would make me turn off the console fro dinner and I'd have to start over). I still have it, so I should try again, only this time, no turning it off! I want to beat it. The only reson I know what the other worlds look like is because I'd use the flute to get their. They're all cool, but Pipe world confused me. I couldn't get passed the dang first level, though every time I play it I get a little bit further. Maybe one day...

I remember I saved up my money for over a month to get this game (still have it btw)  and it was well worth it. A classic for sure. That coin castle was such a cheat even if it wasnt ment to be.

--
Dave.

I was never aware of any pipe warp world in SMB 3 - or maybe I just forgot. I have to shamefully admit I never passed this game on the SNES (let alone NES, which I never owned) - but only later on when I downloaded the ROM. I didn't use any cheats, or time-control features to make it easier. Indeed, I found SMB 3 the hardest of the SMB trilogy, but it's not impossible (though requires enormous concentration) for someone to pass the whole game without losing a life.

I was never aware of any pipe warp world in SMB 3 - or maybe I just forgot. I have to shamefully admit I never passed this game on the SNES (let alone NES, which I never owned) - but only later on when I downloaded the ROM. I didn't use any cheats, or time-control features to make it easier. Indeed, I found SMB 3 the hardest of the SMB trilogy, but it's not impossible (though requires enormous concentration) for someone to pass the whole game without losing a life.


The Pipe World is World 7 I believe. It's very difficulty and fustrating to get through, but it is possible I'm sure. I haven't yet, but I'm going to start trying again as soon as I find my old NES.

The Pipe World is World 7 I believe. It's very difficulty and fustrating to get through, but it is possible I'm sure. I haven't yet, but I'm going to start trying again as soon as I find my old NES.


Yeah, the Giant World is level 4, and the Pipe maze is Level 7, which is pretty hard. I hate those "muncher" pirahnas.

Yeah, the Giant World is level 4, and the Pipe maze is Level 7, which is pretty hard. I hate those "muncher" pirahnas.



Yeah, I always hated the Pipe World. Especially when I was younger. I could never get past it. Even today I still have some problems getting past it, particularly some of the later levels.

I got a NES with this game for my 6th birthday back in 1992.  Although I've played it on many occasions before hand on my older brothers NES's so playing this game or the NES wasn't exactly new to me, just so pissed off it took me so long to get my own one.

I've always prefered the original NES version as well, playing the allstars one doesn't remotely feel that nostalgic to me.  I couldn't believe you could actually SAVE the game at any point.  Not back in the NES days....

this came out in japan in 1988 in a way it is an 80's came it just did not come to the USA until 1990 i dont know why they has smb2 and smb3 released in japan both in 1988 and smb 2 came out in the USA in 1988 BTW smb came out in the USA in 1985 not 1986 i still have my old Nintendo and it is dated 1985

this came out in japan in 1988 in a way it is an 80's came it just did not come to the USA until 1990 i dont know why they has smb2 and smb3 released in japan both in 1988 and smb 2 came out in the USA in 1988 BTW smb came out in the USA in 1985 not 1986 i still have my old Nintendo and it is dated 1985


OK, this confuses me :D

I am proud to say that I still have an original NES, with all three Mario Brothers games- my favorites besides Mario 3 being Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley!!  ;D