Super Mario Bros. 3

1001 Video Games

The NES version of Super Mario Bros. 3 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Language

On the map screen, the treasure ship icon features a symbol on its sail. The symbol is the Japanese word "takara", which means "treasure".

References to the game

In the movie "The Wizard", which is about a seven year old in a videogame competition, Super Mario Bros 3 was featured as a "brand new game" which none of the contestants had gotten a chance to play before.

References

During the game, Mario can find a Warp Whistle, which will take him to a new area of the game. When using the Whistle, the tune played is the exact melody used from the Whistle in The Legend of Zelda.

Sales

The game sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide.

Speedrun

As of 2010, the fastest run through the the game is under eleven minutes (0:10:48 as conventional speedrun and 0:10:25 tool-assisted).

Regional and version differences

The Koopa Kids are only named in the North American and European versions. The Japanese version completely omits giving them names.

At some point, Nintendo re-released Super Mario Bros. 3 with a couple of text changes:

• If you picked up a copy close to its release date, you may have noticed that Toad ends his N-Spade game instructions with "Miss twice and your out!", which is incorrect, as "your" should have been "you're". However, you also may have noticed that there was no more room in the text box to include an apostrophe. In the new version, Toad says "You can only miss twice!" instead of "Miss twice and your out!". Instead of resizing the text box so they could include an apostrophe, they just rewrote the last sentence using the same amount of characters.
• Another change was to Princess Toadstool's letter to Mario after beating World 2. Instead of "Kuribo's shoe," she now says "Goomba's shoe." Kuribo is the Japanese name for Goomba.

There are some differences between regional releases. Among those and as to USA vs JP releases:

• In the credits, the curtain speed in the opening is slightly higher in the USA release and the world names are different (USA names in parentheses): Grass Land (Grass Land), Desert Hill (Desert Land), Ocean Side (Water Land), Big Island (Giant Land), The Sky (Sky Land), Iced Land (Ice Land), Pipe Maze (Pipe Land), Castle of Kuppa (Dark Land).
• Boat warp zone glitch fixed in the USA release
• End of level 5-1 is different
• In world 8-1, it is a little easier to jump on the boat in the USA release
• When you carry a power up and are hit, you revert to Super Mario in the USA release (you revert to Mario in the JP release).

Awards

• Electronic Gaming Monthly
  • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Most Eagerly Anticipated Game (that wasn't released) (NES version)
  • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Game of the Year (Forecasting the 1990 Award Winners) (tied with The Revenge of Shinobi)
  • December 1989 (Issue 5) - Best Sequel (Forecasting the 1990 Award Winners) (tied with Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Phantasy Star II)
  • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #14 on the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
• Game Informer
  • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #8 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #36 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • Issue #37 - #3 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by Big John WV, CaptainCanuck, Guy Chapman, MegaMegaMan, PCGamer77, Ryan Hopson, Torgospizza and WildKard