Super Mario Bros. 3Mix is a ROM hack of Super Mario Bros. 3 by Captain Southbird (or just Southbird, as on the title screen) that pays tribute to the Mario series as a whole. Among the features are:
- Overworlds and levels not found in Super Mario Bros. 3 (often directly based on ones from other Mario games).
- Added music (again, generally from other Mario games).
- New power-ups (or rather, ones that weren't originally in Super Mario Bros. 3).
- Added game mechanics, such as checkpoints and a functional Yoshi (who works as in Super Mario World).
- A save feature that can be accessed by pausing (either during a level or on the overworld), featuring the ability to save all current progress.
- The ability to replay levels that have already been cleared, in order to find secrets or items that may have been missed the first time around.
- A warp zone that can be accessed at any time, allowing the player to return to any worlds already visited.
- Three playable characters (Mario, Luigi, and Toad). There are no gameplay differences, but there is a two-player mode, unlike some other hacks.
The game was built using the Southbird 2011 Disassembly note , but despite the increased amount of options provided by low-level hacking, the main focus is adding to existing mechanics rather than overhauling the entire game as with hacks such as Mario Adventure and its sequel, Koopa Kingdom Escape (the latter being made because of and using the disassembly work).
This game provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: As in New Super Mario Bros., three Star Coins lurk in every level. These are required to unlock everything.
- Action Bomb: Bob-Ombs reappear and can now blow up certain bricks (specifically, the ones fortress floors were made of in Super Mario Bros. 3). This is usually a good thing, but a couple of levels (including one airship) have long stretches in which the floor is made entirely of these bricks, with Bob-Ombs constantly spawning everywhere. There are a couple of levels that require careful placement of a Bob-Omb to blow out a wall so you can move ahead.
- Always Night: In addition to World 8 inheriting this trait from Super Mario Bros. 3, this also appears to be the case with World 0.
- Antepiece: World 2 introduces Shy Guys. Since the world is based on Super Mario Bros. 2, it isn't hard to figure out how to handle them.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Usually, each level has only one checkpoint marked by a power-up. However, losing to a boss will let you restart just before the fight instead of at the checkpoint, with a power-up in easy reach. (Subverted with the daredevil comet challenges, in which the checkpoints are taken away.)
- A ghost house in World 5 features some tricky jumping with flying Dry Bones and narrow platforms, with a Star Coin on the other side. Usually, you have to restart the level if you miss a Star Coin, but there's a pipe at the bottom of this area that lets you restart this segment.
- Normally, falling off the bottom of the screen means instant death. In World 3, the random monster encounters require you to cross a wide chasm by stomping on a bunch of airborne Dry Bones. Miss a jump here, and you just get sent back to the start for another try.
- At least three levels can be reliably milked for multiple extra lives. Since you can return to any cleared level as many times as you want, you always have a chance to stock up.
- Ascended Extra: Toad is playable this time.
- Big Boo's Haunt: Ghost houses appear in a similar fashion to their appearance in Super Mario World, while World 3, Boo's Woods, is pretty much overrun with ghost enemies (including some from Super Mario Land 2's Pumpkin Zone).
- Big Eater: Yoshi appears in World 4 and has his trademark eating ability.
- Bragging Rights Reward: Collecting every Star Coin and defeating Count Bleck nets you a "Congratulations!" screen and a hint that gets you 50 lives and 50 of every power-up item... which would've been useful if you'd known about it before clearing everything in the game.
- Boss Rush: World 0-Castle has a very Mega Man esque boss rush right before the end.
- Build Like an Egyptian: World 5 has two pyramid levels.
- Call-Back: The intro to World 2 features a description based on the intro to Super Mario Bros. 2.
- Call-Forward: Later worlds are based on 3D Mario games like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Averted during the main playthrough. Most levels have a checkpoint mushroom, which is enough for the average Mario level. Losing to a boss also puts you right before the boss after reentering the level, rather than at the previous checkpoint. Played straight in the "daredevil" comet challenges, which take the checkpoints away.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Koopalings do not appear in the game. Instead, Bowser Jr. is Bowser's second in command.
- Classic Cheat Code: Input the Konami Code at the title screen for 50 lives. Doing this with a new file will give that and 50 of each item. Yes, including keys.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: Not normally notable for a 2D Mario game, but unlike some hacks (such as Mario Adventure), it isn't removed here.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: There are no gameplay differences between Mario, Luigi, or Toad.
- Cranium Ride: In addition to Parabeetles, Shy Guys were added and behave mostly the same as they did in Super Mario Bros. 2, with the player able to ride on top of them.
- Dark Reprise: World 3 contains two, one of Super Mario Bros. 3's World 1-1 theme and one of its World 1-2 theme. It fits, because World 3 features ghost enemies quite prominently.
- The passageways to the side areas of World 0 contain one of the Warp Zone music from the original Super Mario Bros. 3.
- The world map of the same world has a dark remix of the underground theme.
- Dem Bones: Dry Bones return, with some being able to fly.
- Double Unlock: Quadruple, in this case. In order to play all the way through World 0 and face Count Bleck, you must:
- Find all three Star Coins in every area of Worlds 1 through 8.
- Open the path to the warp pipes in the even-numbered worlds by finding the hidden exit from each ghost house in Worlds 2, 4, and 6, and also from World 8-5.
- Use those pipes to visit the four side areas of World 0 and get all three Star Coins and a key from each.
- Complete every comet challenge that pops up after you get all those coins and defeat Bowser.
- The Dragon: Bowser Jr., as expected from him, but in 8-bit form.
- Extended Gameplay: After you beat Bowser the final time, challenge comets appear, a la Super Mario Galaxy. Should you finish those and obtain every Star Coin, you can access World 0.
- Extreme Omnivore: Yoshi can eat almost anything. There was also a glitch in earlier versions where he could eat the checkpoints and goal flags, though this has since been fixed.
- Expy: Clyde is a one-headed Triclyde.
- Final Exam Finale: World 8 is themed after every previous world, similar to the equivalent world from Mario Adventure.
- Flying Seafood Special: Remember the levels with the flying Cheep Cheeps in the original Super Mario Bros.? One of those is remade in World 1. In addition, there are overworld encounters with flying Cheep Cheeps, similar to the Hammer Bros. battles in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Most (if not all) have been fixed as of Revision 2B, but there were some such as Yoshi being able to eat the flags at the end of levels (requiring the level to be restarted) to the "Matei bugs" (a term Southbird ended up using for them, named after Cinemassacre.com's Mike Matei, who reviewed an earlier version of the hack) that caused the player to spawn inside walls, either getting thrown into an enemy or a pit (and thus dying). Southbird's YouTube channel shows these in release notes.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Sidesteppers appear from Mario Bros., even generally taking two hits to defeat.
- Gravity Screw: Happens all over the place in World 7, and in one area of World 8. You have to deliberately cause it in places (by hitting a switch) in order to finish different levels. Also happens in the first side area of World 0.
- Green Hill Zone: The Mushroom Kingdom, which is natural being the first world in a Mario game.
- Grimy Water: Appears in World 6. The black water is merely hard to swim in, while the purple water is outright poisonous.
- Guide Dang It!: New players are in for a ton of frustration if they fail to guess that the hitherto decorative-only hanging lamps in World 2's fortress can be climbed on just like vines. Especially irksome, because the first big "+" platform looks like it's juuuust barely low enough to hop onto (it's not), which tricks you into thinking that you're supposed to ascend the area by jumping up from ledge to ledge (you aren't).
- Hailfire Peaks: A level based on Shiverburn Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy can be found in World 7.
- Healing Checkpoint: The checkpoints aren't just mushroom shaped. They actually power-up the heroes if they don't already have a power-up.
- Hey, You!: The player character is generally not referred to by name. A particularly strange example is when Rosalina refers to Peach as the player character's special one, should the player be playing as Luigi or Toad.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In addition to Bowser ending up in roughly the same situation as in Super Mario Bros. 3, Bowser Jr.'s attacks can be be turned on him if he ends up unable to be Goomba Stomped.
- As in Super Mario Bros. 2, you have to take Mouser out by catching his bombs and throwing them back at him. The catch this time is that he's using Bob-Ombs.
- An Ice Person: The Penguin Suit gives the heroes the ability to freeze enemies. Hitting Big Boo with frozen enemies is the only way to defeat him.
- Infinity +1 Sword: The Boomerang Suit is just as powerful as the Hammer Suit from Super Mario Bros. 3, but it attacks in a straight line instead of an arc.
- Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Secret exits of various levels lead to levels that, when completed, allow you to play a minigame to obtain one upon completion. These keys are used to progress through the main part of World 0.
- Kaizo Trap: After every Bowser battle, there's nothing stopping you from jumping into the lava while the victory music plays, which has to end before you can proceed further. Fortunately, this will rarely (if ever) happen accidentally.
- Levels Take Flight: Airships return, but very few of them are auto scrolling this time (since collecting Star Coins would be more difficult that way).
- Long Song, Short Scene: Because the P Switch music was replaced with an 8-bit version of the Super Mario World P Switch music, the old music, which also played in Toad Houses, now plays only in Toad Houses.
- Macro Zone: Occasionally and less prominently than in Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Mechanical Monster: Considering Bowser Jr.'s role in the battles, a few of the bosses at the end of the worlds could be this, aside from the ones with Bowser and Bowser Jr. themselves.
- Mini-Dungeon: Fortresses re-appear from the vanilla version of Super Mario Bros. 3, and ghost houses have been added from Super Mario World.
- Mini-Game:
- Remember the casino in Super Mario Sunshine? There's a smaller, 2D version of it in this game in World 6 (Isle Delfino, natch), and you can get coins from it.
- The Card Flip minigame returns, but plays more like it did in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
- The player-vs-player minigames from Super Mario Bros. 3 show up in the side areas of World 0, and must be played to get the keys needed to advance along the main path. One of them is also re-styled as the random monster fight screen in World 6.
- Mission Control: Peach, as in Super Mario Bros. 3. After she's kidnapped by Bowser after at the end of World 7, she's replaced by Rosalina.
- Moody Mount: After being hit, Yoshi becomes startled and runs around, as expected.
- Mordor: In addition to the expected example of World 8, World 0 is strange looking and was inspired by a glitch world Southbird found in Super Mario Bros. 3 by using a Game Genie.
- Nerf: The Tanooki Suit is identical to the Raccoon power-up in the original Super Mario Bros. 3 in every way except visually. The Raccoon power-up itself was replaced with the Bunny power-up from Super Mario Land 2, which lacks both the vertical flight and offensive capabilities of the Raccoon Suit. Worse still, the Tanooki suit is still just as rare as it was in SMB3.
- New Game Plus: Inputting the Classic Cheat Code mentioned above allows you to replay the game with a large amount of lives and power-ups, similar to the original game giving you a large supply of P-Wings.
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Nintendo Hard: At times, the game is a tiny bit harder than the standard Super Mario Bros. 3, but if you're good enough at that game, the same should apply here. Either way, the save feature means doing levels over is optional (though recommended for 100% Completion if you missed any Star Coins the first time around). - No Ontological Inertia: Upon losing the Penguin Suit, any frozen enemies revert to their normal state if they haven't been defeated already. This is because of the number of sprite palettes on-screen being very limited; with only 4 palettes being assigned to sprites at a time (with 1 being used for player characters only), and since the ice blocks use the same palette as the player's Penguin-Suited character to allow use of the other 3 palettes for other sprites, having them remain frozen when losing the Suit would cause the ice blocks to become an odd palette.
- Nostalgia Level: If you haven't noticed already, the whole game is one for the Mario series as a whole. However, only the ones based on the 2D games' levels have any resemblance to the originals, for obvious reasons.
- One-Hit Kill: Boss Bass is back and as annoying as ever.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Going into a level with a red comet will reduce your character to a small state, turn all the power-ups you'd normally find in that level into coins, and take away the mid-level checkpoint. You have to finish the level without being hit in order to pick up the coin for that challenge.
- Palmtree Panic: Isle Delfino.
- Playing with Fire: The Fire Flower is the primary power-up in the first two worlds. Item boxes, Toad Houses, and overworld enemy encounters don't give anything other than that or Super Mushrooms until the first side area of World 0 gives you a Tanooki Suit.
- Power-Up: Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, Super Leaf, Carrot, Penguin Suit, and Boomerang Flower.
- Power Up Mount: Yoshi, again. Bowser Jr. also has some of his own.
- Prehistoria: Dinosaur Land.
- Punny Name: Bowser Jr.'s preferred weapon for World 3 is a Boo-shaped vehicle called the Boomer. The title of the game itself is also a combination of "three" and "remix."
- Quicksand Sucks: A few blocks in World 5 drop quicksand on the heroes. You have to break these to proceed.
- Recurring Boss: Every world has one in its fortresses, except for 2 and 8. Bowser Jr. appears as the final boss of 3, 4, 6, and 7.
- World 1: Bowser (also the final boss in both this world and 8)
- World 3: Big Boo
- World 4: Reznor
- World 5: King Totomesu
- World 6: Petey Piranha
- World 7: Topmaniac
- Shifting Sand Land: Birabuto Kingdom.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: One level features upbeat music from Super Mario Land 2, with the primary enemies being a swarm of Albatosses that drop bombs whenever you run underneath them.
- Space Zone: The Greater Galaxy.
- Tech-Demo Game: Arguably, this hack is one for Southbird's disassembly work, which was not released until this was finished.
- Toy Time: At least two levels are made out of blocks resembling Legos.
- True Final Boss: Count Bleck, at the end of World 0.
- Warp Whistle: Bringing up the pause menu on the world map allows you to go to the "Star Road" warp zone. From there, you can go to any world you've been to. This prevents Star Coins from being permanently missed. You can also reach World 0 this way once you gain access to it.
