YMMV / Super Mario Bros. 3

• Anti-Climax Boss: Your final fight with Bowser. The ability to touch Bowser's lower part of the body and not take damage can be exploited (if you're in Super form, just crouch). Add to the fact that the floor crumbles every time Bowser stomps on you, and you just have to wait until when you have to dodge on the very moment Bowser slams through the final layer of the floor and falls to his doom. This is Boss-Arena Idiocy at its best. Averted in Advance 4, as the strategy was an unintentional glitch that got fixed, so you'll have to dodge if you don't want to take any damage.
• Awesome Levels:
  • World 5-3. Goomba's Shoe. An entire generation of gamers can bond over how awesome that level was. It also helps that it makes for a nice Breather Level before the second half of World 5, which is where the gloves come off and the game really starts kicking your ass.
  • 4-6 contains doors that change the size of the enemies between the giant size typical of world 4 and the standard sizes found elsewhere — kind of a 2D precursor to Tiny Huge Island from Super Mario 64.
  • The treasure ship, which shows up if your score and coins meet a certain criterion. When you go to it, it's kind of like a Doom Ship, except covered in hundreds of coins. It is glorious.
  • World 8. You're not merely breaching a castle that Bowser took over, you're launching an offensive into his domain. You also get to take on his air force, land army, and navy, single-handedly.
  • From Super Mario Advance 4, e-Reader Level 3, Vegetable Volley. The first level in World-e to introduce e-Coins, and an absolutely brilliant combination of elements all from The Lost Levels, 2, and World.
• Breather Boss:
  • Iggy is a lot easier than the boss before him, Wendy. The only real difficulty comes from the fact that he can jump as high as Wendy can, making it hard to jump on him, and that his boss room has an uneven floor, making it tricky to use fireballs against him.
  • Lemmy, while not an easy boss by any means, is notably easier than the bosses either side of him (Roy and Ludwig), especially since he does not jump at all during his fight, making it much easier to land hits on him if you can get past the circus balls he summons, and said circus balls can be safely jumped on without taking damage.
• Breather Level:
  • World 4 is considered an entire breather world after World 3. It's much shorter, the levels are actually simple and fun to play around in, and it contains a unique theme of many enemies and world elements being about 4x as big as usual, making this section of the game a highly regarded and memorable experience.
  • Level 6-8 has no major gimmicks and is the only level of the world whose design looks like it belongs in World 1, as it's a grassland level. It is also straightforward and contains a lot of chuckable blocks.
  • Level 7-9 has a ton of coins, easy-to-find powerups, and relatively few enemies, sandwiched between back-to-back hell levels in 7-7 and 7-8, and right before the second fortress, another difficult stage.
  • Some consider the final tank level to be a breather level compared to the rest of World 8. Sure, it has lots of bombs and cannons, but compared to everything before, it should be cakewalk at this point.
• Broken Base: The game being a stage play, along with the various theories pointing towards such before it was officially "confirmed", have been met with all sorts of "ruined childhood" comments with lots of debate within the fandom on which versions of the game it applies to, whether Miyamoto was simply joking as Nintendo staff are prone to doing, and whether it matters in the first place.
• Common Knowledge: There is a possible assumption that Princess Peach is kidnapped from the very beginning of the game as this happens in multiple installments of the Super Mario Bros. series. However, Peach is not abducted until you complete World 7 and is in fact sending you letters from safety.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Boss Bass, a massive, hungry fish who can be found in two of World 3's stages. He moves at an alarmingly fast speed and can swallow Mario in one gulp, instantly costing you a life regardless of your powerup state. Worse yet, if you are unlucky enough to fall into the water, his movement speed will give you maybe a second or two at best to either jump back onto dry land or fry him with a Fire Flower (assuming you have one) before he devours you. And even if you do manage to get rid of him, he'll simply come right back within five seconds, just as hungry as before.
  • Lakitu is much more aggressive in this game than he is in the original Super Mario Bros., now throwing Spinies more than twice as fast as before. If you don't get rid of him quickly, you can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Spinies on-screen. Oh, and he comes back much sooner after being defeated, so don't get too comfortable once you kill him. In addition, he instead throws Spiny Eggs in some levels, which bounce around before rolling along the ground and are annoying to get rid of.
  • Flame Chomps can be this too, flying around spitting fireballs at you and then exploding moments later. It is especially noticeable in stage 5-9.
  • Buster Beetles. They move very quickly, travel in groups, and can pick up and throw Ice Blocks at you, often from off-screen, and with very good aim and almost no time for you to react. Further compounding matters, they tend to hang out in areas where it's very difficult to avoid their attacks as well, especially in the latter half of World 6, where they are most commonly found.
  • Hammer Bros. are already this trope across the series, but World 4 introduces Sledge Bros. — giant Hammer Bros. that shake the ground when they land after jumping, immobilizing you if you're not in the air. The only saving grace is that they don't attack as quickly as regular Hammer Bros. do.
  • Speaking of Hammer Bros., they got a buff in this game as well — instead of throwing hammers at random, they do so at a steady and constant rate, leaving even less room for you to attack them if you forgot your Fire Flower. The GBA remake nerfed them slightly.
  • Fire Bros., while very rare, are a force to be reckoned with. They launch fireballs that are difficult to avoid if you're on the ground and can easily ambush you. The GBA port added several in the e-Reader levels.
• Difficulty Spike: World 3 is significantly harder than the previous two worlds, partially because water levels tend to be harder to begin with, and also due to Boss Bass and Wendy O. Koopa. The difficulty evens out somewhat in World 4, but starts rising again in World 5 and never lets up from then on.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Angry Sun only appears in two levels, but its furious expression and sheer persistence in attacking the player made it one of the most memorable enemies in the game. After only having minor appearances in a few games, it returns in Super Mario Maker 2 as an enemy, along with a Good Counterpart in the form of a moon.
• Even Better Sequel: As important as the first game was, many regard this as the game which really set the bar for how platforming games should be done, and still consider it one of the best games ever made. The secret behind this success is that the game manages to preserve the original formula while introducing several new elements to keep it fresh, so it's neither a Mission-Pack Sequel like Lost Levels nor a Dolled-Up Installment of a considerably different game (though still made by the same development team in charge of Mario games) like Super Mario Bros. 2.
• Fan Nickname: Many fans still use "Doom Ship" to describe not just the airship levels, but the ships present in Super Mario Galaxy and other future Mario games.
• Fanon: As a complimentary theory to the stage play theory, many fans like to theorize that the Super Mario All-Stars remake (and by extension, the GBA port of that remake) is the "canon" version of the events that actually happened, with the original NES version being a dramatized stage play adaptation based on those events (ironically making the remake the one that inspired the original game In-Universe). It helps that most of the stage play aesthetic from the original game has been toned down in the remake, with the minimalistic backgrounds from the original game being replaced with more realistic and natural settings in the remake, adding credence to the theory.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • For older fans, the Koopalings will always be Bowser's biological offspring.
  • The reveal that the game's events are part of a theatrical stage (long theorized due to the many hints provided in the game proper) was met with rejection among fans who feel this undermines the game's legacy.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • This is the first game in the series to start throwing huge numbers of extra lives at you. Here, it's justifiable on the grounds that you'll need them for Worlds 6 to 8, but it began a trend towards Death Is a Slap on the Wrist later in the series, which resulted much later in Super Mario Odyssey just doing away with lives altogether.
  • This game also originated the "jump on their head three times" method of defeating bosses that appeared in many future Mario games. While the bosses in the first half of the game tend to be pretty easy to defeat, starting with World 5 the Boom-Booms get a lot faster and more unpredictable, while the Koopalings gain annoying projectile attacks and/or the ability to cause the screen to shake whenever they jump, making the fights deceptively hard. In future 2D games that kept with this boss battle formula, especially in the New Super Mario Bros. series and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the lower overall difficulty tended to result in a lot of Zero-Effort Boss fights.
• Game-Breaker: The series has its own page.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Rocky Wrenches in the airship levels. They emerge from the ground at set intervals and throw wrenches at you, which can get frustrating to avoid thanks to the autoscrolling and the fact that you often are forced to deal with several at once. On top of that, they respawn after being defeated.
  • Bullet Bills make their return from the first game. However, not only do they move slightly faster this time, but there's a variant called Missile Bills, which turn around mid-flight after they pass you.
  • The Boos make their series debut here. While you're facing them, they'll cover their eyes in fear, but the moment you turn your back, they'll pursue you at an alarming speed, which can get annoying to deal with, especially while you're facing the other hazards in the stage. This of course can be remedied by turning around every now and then, but sometimes you'll end up with Boos on both sides, forcing you to repeatedly look back and forth or just book it past one of them (often into a stage hazard).
  • While the most that Red Paragoombas do are hop around, regular Paragoombas are considerably more annoying, as they drop Micro-Goombas while flying that gimp your jump if they latch onto Mario. The Micro-Goombas will eventually dissipate, and Paragoombas are sitting ducks when they're not flying, but expect your progress to be slowed to a crawl if and when they're flying.
  • Blooper Nannies are similarly accompanied by Blooper Babies, and while it's easy to swim away from them, get too close, and the Blooper Babies will scatter in all four cardinal directions. Unlike Micro-Goombas, though, Baby Bloopers hurt, and are extremely annoying to dodge should they end up being scattered.
  • Fire Snakes can be taken out by a number of things, like tail whips, hammers, and Koopa shells, but if there aren't any in their vicinity, they can't be killed. Even if there are, it's pretty annoying to hit them, since they're constantly jumping at an angle, the height of their jump is completely random, and they're often found in columns of stacked platforms, meaning you have to chase them upwards. Oh, and even if you do take them out, they respawn if you leave the area.
  • Nipper Plants are annoying creatures with unpredictable moving patterns who love to try to jump when you do. Jumping on them isn't a good idea — but they're very easily dispatched by other attacks. This doesn't apply to their fire-breathing brethren who thankfully appear in one level.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The "extended 1-up" glitch that occurs when the tail-wag sound and 1-up sound are merged.
  • There are numerous places in World 7 (often allowing full-stage skipping), Bowser's Castle, and elsewhere where you can walk through a wall. See this video for a sampling (example: 35:00).
  • A fourth Warp Whistle can be obtained in 5-1 using a glitch — but only in the Japanese version of the game.
• Growing the Beard: There's no question that Super Mario Bros. was groundbreaking and revolutionary, and despite the controversial nature of Lost Levels and Super Mario Bros. 2, they too became successful entries; but this game took the formula to new heights (literally). Many elements introduced in this game would become staples in later Mario games. Examples include, but are not limited to:
  • A world map (and the option to choose which stages to play, access minigames, and get special items)
  • More power-ups (instead of only the Mushroom, Fire Flower and Starman)
  • New level themes (namely Palmtree Panic, Macro Zone, Pipe Maze, Remilitarized Zone, and a more explicit form of Lethal Lava Land), leading to greater biome variety
  • Far more varied level design (most notably the introduction of auto-scrolling and diagonally scrolling levels)
  • Several new enemies (like Boos, Thwomps and Chain Chomps)
  • The introduction of the Koopalings
  • Improved controls and a greater level of polish
• I Knew It!: Fans guessed that the game was all a play performed by the characters, going by the curtain screen intro, the bolted in platforms, and the fact that you end each level by literally "exiting stage left". Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that this was indeed true.
• It Was His Sled: Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach at the end of World 7. Yes, that was supposed to be a twist.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans are interested in the Super Mario Advance 4 port purely for the addition of World-e (a special world exclusive to the GBA port that is accessed only via the e-Reader and special e-Reader cards), as it feels like a brand-new mini 2D Mario game. So much so that when Nintendo rereleased the port onto the Wii U Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, the inclusion of World-e with all of its content, including content previously not released overseas, was a big selling point.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "One toot on this whistle will send you to a far away land!" ^note The well-remembered message you get at a secret mushroom house when you find the first available Warp Whistle. The Warp Whistle is such a fondly remembered part of the game, that it has had references in other works like Photoshop contests.
  • "Thank you but our Princess is in another castle!...Just kidding! ha ha ha! Bye bye." ^note The ending screen, making a Shout-Out to the first game's famous message for completing fortresses 1-7.
• Older Than They Think: This is not the first Mario game that lets Mario fly; that was Super Mario Bros. Special, with its wing powerup.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Goomba's Shoe Power-Up only appears in a single level, and technically counts as an enemy, so it can't be taken out of the level. Despite this, it became an instant fan favourite, reappearing in multiple later Mario games and finding widespread use in the Super Mario Maker series.
• Polished Port: Super Mario Advance 4 boasts the upgraded graphics from Super Mario All-Stars as well as adding new levels via e-Reader cards. Though the e-Reader's failure prevented many people from accessing the new levels, the Wii U Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online versions make them all available without the need for an e-Reader. Even the Screen Crunch isn't as bad as in some other GBA ports, as many changes were made to the levels to accommodate the smaller screen. It helps that, by virtue of being released around the time of the Game Boy Advance SP (which boasted a proper front/backlit screen), the game has an original graphics mode where they aren't washed out as they were in the previous Super Mario Advance ports.
• Sacred Cow: Due to it being labeled as one of the best Mario games of all time, criticizing this game in some places will get you an earful.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The complete lack of saving in the original version, even though the game is much bigger than the games before it. You can use Warp Whistles to "resume" your game, but they don't give you back your item inventory, nor do they maintain keyhole door or mini-fortress status. This is a bit glaring, given that several NES games by Nintendo of similar scope before it such as The Legend of Zelda and II and Metroid have saves, whether battery-backed or via passwords. Naturally, every port of the game has save files and every emulation re-release has Suspend Saves (much like other emulation "ports").
  • Super and 1-Up Mushrooms going either left or right depending on which side of the block is hit can really throw off players. This mechanic was immediately removed in every subsequent 2-D Mario game with all mushroom items going to the right by default.
• Signature Scene:
  • Mario turning into Raccoon Mario and being the first instance of flight in a mainline Mario game.
  • From the third level of the first world, ducking on top of a white block as a shortcut to a Warp Whistle.
• Signature Song: It's generally considered to be a toss-up between the Athletic Theme and the Grass Land map theme.
• So Bad, It's Good: World 7's music in the GBA version. For whatever reason it seems the GBA's sound chip could not handle the All-Stars version of the theme as well as the SNES, resulting in a cacophonous tune that sounds "wobbly", for lack of a better term.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The 5-note theme that plays when you lose a life is basically the "E-I-E-I-O" portion of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm".
  • The Airship Theme owes a lot to "Mars, the Bringer of War" from Gustav Holst's The Planets., and its first notes sound a lot like "Over the Rainbow"
• That One Boss:
  • Wendy O. Koopa in World 3 is a considerable step up from her brothers Larry and Morton before her. Instead of casting spells at the player, she uses her wand to shoot candy rings that bounce erratically around the room. Between her very high jumps and the fact that you'll often have to put up with two or three rings bouncing around at once, it can be very frustrating to hit her. She's much easier if you have a Fire Flower, though.
  • Roy Koopa in World 5 isn't much better. Every time he jumps, he'll cause the room to shake, immobilizing you if you're on the ground and effectively giving him a free hit if he's nearby. And every time you hit him, he'll jump up to 3 times in a row. If you're not jumping in sync with him, you effectively cannot avoid getting hit yourself. It also doesn't help that (at least on the NES version) Roy's airship can potentially move to an inaccessible area of the map if you die to him, forcing you to restart the game.
  • Ludwig von Koopa in World 7. Not only is he much more aggressive with his wand than any of the other Koopalings, but just like Roy, he can cause the room to shake with each jump he takes, stunning you if you're on the floor. Worse yet, Ludwig's cabin is laid out in such a way that he'll often take a series of short hops from one side to the other, especially after each time you hit him. This makes it even harder to time your jumps, and if you mess up, it's unavoidable damage. And if you die, you'll have to hop around the islands to catch up with him.
• That One Level:
  • World 3-8 has you contending with sinking and rising platforms as you did in 3-3, only the platforms sink much lower and there are fewer safe spots — some of which are vines that you have to grow — increasing your vulnerability to the resident Boss Bass. There's also more waiting involved by virtue of safe zones going underwater for much longer than usual. Fall off, or fail to grow the vines, and you're very likely to become lunch, particularly if you do not have a Fire Flower.
  • World 5-6 requires you to ride through the sky on Para-Beetles. At least it's optional.
  • World 5-9 combines diagonal autoscrolling, small moving platforms, and Fire Chomps all into one painful level.
  • World 6-5 is simple, but frustrating. It's a puzzle level where you have to find a hidden exit; otherwise, you just keep looping until you time out. Finding the exit requires you to fly up to a pipe and use a shell to clear out several Nippers. The problem is, this level is chock full of enemies, including Buster Beetles that will launch blocks at you from offscreen. If you take a hit and lose the Raccoon Suit, or if the lone Koopa gets killed (by Mario or the Buster Beetles), you'll have to run the loop again, and burn more time in the process.
  • World 7-4. Not only is it an underwater level, the screen scrolls automatically, and there is a minefield of Jelectros you have to maneuver through. Having a Frog Suit makes it slightly easier, at least.
  • World 7-7. Like some earlier stages (such as 7-3), it's a star run stage. Unlike earlier star run stages, you have to pull off a perfect star run because the entire stage is covered in Munchers, and the timing for the run is tight.
  • World 7-8 is lousy with difficult jumps, nearly all of which are complicated by the Piranha Plants that infest literally every pipe in the level. Between the fireballs, Nippers (that also shoot fire, thankfully only in this show), and the bottomless pits, it's difficult to get a moment to breathe.
  • The latter third of World 7 in general will usually be enough to drive all but the most dedicated players to use their Warp Whistle to go to World 8, but the second fortress level can be a poster image for Platform Hell. The general theme of the level is to get across an indoor lava lake by hopping across pipes while being assaulted by Piranha Plant enemies. Some sections have jumps that are almost leaps of faith from the risk of missing your landing.
  • The airship in World 8. It is not like the Koopalings' airships. This one scrolls faster, and consists mostly of small platforms with Rocky Wrenches, and lots of space between them.
  • A Sky-High Adventure from Advance 4 is a nightmare for 100% Completion. The level's end is right in plain sight, so just completing it is no challenge, but trying to get all five Advance Coins is easier said than done, since the entire level is a maze, and you're under a rather tight time limit. Not helping matters are indestructible blocks and invisible walls that make the maze even more perplexing, so trying to nab all five before the time limit runs out is almost impossible on a first playthrough.
  • Castle Dash and No Time to Dawdle, both from Advance 4. The gimmick for both levels is that they're Timed Missions, meaning the player has to make a mad dash to the end. One wrong move, and it's back to the start of the levels. Going for the Advance Coins is even worse, as it requires planning out new paths in split-second reflexes, with No Time to Dawdle requiring the player to come to a complete standstill in order to get the fourth one. Don't even attempt getting all the Advance Coins in No Time to Dawdle in one go as Luigi, as his floatier jump will make getting them all in one try impossible due to its timer being less than half that of Castle Dash.
• That One Sidequest:
  • The White Mushroom Houses. Easy to miss and even easier to fail to meet the coin requirements for. Especially the last two.
  • Treasure Ships are even more of a hassle. Not only do they require having at least one Hammer Bro on the map, meaning they're inaccessible if they've all been defeated, but having one spawn requires a specific score amount that one needs extra attention to prepare for, and casual players likely won't even pay attention to their score.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The Goomba's Shoe, infamously; it's used in exactly one level before vanishing from the whole franchise for years, even though it has a lot of potential. Super Mario Advance 4 added an e-Reader level that uses Goomba's Shoe, but it wouldn't properly return until Super Mario Maker, where the shoe and variations of it can be added to levels. The Hammer Suit counts as well, since it's extremely rare and doesn't appear outside this game, but the love for it surpasses the Frog Suit and even the Tanooki Suit.
• Woolseyism:
  • The Koopalings weren't actually given individual names in the Japanese version of the game. This was added in by the English localization, which explains why the DIC cartoon adaptation gave the Koopalings vastly different names.
  • Princess Peach's line in the ending was a generic "The Day is Saved. Peace has returned to the Mushroom Kingdom" line in the Japanese version, the English version changes it to her teasing line, which makes Peach look like she has a playful sense of humor underneath her royal veneer, something that would actually stick with her later on. Super Mario Advance 4 oddly changes this back to the Japanese line.

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