Jimmy! Watch the mushrooms! Let's Play Super Mario Bros. 3!

#5: Gettin' Some Tail

Where Red gets paranoid about raccoon power, does several things he's not used to doing, and totally tries to hype the audience for later.

I don't have the strategy guide on-hand tonight, but I think that Boo-like enemy in the fortress is called Stretch or something, if I remember right.

The Mario wiki seems to confirm this, but I'm not sure:

Quote:

The world also introduces a very rare Boo known as a Stretch.

No no no, this here?


That's the infamous Boobeam Trap you always hear people griping about.

I've heard it referred to as a Boo Bar.

And Red, the "get the star" joke is getting kinda old.

I appreciate you letting me know!

#6: I Did It For Tanooki

Where Red backtracks through a level, doesn't have faith in the Frog Suit, and finally does something not in the NES version.

In the cartoon, Wendy O. Koopa (or Kootie Pie Koopa) disguised herself with magic to become Mario's dream girl. She still had a tail. Just sayin'

#7: Hammer Time

Where Red does amazing things with a frog suit, gets intimate with a bullet, and probably rambles about one level for far too long.

#8: Grounded for Life

Where Red proves that rock beats fire, goes for the double shoe combo, and meets the rare detached pipe.

#9: The Silent Cupcakes
aka: How not to impress your girlfriend with Super Mario Bros 3

Where Red is recording live with an audience, still knows the secret to getting suits, and, seriously dude, what's up with the lives?

on hiatus

#10: Wouldn't It Be Cool?

Where Red becomes intimately familiar with a few holes, doesn't remember a few secrets, and has a startling revelation about Spikes.



A couple thoughts that came up in the conversation, maybe people can share their thoughts.

First, World 6 is my personal 'least known' World, so I'm curious what others experiences are there. World 7 is a second place for me.

Secondly, this game seems smaller, shorter now, but back in the day it was this huge beast. What do you guys think?

Super Mario Bros. 3 was unprecedented in its size. The first game had 24 levels, the second had 39 (but 12 of those were locked behind beating the game eight times in one sitting), and Mario USA had fewer than either of them (even if the levels were more expansive).

Mario 3 has 88 levels, six different power-up suits to the originals' one, and a healthy sense of mystery. You can go through an entire game without seeing a single N-spade, coin ship, or Hammer Bros suit. Super Mario World always seemed scaled back to me in comparison, with 73 levels and two final power-up forms. (In fact, SMB3 might still hold the record for number of levels, but I'm not about to do the legwork to confirm that.)

The first one had 32 levels, didn't it? 8 worlds, 4 stages each?

Yes. I got mixed up when doing the math with Mario 2. Change the Lost Levels numbers to 52 and 16, too.

Even so, its weird to see the game as this little 3-4 hour jaunt when it seemed like it took months of playing to get far enough to see the later worlds when I was a kid.

I have a lot of that with the Game Boy games I've LP'd, too. You play so much of the game, and replay the earlier parts so many times, and it's not like you're keeping track of how much time you play before your mom screams at you to put down the games and go outside. It's just "a lot". And then you go back and play the game with adult reflexes and Gamefaqs maps and suddenly it's so small and short.

Considering my having only beat the game once I cannot say much about how long SMB 3 is. I did play it quite a bit on the SNES, but since you can pick which world you play once you reach that world I usually just have fun with it.

What shocks me is how much more fun I have with platformers than other people I know, who just cannot have fun if they are not shooting something.

SMB3 is one of those games where half of the worlds are completely unknown to me because of warp whistles. Like who plays world 4 or 8?

You... what?

Four is the giant one right? And eight is the pipe one? If so they're the ones we always skipped

7 is the pipe one I believe, as 8 is bowser's world.

Not a fan of 7 honestly, but I was under the impression that world 4 was one of the most popular.

Okay, I meant 7. Whenever I find myself in 7 I'm completely lost. This is also the case for 4 as well. 3 (water?) is another popular world to skip

The early levels were pretty fun in that game, even the water levels which typically fill me with anxiety. I don't love ice physics which was stacking my opinion against world 6, and the last two worlds weren't that great in my eyes.

Except world 8's ambush tiles. Scared me when I first saw them.

Yeah, I'm not with you on that one, False. I always warped to 4 as soon as possible and then stopped playing after beating a couple levels because it was dinner time.

I'm too old to fight about SMB3

What Beowulf said.

Also, Red - you seem to have this habit of moving Mario back and forth on the world map without actually going to the next location while you're talking. To be honest it really drives me nuts.

I think we can all agree it is pretty great you can basically skip to the end whenever you want.

indeed!

Now everybody hug

I try to maintain my illusion of the game's scope by never using any save features when playing it. I mean, that's how I did it when I was 6, so that's how I'll do it forever. I either get to the end in a sitting (warp whistles or straight through, depending on mood) or I don't get to the end at all!

Great LP, BTW. Lots of fun to follow.

You might be able to call this a Valentines Day gift to Cupcakes.


#11: These Pipes Are Clean

Where Red uses a lot of Frog Suit, admits to farming lives the hard way, and might need to make Mario chillax.