The Map

The last couple entries were crazy long and had no heart. Today I’m changing that. Today we talk about the map.

We have come to expect a map in games like these but up until this point all we had were linear level after linear level. The map introduces something very important to Mario Bros, skippable levels. Notice that from level 2 you can move straight to the fortress. You probably want to do level 3 to get the warp whistle and get into Toad’s first house, but you’ll also probably skip 4 altogether with it’s cursed moving level design. What’s really important is that you get to choose at all. Modern games would never let you skip sections at your discretion. No sir.

Doing the Mario part 2

I gave your a crash course in moving Mario Yesterday but there is still some stuff you need to know before we can move forward.

Speaking of moving forward, You need to know about the P-Meter. Running fast builds up your P-Meter letting you do the biggest jump in any Mario game. For the record, the ‘P’ stands for ‘Power’ in this instance. This lets you dash over small gaps in the terrain and it also enables the Jet-Coaster Jump.

The Jet-Coaster jump is a variation of the regular P-Meter jump that can only be used on a ramp at the end of a long slope. These spots are rare but must be used when you get to them. Otherwise you’ll end up in the drink. Anyway, you don’t want to miss it, as this is one of those fleeting tricks in the game that is too much fun to pass up.

To survive trickier areas you’ll need to know how to do a Duck Slide. When a you see an area that only tiny-Mario can fit through, but you’re big this is how you get through. Run right at it and then duck while still holding right. You should slide forward just enough to get through. Failing that if you stand up in an area you don’t fit then you’ll just slip toward the right till you get free.

You can also squat while jumping. The upshot of that is your hittable area is halved so you can dodge all those Bullet-Bills near the end.

Do The Mario

Lesson time. If we’re gonna play Mario for real then we gotta know the man’s moves. The basics are simple B runs, A jumps, and the D-Pad moves you. Got that? Good. Those buttons are what makes this Mario.

Moving on we need to use some pipes. In SMB we could go down pipes and walk into pipes but now we’ve got to be able to jump into a pipe from bellow. Just hold up as you jump towards it. There will be some tricky pipe puzzle later on so get used to it.

Busting blocks works like it always did including the bop-under technique. You can now bounce off of enemies to get a huge boost into the air. Kicking shells works the same too. You shouldn’t have any trouble with these.

Oh, and you can pick up a shell for the first time. Just hold B and try it. You’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

Crazy as it seems another new addition in Mario 3 is slanted land. In SMB everything was flat blocks but here we can slide down slopes to take down enemies. (for extra fun face backwards and slide butt first) You’ll also need to master Climbing (hold UP at vines), Opening Doors (press UP in front of doors), ducking (press DOWN).  Oh and be sure to dash over

Swimming works just like in SMB except now you can jump out of the water. Whole levels had to be water before, now they can be small areas or much larger play areas. Jumping out of the water may not seem like a big deal but it opens up a lot of new gameplay scenarios.

Much thanks to Nintendo for producing such an excellent manual for SMB3. I carried mine with me almost everywhere as a kid. The illustrated section of the bad guys is only topped by the Metroid manual in coolness.

Mario As You Know Him

To understand the greatness of Mario 3 we must first understand the original Super Mario Bros that came before it. Imagine yourself as a kid in March of 1986 sitting in front of your NES playing SMB for the first time ever. You would have no idea what you where in for. (and if you were me you weren’t born quite yet) Still, the game gives you everything you need to know as you need it.

You start out on the left side of the screen facing right. If you move right then the screen follows, if you move left then you go nowhere. Good, now we know where to go. Now we see our first enemy. If we continue right we’ll collide with him so we jump for the first time. We could avoid him or we could jump on him, it doesn’t matter as long as we survive. Now for some blocks. As tiny Mario we can’t break any blocks but we can hit a “?” block and get a mushroom and get big to break the rest.

From that point we know everything necessary to beat the game. The first level also introduces: fire flowers, starmen, pipes, hidden areas, pits, hidden 1up mushrooms, coins, and more. After the first level the only things we see for the first time are new enemies, lifts, lava, Bowser, warp zones, and water levels. The first level has almost everything there is to see in the game.

Mario 3 takes the opposite approach. At every turn you get something new. That’s why I’m able to promise a 200 part series without panicking. The original SMB can be considered a tutorial for SMB3. The linear nature of SMB is lifted in SMB3 and without the learned background we might stumble. Good thing we know how to dive right in.

New Years Blog-olutions

Oh that’s bad. I’ll leave the blog based portmanteaus to the cable news networks. That’s my first resolution. (and probably first to be broken) My second and hopefully seen to completion resolution is much bigger. I’m going to be posting a 200 part series on the best videogame of all time Super Mario Bros 3.

Every week day I’ll be posting something (anything) about the game including secrets, tips and commentary on every single level in the game. If that doesn’t sound great then you NEED to read it. SMB3 is more than you ever imagined and it’s worth the ultimate in tributes: 200 Days of Mario 3

Warning: The length of these posts will vary wildly. I can talk for hours and hours about this game and I am trying to spread that evenly over the next year. The first few posts will be especially long as I set up the rest of the series. Also: I will still be posting other updates, I really just want to make sure I have SOME regular content on the site.