Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)

I gave myself the goal of finishing as many mario games as possible, starting with the mario bros trilogy and lord almighty it's taking a long time. So many levels. So many hard levels too that I wasn't expecting. Some of them are insanely cruel and offer little to no hints or direction in terms of their design. It isn't a case that the core mechanics aren't explained, it's just more a case of "but why would I do that" when there isn't anything really pointing you in a specific direction.

Screw these two levels in particular. I'm finally on to the last segment of the game now. More relieved than anything.

The level with the moving blocks isn't particularly hard design wise, I actually like that when you go off one side of the screen you appear on the other side. What I dislike is how the block with the explanation mark isn't explained very well. I think there's two or three of them in the level and I must have missed the first one because by the time I got to the second one I had no idea what I was supposed to do, I didn't even know that jumping on it made a moveable block appear because it's slightly hidden under a platform meaning you have to go out of your way to glide on to it. Perhaps they were expecting you to discover it as you move from the left hand side of the screen to the right hand screen as you'd have to jump over the gap, but I just used the screen looping mechanic I described earlier to go from left to right, effectively avoiding the middle of the screen.

Forgot that I was trying to playthrough all of the classic Mario games and whilst playing Super Mario Bros 3 just now I realised that if I press Y on the map screen it brings up a selection menu?

Only figured this out because I just did a level where peach sent me a letter and enclosed some kind of magical object, so I was hitting buttons randomly to see if I could access it

But anyway, I'm a frog now.

On a serious note, does anyone know how you obtain these things? Is it through the mini games or end of level box thing where you jump to try and select an object?

Also has anyone else been in this scenario where they've randomly discovered a feature of a game completely by accident despite having played the game before?

Beat again on SNES Super All Stars version. I played this a lot back in the 90s and would say it was my most played NES game. Can't remember if I owned it but I know my cousin owns it. 2 player games were common. This time I used save states to not only have 0 deaths but as few power up losses as possible. Ended up with 99 lives. I got the whistle in World 2 but never used it. I instead beat every stage and probed around as much as possible for secrets. The racoon tail was my favorite power up because of flight, slower falling and lateral attack; really helps with secrets and platforming. I later upgraded to the racoon suit, whose invulnerable form can come in handy at times. Fireball form is good for defeating enemies, especially piranha plants, aquatic enemies and hammer bros, but is not as useful as the tail. The frog suit is great for underwater speed and getting into pipes with a repulsive current. I used it for most of world 3, which was a bad idea for many stages. I used inventory items kinda liberally. The clouds were worthless because I wanted to beat every stage. Music boxes are good for levels with lots of piranha plants but I did not remember which levels to use the for; world 7 is the place to save them for. I used stars to easily kill hammer bros. Mushrooms are not worth keeping and I got rid of them all in world 7 because I could not get past 1 stage without taking a hit; with one with lots of stars that you use to run across those little biting plants. Used a the occasional fire flower and leaf, a couple frog suits (with a few still in reserve) and 1 racoon suit with 1 left over. I found 3 hammer suits and used 1 for Bowser's castle; it killed every enemy in 1 hit and easily wrecked Bowser. I can't remember using that at all back in the 90s. I like how powerful it is but it is too rare to risk for most levels.

For some reason world 4 is my favorite and most memorable. Something about the novelty of giant enemies, blocks and scenery. I felt that world was too short and the whole giantness thing was underused. I always wanted more giant stuff. My favorite stages overall are the 1st 2 in world 8; the tanks and lava ships, because they look so much like real world military vehicles, and that is cool. The other tank stage, and the airships, were just too unrealistic. The game took the excellent patience rewarding gameplay of the original Super Mario and enhanced it with a much greater sense of exploration. The best parts of the game are the secrets you can find in each stage and on the world map, as well as the more general sense of progression through the worlds. The only flaws in the game (other than lack of saving in the NES version) are the time limits and inability to revisit stages without starting the entire game over, both of which hurt the exploration. The mini bosses could have used more variety, but that is not a big deal. One of the best games of all time.

9.5+/10