Retrospective: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

One of my absolute fondest memories of Christmas morning was back in December of 1990.  I can’t recall if it was my first or last present – if it was last, it was not due to my own choice, I’m sure – but I can always remember how it felt.

For those of us who still get our Christmas presents gift-wrapped and handed to us (and not in envelopes), we all know the sensation of looking at a particular gift and recognizing the shape.  The shape of a jewel case, the shape of a clothing box, the shape of a bowling ball.  There are shapes we all recognize and really get excited for when we see them, for then we start to wonder what it could be.  In the late-80’s/early-90’s, for me, this shape was the one inch thick, five inch long and five inch wide rectangular box all NES games came in.

I’d gotten many of these boxes over the years, holding many games (ultimately, my NES game collection peaked at around thirty).  But this particular one that I remember so fondly, I remember because it wasn’t wrapped by itself.  A thinner, larger rectangle encompassed it, and I remember a feeling of confusion until I finally ripped the package open.

“Super Mario Bros. 3″.  Mario, in all his mustachioed glory, flying against a yellow background, with a pair of ears and a brown-and-black raccoon’s tail trailing behind.  Accompanied with its companion strategy guide.  Unimaginable joy that, finally, after ten months of the game being available, I finally have it.  I can finally play it.

I guess it goes to show how much of an impact video games had on me as a kid.  I remember sneaking out of bed, going downstairs to the kitchen, and trying to sneak as many seconds, minutes, hours (ha!) of gameplay in before my father swooped in and shepherded me off to bed again.  There I was, bathed in the glow of CRT radiation, trying to be as quiet as a kid can be playing a video game.  I would do this frequently.  It’s silly, in retrospect, but I was still only six, seven years old then.

Of course, playing the game nowadays doesn’t have that same thrill any more.  It’s not even like the game is ingrained, like I played so often I could beat it in my sleep.  I miss jumps, I run into enemies, and I die more often than I remember I used to.  I can’t even get that far in Super Mario Bros. 1 nowadays.  How hard can a game be when you can only go right?

But I still love watching that intro.  Hearing the overworld music in each world.  Flying and swimming and Kuribo’s-Shoeing.  Pounding the seven Koopa kids into submission.  The whistles and the hidden areas.  The mini-games and the mini-boss battles.  THE GAUNTLET.  Letting Bowser have it.

Super Mario Bros. 3 was the pinnacle of video games at the time.  And, to me, it still is atop the short, Nintendo-dominated list of best 8-bit games.  And I’ll never forget that Christmas day when I popped in the cartridge and heard the Grass Land Overworld theme for the first time.