Let’s get one thing straight, I am not a journalist, astonishing I know, but true. I do not write for a living, neither about video games, or other, real-life based subjects. In a similar vein, this is not a review. ‘Review’ gives the pretense of some level of reason, logic and balance. No, this is closer to a gushing love-letter to a long-lost soul-mate. Or a video-game you really liked.
Let me count the ways...
Sure, it wasn’t as pioneering as Super Mario Bros, not as universally adored as Super Mario World nor did it redefine a genre as Super Mario 64 did. However, to me it still surpasses anything that came before or has been encountered since. Why? There are things that evoke memories like nothing else. Going back to your hometown, hearing the song that defined that summer, also smells apparently. SMB3 does all sorts of things to me that make me feel all fuzzy inside.
This game to me is more than an old relic of a hobby, it’s my time machine. It takes me back 10+ years to my Grandma’s dining room. Endless hours spent throwing the NES pad side to side. Long before the Wii revolution, my Grandparents were the first in our family to own a video game system – the Nintendo Entertainment System. With that, came Super Mario Brothers 3. There were others of course, but they were mere pretenders, this was the game that would have me hooked for many years to come and plant the seeds of a passion held in various degrees, probably for the rest of my life.
I remember the opening credits. I remember the worlds. I remember the whistles, the secret areas and 99 lives in Pipe-World. Most of all, I remember never getting to complete the game. So many times we came close, only to run out of lives or time, or more often than was acceptable, we would accidentally turn off the console, spelling doom for the last console with no save function.
Predictably in the your years to come, my gaming ‘skills’ have been honed and I have myself managed to complete the game on different platforms, in different ways and at many different times. But it’s not the same, it never will be. My Grandpa passed away years ago, he never did see me get to the end of the game. He never got to see me finish school, he never saw me make my own home with his grand-daughter-in-law, he never saw the birth of his great-grand-daughter. Maybe, next time I fire up the NES on top of my cupboards, I will pull myself away at the last minute and dedicate my failure to him.
Things I Don't Know 