Super Mario Bros. 3

A game so good they made a movie about a runaway boy and his autistic brother to introduce it.

This game is so good it throws in the original Mario Bros arcade game so you can bullshit challenge your brother for their turn. I vividly remember getting the NES at Canadian Tire (Nintendo was EVERYWHERE) around Christmas 1991 and just becoming the game.

Easily the greatest platformer on the NES. The tightly designed levels that usher you along while still providing room for exploration are particularly impressive. I just wish it had a save system and some way to revisit cleared levels.

A masterpiece of side-scrolling invention. Upon every new discovery - a frog suit here, a Warp Whistle there - the game seemed larger than the cartridge. You could play the same level over the course of years and discover something new. That's magic.

I can't say anything bad about this masterpiece. To this day I can still name the worlds in order without having to look it up: grass desert water giant sky ice pipe dark. It plays so well. The world design is great both in the gameplay/challenge sense and in evoking a wonderful charming mood. How fun was it to get those special suits (frog/hammer/tanooki)? You were always sad to lose them but getting them was like reconnecting with an old friend.

Still my favorite game.

"Videoooo...Arrrrmageddonnnnn!!!"

We didn't need anymore proofs of concept. We didn't need anymore Famicom/NES tech demos. What was left was a master class of great design, interesting visuals, and a total package that would still rank near the top of anyone's best platformers of all time list. Considering it came out for a console that was flooded with platformers, that says a lot.

SMB3 moved away from the mindset of arcades, into creating bigger experiences that you could explore from your living room; a big world map, a persistent inventory, lots of neat powerups, mechanics that recover progress after a game over, and most of all, moving away from unfair quarter-munching difficulty to puzzles that encourage exploration. The change wasn't done - the airship punished game overs, and there really needed to be a battery-backed save. But it was still a lovely leap forward.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is undoubtedly the best in the NES era Mario series. It's got some fantastic level design and the game gets harder as it goes on rather than the occasional hard level here and there.