Why Super Mario Bros 3 is one of the greatest games ever made

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Put on your Tanooki Suit and get ready to fly

What we really remember Super Mario Bros 3 for are all the little moments. There’s the shock of seeing the angry sun come to life in 2-3 as you start a mad dash to the end of the stage. There was the urgency of the first autoscrolling level, witnessing the platforms move while you were still planning your jumps. How about reaching the top of the tower in Sky Land to see a second world map that’s up in the cloud? Or the first time a giant hand popped up to grab Mario on the World 8 map?

We don’t rank Mario 3 so high on our lists and name it the best Mario game ever because of its historical/cultural significance or because virtually every game in the genre that followed was inspired by it. We do it because it encompasses everything that we love about Mario games. The exploration, the creativity, the colorful worlds, the challenge; it’s all there. The Mario games that followed SMB3 built on it meaningfully with stupendous additions, but ultimately they were merely adding extra paint to an already perfect canvas.

If you want to know why the world loves Mario, play Super Mario Bros 3. The rest is secondary.

"Why _____ is one of the best games ever made" is a weekly feature that goes through GamesRadar's list of the 100 best games of all time and highlights different titles, explaining why they're on the list, what makes them so amazing, and why we love them so much.

Henry Gilbert
Henry Gilbert

Henry Gilbert is a former GamesRadar+ Editor, having spent seven years at the site helping to navigate our readers through the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. Henry is now following another passion of his besides video games, working as the producer and podcast cohost of the popular Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon podcasts.