SMB3 Facts and Stuff!

As of 2011, Super Mario Bros. 3 remained the highest-grossing non-bundled home video game to that date, having grossed a massive $1.7 billion dollars in sales! So with these crazy stats in mind it’s time to Grab your warp whistles, Goomba boots and Racoon leafs as we jump into one of the most popular video games of all time!

Video at the bottom!

Number 10 – Pink Mario

Hiding amongst the games data are these 2 unused Mario sprites! These are pretty close to Mario’s final look except for his rather dashing pink overalls! Also hidden were these two unused enemies! That’s right, we nearly had a group of faster swimming Gold Cheep Cheeps and a faster Green Para Beetle!

Number 9 – Centaur Mario

An amusing early idea for a power up included Super Mario being able to turn into a Centaur! Obviously this idea didn’t make it into the development stage, but it’s fun to think about the graphics for this, not to mention the different gaming direction this could have sent Mario down.

Number 8 – Muncher Madness

If you played Super Mario Bros 3 on your original Nintendo or Super Nintendo you might have noticed the neat trick of being able to hit a Muncher with your racoon tail and having it turn into a block! This functionality was removed however when the game was ported over to the Game Boy Advance.

Number 7 – Kuribo Power

If you enter level 5-3 with your Tanooki suit on and drop into a Kuribo’s Shoe whilst you are Statue Mario you will be invincible for the rest of the level! This bug was fixed in the Game Boy advance version however where Mario will revert to regular Tanooki if you attempt it. A little side note, “Kuribo’s Shoe” is actually the Japanese name for the power-up that was left unchanged in the English release. Kuribo is the Japanse name for Goomba!

Next up at Number 6 – Map Mysteries

Super Mario Brothers 3 is a game full of secrets and hidden details and this extends to the level over view maps too! If we take a closer look at World 4 (Giant Land) it is actually shaped like a Koopa Troopa as neatly highlighted in this image! World 7 (Pipe Land) is shaped like pipes itself and even the Island that houses the castle in World 3 resembles Japan, with the castle position itself reflecting the location of Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto!

Number 5 – Chain Chomp Escape

If you have a little bit of spare time one day, sit back and watch a chain chomp for a while. After 49 escape attempts, Chain Chomps will actually break free!

Number 4 – Misleading Box Art

If you were really banking on playing the game shown in the box art you were in for a bit of disappointment! The screen shot shown of the first world map was taken during game development and shows a series of different paths available when compared to the final game’s cut. As for the second screen shot, well this just doesn’t feature in the game at all!

Number 3 – Lost Bonus Games

Using a map editor one can modify the Spade bonus game and access bits of two lost Bonus games! These 2 lost mini games were some kind of question block game and also a dice game. It seems like the original plan was to load the mini games with one of 3 different hosts, a different background and then the different bonus game types. This would have been a cool little addition but I guess they ran out of time, space or both.

A little side fact about the matching card game, since we are on the topic of mini games! For every 80,000 points you rack up, this card matching game appears. It might surprise you to hear that there are only 8 different variations!

Number 2 – King’s Messages

If you want to set yourself a little Super Mario Brothers 3 challenge try beating the airships with your Hammer suit, Tanooki suit or Frog suit on. Aside from a fun little task, the King’s will also give you a different message for each of these suits! For the Hammer suit the King will ask to borrow your clothes and for the Tanooki and Frog suits he will think you have been transformed into those respective animals!

Number 1  – Boo Creation

Super Mario Brothers 3 was actually the first introduction of our now beloved Boo, originally named Boo Diddleys! Interestingly these characters were actually based off the game designer Takashi Tezuka’s wife, who apparently would normally be quite shy and timid around people but also had an explosive temper, especially when Tezuka spent too much time at work! Mr. Miyamoto gave this quote during an interview with Nintendo Power Magazine when talking about the introduction of Boo Diddleys: “Mr. Tezuka got an idea about putting his wife in the game. His wife is very quiet normally, but one day she exploded, maddened by all the time he spent at work. In the game, there is now a character who shrinks when Mario looks at it, but when Mario turns away, it will grow large and menacing.” I guess it’s at least nice that he wanted to add his wife to the game though!

Prefer videos? Watch below and don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube!