Year released: 1986 (NES)

Number of Players: 1-2 taking turns

Mario. Luigi. Go defeat Bowser and free the the kingdoms within the Mushroom Kingdom, will ya?

Graphics: Amazing fluidity of sprite animation for Mario and Luigi. Mario and Luigi's colors aren't perfect, though (orange fire suits, black overalls). What's done is done (most of the time) with the right colors (minus shading) and with a nice black outline. Super Mario Bros. 3, as far as NES games go, is rivaled (as far as my knowledge goes) only by Kirby's Adventure and Mega Man 6. Most graphics are sunny unless underground or on a Doomship.

Play control: Control pad left and right to move, hold B to run, A to jump, hold to jump higher and bounce higher off of enemies. Suits have special powers (throwing something or whipping your tail) that are accessed by pressing the B button. Mario and Luigi's jumps are much more controllable in mid-air than they were in Super Mario Bros.

Sound: Not amazing, but there are some slightly catchy tunes. The NES' instruments are finally used to argue against those who say NES music is bland. Some sound effects seem new to me.

Challenge: Hop and bop through eight worlds of koopas and many other stompables (along with some unstompables). There more than four stages a world this time around, meaning this game takes forever to beat. No save feature, either. The length of the game allows for some crazy difficulty, but after your first time through the game, it's all a lot easier. Mario and Luigi get powered-up suits to help them out, thank goodness, and they'll need to take advantage of the greater control allowed in the jumping engine, too.

Gameplay: This game operates on thrill similar to Super Mario Bros.--the game overwhelms the brothers with obstacles, and the Mario Bros. job is to haul their butt from point A to point B. Normal stages require preciser timing (sometimes mid-air, sometimes within a given time limit [grab blocks dissolve in so many seconds after grabbing them], sometimes with both), underwater scenarios get hairier, and boss levels use a lot more projectiles. That's not going into much depth... but you get the point. Without the enhanced jumping engine and better powers (which include fire-throwing, flying, becoming invisible to enemies, and some others), this game would get as savage as Super Mario Bros. 2: Super Mario Bros. for Super Players (also known as the Lost Levels).

Bottom line: Super Mario Bros. on a grander scale in every way.

Submissions and rebuttals should be e-mailed to nintendofanssite@yahoo.com. Proper credit will be given, and please tell me if you don't want your e-mail revealed on the site.