PixlBit

The finale of the NES trilogy is truly a classic to behold.

Ports and the Cartoon 

SMB3 obviously made it into both All-Stars ports and the Virtual Console, but the visual upgrade was really the only thing that changed in the 16-bit makeover. The GBA port is something of an odd-ball though. While the game plays the same as the All-Stars port, the game made levels a tiny bit easier and also included in the game was a special “E-World” used with the GBA E-Reader. Needless to say, it was nice to have new levels, but using the damn thing was a pain. Making matters worse, Nintendo didn’t release the rest of the E-Reader cards in North America. It wasn’t a bad port, but the E-Reader flopping and being discontinued shortly after the game’s release was a bit of a sour note for me.

Like SMB2 USA, SMB3 got a cartoon by DiC called “The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.” While the cartoon was a tiny step above Super Mario Bros. Super Show, it still wasn’t any good; the Koopaling designs were odd as were their names (Wendy and Roy were the only ones in design that remained close to the official game artwork), and every episode was basically “save the real world from the Koopas.” The one episode that the series is (in)famous for is the episode where Milli Vanilli guest starred in, before their lip syncing scandal was brought to the forefront of the music industry. Included in each episode was also a Scooby-Doo chase sequence with a song sung by the Koopalings, which sounded awful. Due to the fact these songs were licensed, anyone who watched the episodes when they originally aired will notice the DVD sets do not have the songs in the episode.