Super Mario Bros. 3 takes this franchise to the next level. Not only does this set the groundwork for most future Mario platformers, it is able to stand on its own as THE Mario NES game. I really enjoy the first Mario, but even that one can sometimes feel a little more like an arcade game than console. This one however feels like a console game. With the heavy amounts of extra things like minigames and rewards to the world map, it's shocking that this came out on the NES. It does have that NES feel while also standing the test of time and feeling like a game that would feel welcome coming out today. I have some criticisms like the entirety of World 6 was pretty weak to me. I hated the blue and white striped backgrounds and there were too many autoscroll levels. World 8's autoscroll levels with the tanks sucked too, but other than that the levels were fantastic. There was a lot of variety and each world has a specific trait to it. It's rare now to find a platformer like that, and Mario 3 did it in the 80s. While I don't think Mario 3 is a perfect game like some do, I sure as heck find it close to that as its a phenomenal platformer that was groundbreaking and stands the test of time!