Last in the current run of Mario games for this portion of the challenge, we have one of the most popular entries in the entire Mario series. The one that really properly introduced most of the structure we would see in 2D Mario for decades to come. If you think to most Mario tropes, there's a good shot that this is the one where it originated from.

By this point, Mario fever was practically in full swing now, to the point that the movie The Wizard basically exists for the sole 5 minute scene of Mario 3 being introduced at the end. The idea of a entire full-blown movie being created just to reveal a game is such a bizarre oddity is something that could only happen in the late 80s/early 90s, and is a testament to how far the Mario series had truly grown by this point.

For me, my history with Mario 3 begins again with the Game Boy Advance - where I played Super Mario Bros Advance 4, again - a remake of the game with new sprite work, features, and even now famously - brand new levels. But again, given the rest of this was all done on the All-Stars version via SNES Online, I decided to just continue on from there. So I more or less just played the original game with enhanced graphics for this run. 

But with that said - there isn't many NES games that I would particularly like to go back to play, but Super Mario Bros 3 is one of the exceptions to the rule. There's a massive reason why it has stood the test of time to become one of the most fan-beloved Mario titles of all time, and it's because it's just a genuinely well-designed game, with great sprite work, a ton of varied content for the time period, a neat little hidden story that was later revealed by Miyamoto, and is just all around a fantastic evolution of the series to date.

From the very start, the graphical leap from Mario 1 to Mario 3 is just completely night and day, with a bold outlined art-style that would further evolve the Mushroom Kingdom and push the graphics on the NES, with thankfully not a ton of slowdown that other games such as Mega Man and Kirby's Adventure would experience for pushing the console so much. Just about everything has seen a evolution at this point. We have new power ups such as the Tanooki Suit, Hammer Suit, and the Frog suit. There's actually some story this time around with the Koopalings transforming all of the rulers of the Mushroom Kingdom, along with Peach helping Mario this time via various power ups. 

There's the fact that the game had a ton of hints within it implying the story was actually a stage play, which was actually later confirmed as intended by Miyamoto. The bosses this time around are more varied, with the Koopalings and Boom-Boom acting as other bosses, rather than just Bowser. Even Bowser got a new sprite and a new fight to go along with it. 

There's the map screen now, which became a staple of the series from this point onwards, adding a little more to the world-building of the series and adding some exploration and choosing to the game's structure. You can now play minigames such as matching cards, and fighting enemies in order to get power-ups and extra lives. Hell, mentioning world-building - this is the very first game that introduced the now famous world structure of the series, with a grass land, desert, water world, so on so forth. Each world has it's own visual style and gimmick that does miracles in breaking the repetition that previous games had, making the game a lot more refreshing to play the game, with even creative ideas such as the Giant world. 

Honestly, what else can I really say? Mario 3 is one of the most famous retro games of all time. Famous for being such a fantastic game during a early era, and introducing and establishing so much of what the series' foundation would go on to be, and be built upon. It's a impressive game for it's era, and a game that's managed to stand the test of time when the other games haven't particularly done so in my opinion, and it's gameplay polished to a fine sheen.

The only problem I can really levy at Mario 3 isn't even really it's fault - and it's the fact that so many of these level tropes would be so overdone and reused by future games that it reduces how novel and great these tropes were for the time. But even then, doing a playthrough the other games before playing this game does a really good job of making it clear just how much of a evolution Mario 3 was for the time. Great game, that I recommend anyone to give a shot.