The Mario cartoon post got me thinking about this: did anybody around here ever finish Super Mario Bros 3 on the old 8-bit Nintendo?

This was the one that came out around 1990 and featured the flying racoon suit, frog suit and other weird crap. I found my copy a few weeks ago and remembered that I had never finished it. The finish had some dark, dreary castle, with laser-shooting gargoyles that always killed me.

I finished Super Mario 2 and the original Super Mario, but gave up on Super Mario 3 around 1992. Frustrating, because I even finished the mind-numbingly stupid "Raiders of the Lost Arc" for Atari, but Super Mario 3 always elluded me. So did any of you young buckaroos finish it off? If so, how the hell did you do it?

Yes, quite a few times too. However, World 7 (Ludwig Von Koopa's) was always a bitch to get through for me. If I could get by the fortress in World 8, it was clear sailing from there. I still have my old NES copy, as well as on Mario All-Stars on SNES and the Mario Advance 4 with new levels courtesy of the e-Reader. :)

Hell yes I did.

Its very easy, if you know what to do once you get to the final world...8 I think?

Well you have the airship, which is easiest if you have a P-Wing and can fly through the whole thing. If not, it is doable anyway. The lava ship has a trick to it. Right as it starts, you run off of the ship into the lava. You won't die. You can swim underneath the ship, and as long as you keep up with it, swim through the whole level. Its been a LONG time since I've played this, so I might be a little off.

If you're just referring to the castle itself...I think it is a maze version, where you have to pick the correct doors in succession. And I'll be damned if I remember how. But yeah, beat Mario 3 MANY times.

You mentioned beating Mario 2, which I vividly remember doing one and only one time. Man Mario 2 sucked. What the hell were they trying?

Hells yeah! I've beaten Mario 3 numerous times. The only levels that I hate are the underwater stage in World 7, and the fortress stage in World 8.

Nope. It was either the air force or the navy that always tripped me up in the final world.

Yeah, Plant World (World 7) was a real bitch to get through. That sounds like a fun challenge that I don't recall. Defeating Mario 3 with no warp whistles. Hmmmm.

The final castle (Bowser's stage) is tough, but doable if you don't rush at some points. It's basically a lot of careful timed jumps for the most part, plus the gargoyles.

For the record, this is probably the Mario game I've played the most. So awesome. Mario Brothers 2 I found to be harder, mainly because of shit like World 5 Level 1 where you have to jump across the waterfalls on those fish characters.

I beat part 3 too.................and I always thought that it was the easiest Mario to conquer too.

I think Super Mario World and Mario RPG beat out Mario 3 as far as playtime goes. I probably Mario Land 2 more as well.

Super Mario World was great, but I've only played that about 5 times in the last couple of years. Mario 3 is always on hand for me. Mario RPG has more time devotion of course, but once you beat it, there's a long delay before playing it again.

Yeah, I think it was Bowser's castle that always got me. I remember figuring out the maze and door sequence... but when I got to the very end, I always got zapped. I tried the timing method, but never got past those zapping stone gargoyles. I tried playing it when I was homeless a few months ago..but I had forgotten how to use all the different suits and where to go. So I switched to Tecmo Super Bowl and went 19-0 with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Mario 2 was alot of fun, I thought. If you knew which character to use for which level, it was easy to get through. I don't remember the exact configuration, but I know that the Princess was great for Level 4 with the whales. Fun tune and animation at the end.

It was always fun getting a massive amount of extra lives on the slot machine between levels.

Ha! I had forgotten about that. We would joke that Mario was now an Italian degenerate who threw people around and blew all his money on slot machines.

I'm trying to recall the laser shooting gargoyles.....and if memory serves me right, you just run straight by them at full speed.

And Super Mario World probably wins out for me. Yoshi rules, the cape rules, and Star-Road and the bonus place rules too.

Yeah, I've finished it numerous times. The most recent case was when I played it with my girlfriend at her house.

I finished Super Mario Bros. 2 a couple of times. Strangely enough, the only Mario Bros. game I ever had that I never finished was the first one.

I can beat Super Mario Bros 1 in about 8 minutes, consistently.

One bored summer, just felt like timing it. And yes, I know there is some asian dude online with a video of himself whipping through it in about a minute or some crazy shit.

Don't fuck with the Japanese... unless you have a big ass bomb that will destroy two of their largest cities on impact.

Please tell me you're kidding. Someone filmed themselves playing a frickin' video game?!! Shit...the Japanese are messed up. All that weird porn, the tentacle cartoons, then filming themselves playing video games. That's like adding your own commentary to dark matches!

Heh...it's pretty pathethic that some of US watched it! (Yup, even more pathetic than bookmarking news chic websites. HA!)

I still can't believe that retard did that... oh wait, yes I can. :D

Holy SHIT!

I was looking for that Super Mario 1 video...and found this:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/smb3beat-r.html

The cockboy just starts showing off in the first level of World 8.

Edit: Found Speed runs of 1, 2, 3, Mario World, and Mario 64.