After the weird, quasi-sequel that was Super Mario Bros 2, Nintendo was 100% back on point with this game, the third installment in the SMB series. All your favorite enemies and powerups are back, there’s no bullshit about throwing things around, and the production quality is unsurpassed. This is what a sequel looks like.

The game takes the core gameplay that made SMB a hit, and turns it into an entire world to explore. The maps are huge and varied, with lots of puzzles, traps, and oddities. Mario has been upgraded to match, with additional powerups that allow him to turn into a fox-like creature and a frog.

The game provides a lot of immersion. Simple things like cutscenes (Mario jumping on a flying ship’s anchor and climbing up the chain) and a world map where you can move from level to level. I especially liked how you can take multiple routes to a target on the world map, although you usually have to complete all levels to get to the final boss.

There are loads of new features, and almost all of them are well implemented. My one reservation is that there are too many minigames. The game is loaded with little games of cards, slots, etc which pop up from time to time. They’re bearable, but they do distract from the gameplay a bit. Not to mention it’s not at all obvious how some of them work, so the game doesn’t have quite the pick up and play quality of the original Mario (for instance, it took me a while to figure out how to equip powerups from the between-level map).

In short, this game is everything a fan of the series could have asked for. Highly recommended.