You might have already known that Nintendo changed a few things when bringing NES platformer Super Mario Bros. 3 to North America — mostly to make it easier. But it’s still fascinating to see the changes presented side-by-side.
This video, created by YouTuber Master0fHyrule, does a nice job displaying the differences between the Western and Japanese versions of the classic platformer. Check it.
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12 responses to “Super Mario Bros. 3 Was Kind Of Different In Japan”
Can’t watch it all now but from the little bit I saw it seems just abou all the Japanese bits were brought back (or kept) for Mario all-stars on SNES at least in Australia anyway – not sure about the Australian version of the original NES game as I never had it but I’d assume it’s just like the NA one?
I’m faaaairly sure that for the most part the NES version was the same as the Japanese one for us. I’m pretty certain for example that if you got hit while powered-up, you went back to regular Mario. Though while we had the suits flying off if you got hit, I’m not sure that you got turned into regular Mario but maybe got to stay as Super Mario?
My recollection was that you stayed as super mario if you were hit with a suit on… don’t remember the animation of the suit flying off either. Maybe we had different versions?
I’ve got the GBA version and I can tell you – you stay Super after you lose your suit. I’ve seen the suits flying off before though, I have to charge up my GBA to check it out!
I am pretty sure we got something halfway between the 2, where we kept the graphical improvements (suits flying off, transitions) but also got the difficulty tweaks (we didn’t go back to normal Mario, the levels were “fixes”)
Oh wait I think you’re right. Now I’m remembering noticing that with SMB3 and how it was different to the first one, making things a little easier.
I had the original and as far as I remember everything was the same as the US video, except we had the protection of Goomba’s boot like the JAP version. I clearly remember that.
Mario 3 is by far my most favourite game ever.
Have you played the ultimate version of it? IE, Super Mario Advance 4, using a full set of the e-cards that were CRIMINALLY never released over here? Those things make it something else entirely.
Honestly my absolute favourite Mario game of all time.
They should release the whole thing (with the extra levels) on the eshop. And while they’re at it re-release Super Mario Advance (SMB2) – I got every other advance title but I could never find a copy of that one!
We got the U.S. version, albeit gimped for PAL. When Mario got hit with a suit on, he turned back into Super Mario. (I had no idea the Japanese version didn’t do this; I always found it strange that it reverted back to this method of powering-down for Super Mario World… Now I know why!) We also didn’t have the suit-flying-off animation. In the Super N.E.S. “All Stars” the worlds were given their original Japanese names which I remember thinking was odd back in the day. (Except, of course, “Kuppa” is redone as “Koopa.”)
Looks like there were bug fixes and some difficulty tweaks for the Americans, and perhaps some general feedback from the American studios to market it slightly more towards the Americans.