What I Learned from Super Mario Bros. 3

My neighbor, Erick, and I had an eight-hour marathon playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on old school Nintendo. Recalling our childhood memories of playing 8-bit video games and realizing that we were still pretty awful, we didn’t beat the game, but we did get to World 8 (the final World). While we were playing, I would shout out severely annoying advice that now, translates well into life lessons—whether or not they should be followed, is obviously in your own hands.

• Don’t be a hero. Every time Erick would attempt to grab another coin, break another block, or get a Super Mushroom or Starman, I’d yell out ‘don’t be a hero’. His attempt would inevitably get Mario killed. In the end, the extra item was never worth it. Be content with what you have and stick to grabbing what’s in a reasonable, reachable, and well-timed parameter.
• Not every pipe goes somewhere. World 7 is called Pipe Land. From the game’s instruction booklet: “Left and right, it seems that all you can see is a maze of pipes! With so many pipes around, there’s bound to be lots of plant life to try to slow down Mario. Don’t get discouraged, you’re very close to your goal.” We’d attempt to go down various pipes that were only there for decoration (or destruction!). Sometimes, a pipe would just bring us back to the beginning of the action scene. Erick refers to this lesson as ‘not all that glitters is gold’—or simply, not every open door leads you forward.
• Bigger isn’t always better. In World 8, there are mad Bullet Bills. To avoid them, Super Mario has to squat. We’d always use up our items in the ‘possession box’ at the bottom of the screen during Map Mode to give ourselves the advantage of being Super Mario rather than regular little Mario. However, it was actually easier to navigate those Bullet Bills as regular Mario because we didn’t have to worry about squating. Plus, Bowser’s kids might’ve looked all big and tough, but all it took to take ‘em down was three quick bops on the head. Being bigger, or even Super, doesn’t always give you an advantage or decrease the difficulty of the path towards your goal.
• Stay ahead of the game. At the end of every world, there is a fortress that houses a king that’s been transformed into a crazy creature by one of Bowser’s kids. In order to save the kings from their horrible transformations, Mario has to defeat one of Bowser’s seven deadly kids who are flying high above in an airship. Technically speaking, it was super simple to defeat the airship scene as long as we kept Mario towards the right of the screen. While staring face to face with incoming obstacles on your path, your gut instinct serves you better than taking your time to analyze the situation.
• Jusy fly over it. After transforming each king back to his human form or choosing a lucky treasure box at Toad’s House, Mario receives a Magic Wing. This Magic Wing allows Mario to “fly through an action scene until [he runs] into an enemy”. When we were so done wasting energy on completing an action scene, we’d say ‘fuck it’ and use the Magic Wing to fly over the entire scene. It’s not exactly my cup of tea in real life, but if you’ve got the resources to do it, avoid every obstacle on your path and take the easiest route to that final goal—it pumps you up to kick ass on the more difficult perils ahead.
• Stop and smell the roses. Erick doesn’t know about this lesson because I’ve just made it up while reading the game’s instruction booklet. I think it’s pretty great that the description of the eight kingdoms begins with: “Let’s take a look at the 8 kingdoms that make up the Mushroom World. Each of them are truly unique… often so beautiful that you will forget that you are in a battle against the villainous Bowser. Stay alert! Anything can happen in the Mushroom World.” I guess at some points I found myself lost in the beauty of each world—including the revolutionary discovery that Super Mario Bros. 3 is seriously a precursor for Web 2.0 design; diagonal background stripes, rounded box corners, and lots of negative space. Beauty is all around you and sometimes it hits closer to home than you think.

Links Cited:
Wikipedia Entry, Super Mario Bros. 3.