Topic: SMB3 oddities - Yeah, I'm slow...

[TerraEsperZ]

Almost two decades after its release, I just realized a few things about Super Mario Bros 3's world maps, things that I must be the last person in the world to notice



As you can see on this montage made from the maps of the SMB3 Project:







Desert Land:

This one is more me being puzzled over the roman numeral 3 on the right-most screen. I've always wondered what significance it might have had, aside from me imagining that it's simply the developers telling you "watch out, you're close to World 3!"



Water Land:

I just realized that the small island near the middle with two mushroom houses is shaped like a mushroom itself. Also, the shape of the islands with the palace always hinted at something I couldn't quite get, but I'm starting to think that they might be shaped kinda like the islands of Japan, but in a blocky 8 bits style.



Giant Land:

The main land is shaped like a koopa with a giant head!



Pipe Land:

I still don't understand how I could have missed that the land masses are shaped like three pipes.



Anything else that someone might have noticed that I haven't?



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

Did you find these out by yourself?  After obsessing about this game, I'm surprised I didn't notice these things either.



Though I did read about the east islands of World 3 (kind of) being shaped like Japan before.

[TerraEsperZ]

Yes. I recently downloaded a huge torrent of old Nintendo Power issues (over 10 GB big!) and while reading the issue with Super Mario Bros 3, it made me want to take closer look at the world maps because I always suspected patterns but for some reason I could never really see them. Maybe I got smarter (or less dumb) over the years?



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[Raccoon Sam]

I had only noticed the obvious Roman 3, the Giant Koopa head, and the Pipe Formation.

The Mushroom island makes sense though. Great find!

[marioman]

I think that the roman numeral III in Desert Land is for the third warp whistle that is available in that area of the map.  The others are really neat.

[TerraEsperZ]

That would work nicely, since the whole point of that hidden screen is to hide the whistle in question.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[StarFighters76]

The Roman Numeral 3 in World 2 made me think 3 as in Super Mario Brothers 3.



I also heard that Japan thing for World 3 as well.



As for everything else, it never really occured to me such things until you pointed them out. Looking closely, they do resemble what you say.



I got an oddity question, well something that isn't entirely related to this. What was the point of the Warp Pipe at the far east side of World 7 (near the Mushroom House)?

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Creator of over 530 maps on GameFAQs. ^_^

[TerraEsperZ]

I've asked myself that question a lot, but I've convinced myself that for once, it's just part of the theme of it being Pipe Land, so there should lots of pipes.



Maybe someone with a level editor could check to see if there's even a stage attached to make sure. It could something that was abandoned early too.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

I'm at work so I can't check, but I'm pretty sure there's either a Game Genie code or codes that allow you to enter any "square" on the map, or that the Super Mario Bros. 3 Discombobulator (which many of us used to make the maps) can allow you to at least view them.



Aren't many stages like that just copies of other stages, or messed-up stages?  I remember a Mario web site (The Mushroom Kingdom, not sure if it's still around) that had a feature about some of the playable areas, probably forgotten/incomplete debug/prototype stages.



It would be neat if that pipe actually led somewhere new, but it's not very likely.  If it was actually a pipe, it'd probably be a one-way trip to pretty somewhere else on the same map, I'd wager.