#42: Super Mario Bros 3

Super Mario Bros 3.  Woo Boy.  Everyone on the freaking planet has tried this game.  I don't have to tell you what this game meant to gaming.  I don't have to tell you how fun it was.  So, I'll try to focus on some other points.

This was Nintendo's first game that featured truly intuitive level design.  How do you teach someone how to fly?  Give them their first leaf and then lay down a track.  After the track, lay down a gap.  Above the gap, lay down a line of coins that make the player realize that there's a way to get those.  Genius.  We don't think about that sort of thing today, but back then, your first encounter with something new had to be explained in a way that people would understand by just looking.

Going back to the flying thing.  Here's the constantly raised question.  How the heck does a raccoon fly?

Anyways.

The world map was also a new feature for Nintendo.  However, it wasn't that big of an improvement.  Creating a World Map when there's generally one path to go on kind of defeats the purpose of a World Map.  But, it was an admirable try.  Later, Super Mario World took the World Map idea and made it great.

Mario Brothers 3 was and still is an excellent game that jumped 2D platformers to a new echelon.

(Seriously, raccoons?)