Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nelsonic Game Watch)

The Super Mario Bros. 3 game watch

Super Mario Bros. 3, also known as Super Mario 3 (on the bezel) and Super Mario III (in the instruction leaflet), is a watch containing a simplified game based on the NES original. It is the second of four Nelsonic Game Watch games based on the Mario franchise. The game watch was released by Nelsonic and licensed by Nintendo in 1990. It is a product tie-in for the North American NES release of Super Mario Bros. 3. In Europe, the game watch was rereleased by Zeon in 1992, alongside The Legend of Zelda and Tetris. This game received a sequel in the form of the Super Mario World game watch.

Layout

The watch itself consists of six buttons: two red ones (one for "Mode" and one for "Set") and four blue ones (left, right, up, and down).

On the LCD screen, there is a level layout with pictures of Mario, the princess, the Koopa Dragon, poison mushrooms, a fire-breathing tortoise, and platforms. When the watch is in time mode, it will run the same scenario on the game layout over and over with the time at the top left. When in game mode, it will start out with the introductory music, and the player will have to navigate their way through the game. Finally, there is the alarm. If the alarm is set and the time comes for the alarm to go off, the Super Mario Bros. 3 theme is played twice.

Time

In order to set the time, the user must first be in time mode. The user must hold down "Set" (the red button on the left) while pressing down. The time will then start to blink. Pushing left will send the hour up, and pushing right will send the minute up. When done, the user should push down again for completion.

Alarm

To set the alarm time, the user needs to press "Mode" (the red button on the right) until they can see AL next to the time. Then, the user must hold "Set" (the red button on the left) until it starts blinking. The left button changes the hour, and the right button changes the minutes. After setting the alarm time, the user should hit "Set" again to stop the blinking. The user will see three Mario faces in the middle of the screen if the alarm is on. The user can hit "Set" to make them disappear or turn off the alarm.

Gameplay

The story takes place two years after the previous game. The object of the game, as in the original Super Mario Bros. 3, is to save the princess from the Koopa Dragon. The game is controlled with the left, right, and up buttons, with up acting as the jump button. In order to navigate through the level, the player must time their jumps and movement properly to prevent Mario from getting hit. The player starts with four lives.

To start the game, the player has to go to game mode and hit the bottom button. Mario starts in the top left corner and must avoid the poison mushrooms (also known as evil tortoises and flying tortoises). He must go down with an elevator while avoiding the fireball from a fire-breathing tortoise. Then, he can go to the left and get a Super Star for ten seconds of invincibility against the poison mushrooms coming at him from the right. He must hit the pass brick to open the pipe to go to the bottom right. Then, Mario can get the Super Leaf to become long tail Mario and swat his tail at poison mushrooms up to ten times. The music notes get Mario to the next platforms above to face the Koopa Dragon. The game puts the player in the top right corner, where the Koopa Dragon is spitting fire at Mario. A coin will then appear above the player, which awards an extra life. The Koopa Dragon can be defeated by going left and under him and jumping underneath him several times to destroy the supporting platform until he falls. Then, the game is over, and the player gets to start all over with a higher difficulty level (there are four levels). The maximum score is 1,999 points.

External links

• Gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 3