Ah.  The coveted position of the best NES title.  Are you guys/gals ready for it?

1.  Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in 1990 and is attributed to being the second best selling game on the NES (Super Mario Bros. was the best selling – probably due to it being bundled with the system itself).  This game improved what was already a great game (Super Mario Bros.) and is thought to be the true sequel as Super Mario Bros. 2 was a deviation from the series.  Super Mario Bros. 3 was what NES platforming was all about.

You, once again, control Mario (Luigi if you are player 2) through 8 worlds.  This time your progress is shown on a map and you had control of which level to do next.  Like in the first Mario, there was a warp system in place so you could skip worlds that you did not want to play.  But this time it was with secret warp whistles that were hidden amongst some of the levels.  You could collect items from either an item shop, N Card game (matching game), from defeating a hammer brother, or returning a king to his true form.  These items could be selected from by pressing B on the world map.  Power ups were the same as Mario 1 but there were a few new ones (Tanooki suit, Frog Suit, Hammer Brothers suit, and Raccoon Suit).  The Tanooki and Raccoon suits would allow Mario to fly (if you had enough speed) but the Tanooki suit allowed you to turn into a statue for a few seconds so the enemies would walk right through you.  There are a few more ways to get 1ups in Mario 3: the spinning box at the end of the level (collect 3 matching items to get multiple 1ups); match 2 1ups in the card matching game and play a slot machine (match the picture together, if you can make the center item whole you get 1ups in the amount of the items worth).  The castles become airships where at the end of the airship you fight one of Koopa’s kids.

This game was truly awesome.  Far and away the best game on the NES.  I cannot put to words how much I loved this game.  I sunk so many hours into playing this game.  I have even bought the game for virtual console on my Wii.

Please leave a comment on why you loved/liked/hated this game.

Remember.  These games were voted on by the users of HCG forums.  If you do not like how the list turned out, you should have voted.  You have a chance to vote on the SNES Top Ten.  In a couple of weeks we will be putting out that list for you guys to view.