"Super Mario Bros. 3" by Alyse Knorr (Boss Fight Books)

This is the third in a series of reviews covering the recent Boss Fight Books Humble Bundle. If you missed the bundle, fear not! They’re all available onbossfightbooks.com/, from $4.95 each.

 
 
 “The following is a contributor post by the Bookwarm Mage.”
Alyse Knorr opens her delightful Super Mario Bros. 3 by posing three interrelated questions: “Why does everyone love this game so much? Why do I love it so much? Why was it so incredibly successful?” Essential questions for any thoughtful player, sensibly set forth, and bravely applied to what is arguably one of the most influential games ever made. With them as her focus, Knorr has her “finger glued to the B button in one long sprint” of a book.
In the course of her search for answers, readers and players of SMB3 will surely find much else to relate to. Sneaking downstairs after bedtime to cheer on her dad as he plays the game late into the night; beating the game in twenty minutes at a party, after a lifetime of building up muscle memory; and somewhere in between, talking to her dad on the phone while her attention is on a game she is playing… If the specifics vary, the sentiments here are universal for anyone who grew up in the heyday of Nintendo. Along with these memoiristic touches to draw readers in, Knorr does a fair job summarizing the company’s rapid rise, through a combination of dogged effort and skillful marketing, to iconic status, forever linked to its most iconic hero. The strength of the book, though, is the earnestness with which she tackles the difficult task of analyzing SMB3 itself.
A few of the usual suspects supply Knorr’s basic scholarly scaffolding: Juul’s “paradox of failure,” Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow,” Huizinga’s Homo Ludens are all trotted out, but the book is far from dryly academic. Essentially, the argument runs, its “Goldilocks zone” of difficulty and its legendary level design undergird the game’s greatness:

Legend has it that Miyamoto delayed SMB3’s 1-1’s design until completion of the other levels so he could teach all the skills that the game requires in this introductory environment.

Between its tacit training and its fabled secrets, its prodigal power-ups, varied minigames (hearkening back to Nintendo’s origins as a card-maker), and its manic VS mode, SMB3 holds up under Knorr’s scrutiny with raccoon-tail-flying colors. She downplays the pathos of real-life, hinting at her parents’ divorce and her own struggle with identity artfully in reference to her insights about the game’s rewards and consolations.
With a balance between the personal and the technical, the book moves breezily through passages of historical context and gameplay critique. Chapters are organized thematically rather than following each level or world (Bob Chipman’s Brick by Brick already having rendered that service). There are amusing bits of trivia (have you ever let a Chain Chomp lunge at you 50 times?) and cultural connections (ever lined up the Koopalings alongside the pop stars who inspired them?). The theory of the game’s action as a stage play, based on the theater framing the silent title screen, was a revelation to me, as was the story of SMB2’s release in the US being such an important influence on its great sequel. My favorite chapter, though, is “Topophilia.” With her epigraph from Bishop’s “The Map” and her wry story of the dev team’s visit to Disneyland, her loving evocation of Alaskan caves and summer days and game explorations alike, Knorr’s writing here soars.
The final pages of the book wax tender, nostalgic; if there is a moral to the book, it is a simple one, but it feels earned rather than trite after all of Knorr’s hard work of distilling interviews and experience and information to give an account of why we love the game: “to never give up.”
10/10 – Fun and informative, but also humbly moving. For me, the strongest of the Boss Fight Books, and as good a piece of writing on video games as anything I’ve read so far!
 

Did you enjoy this post? Consider becoming a Warrior of Light and join us in restoring integrity and quality to games writing through thoughtful, long-form reviews. We’re a community aspiring to pay our contributors and build a fairer and happier alternative to mainstream games writing and culture. See our Patreon page for more info!