In February of 1990, 25 years ago, this commercial was running on TV. Immensely self-confident, it nonetheless proved to be entirely justified in its claims.
Nintendo introduced Super Mario Bros. 3 into North America in early 1990, about 18 months after the game had launched in Japan. Eagerly awaited and instantly acclaimed as a classic and a worthy addition to an already beloved franchise, the NES game went on to become one of the biggest-selling games of all time.
Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka's design was also powerfully influential on subsequent work, introducing a clever non-linear style of level exploration and a neat collection of power-up suits, still in use today.
