the_wizard_666

It's not terrible, but it could be far better. I see why it never made the cut when compared to what Capcom actually did release. Sadly, by the time they had space in their lineup to release it, the Raisins fad had long since blown over. At that point, releasing it just didn't make financial sense anymore.

When I say "casual" I'm not saying someone who rarely plays. I'm saying exactly what you're referring to as a "normal" gamer - playing what they like for fun, not competitively. I still don't understand the love for Tengen Tetris though, as I have never liked it, especially next to Nintendo's version, but I also like Conan, so what do I know. As long as you enjoy the game, then play away!

I dunno, I've always found beat-em-ups more fun in co-op. Single player is like meh.

@Dr. Morbis You better get in the game if you wanna win the category...didn't you say you needed to be in 5th place?

I think that's the point @Tanooki is making. He prefers it from a gameplay perspective as a casual gamer, not as a competitor in high level competitions. And frankly, outside of competitions, Tengen is generally preferred by any casual player who has played it. This is literally the first time I've seen anyone saying it's the inferior version (although that lines up well with my personal opinion on the matter...I just prefer Nintendo's version overall).

I can agree with that. Raw numbers never tell the whole story. Could it have made up that 5 million unit gap without being given away with most systems? Possibly. But without system sales data for each console bundle, we'll never really know how many units were sold vs given away. I can definitely agree that without SMB being as popular as it was, SMB3 wouldn't have had the impact it did, but by the same token, even if SMB had higher sales, I still think SMB3 ranks at or near the top in every category in the OP, whereas SMB1 does not.

Liquor stores are a great spot for boxes. Most at least keep the wine boxes, if not all of them. They're a good size for shipping, or even just for packing heavier items like books or VHS tapes, where a large box would just be freakin' heavy to lift.

That's a flawed assumption. With your Sonic example, it really didn't get to be ubiquitous until Sonic 2. In fact, I've never even played Sonic 1. But I digress - with the massive popularity of the NES, along with the huge ad campaign surrounding SMB3 when it launched, there was no way it wasn't gonna be a hit. SMB2 was a huge deal, but 3 took it completely over the top. As for your other factors... - I did just that, except I didn't rule out platformers as a genre. Indeed, I like a fair number. It was simply SMB was not my thing. I never liked games where the whole goal is to get from left to right. That's why I gravitated to TMNT instead...even though it's fundamentally an action-platformer, the exploration aspects were what I enjoyed most about gaming, not the action itself. - SMB3 launched in 1990 in North America, and it was a full year before the SNES launched. At the time, news about upcoming console launches wasn't very widespread. Nobody I knew had a Nintendo Power subscription (or any other mag for that matter), so most didn't find out about it until a few months before launch when the ads started hitting the TV. And since the Genesis was already out for a year at that time, that wasn't really a consideration for those buying SMB3. If anything, it would've stunted sales of the Genesis. - Rented, not bought. At least where I came from, money was tight as fuck. The only time I got new games was if I begged for a $10 rental store sell-off. Brand new games were EXTREMELY rare. Of course, I grew up in the 'hood, so I can only base it off my experiences, but it's likely not as big a deal as you make it out to be. Sure, SMB may have sold the system in the early days, but it was hardly a go-to game by the time SMB3 came out. Most people were either done with it, or only played it because it came with their new console, and for some it would even have been the only game they had. Thankfully I got TMNT (and later Metroid), or I may have lost interest in video games entirely.

I don't know about that. By the time I got my Action Set in '89, most black box games were getting pretty tough to come by. Hell, my only experience with most of them came through my friend's 101-in-1 bootleg cart. And by that point, few (if any) people I knew were even still playing SMB. Even for me, I played the shit out of TMNT (which I received along with my Action Set), but SMB was not my cup of tea. I'm not saying it's a bad game, as discounting the pack-in sales it still had respectable numbers, but would it have sold an extra 5 million units to reach SMB3 levels? Honestly, I doubt it. Oh, and among my casual friends (ie not collectors, just nostalgia trippers), they tend to overwhelmingly ask to play SMB3 over anything else on the library. So there's that.

That makes sense though. Why modify it if it could potentially cause issues with older carts. Better to keep it as is. Also left it open for them to potentially use the port again later on, as they could simply manufacture boards with the necessary pins again.

Those numbers don't tell the whole story, as it includes every copy that came with the system. Nobody would say that Keith Courage is the best selling TG-16 game, or that Combat was the best selling 2600 game, as damn near every console came packed with the game. It's hard NOT to be a bestseller when you're a pack-in title. A better reflection would be to subtract the total Duck Hunt sales from SMB. But then that doesn't factor Deluxe Set Duck Hunt carts. Looking at the sales of Gyromite being 1.3 million, I'd say we could safely add a million back in, as Gyromite didn't exactly sell much separately. So doing all that, SMB sold around 13 million copies, a full 5 million units back of SMB 3. Even if we factor in a few copies of Duck Hunt that actually sold individually (a rarity to be sure, but something that did happen), that's just too many units to make up.

The October launch also lends credence to a fiscal period of October-September. However, other options might be August-July (the first third-party releases were in August), or March-February (to incorporate the numbers from the Christmas season). It's hard to say what the term actually was without documents, but all of those minimize most of the issues with the 5-game rule not adding up. Mindscape 1990-91 is screwing everything though. Acclaim as well to a lesser degree.

Those were all listed as the criteria in the original post. So based on the question posed in the thread, they count. And thus Kirby would not touch SMB3. Also, the world done gone crazy...here I am discussing the technical superiority of my personal least favourite game of all time...never thought this day would come...

Kirby sucks and blows at the same time But naw, Kirby's Adventure, while technically not terrible, just can't touch SMB3 as far as the listed criteria. While it may exceed in terms of graphics, music, etc, it falls far short in terms of marketability, legacy, and historical significance.

Well, a cursory examination shows an October to September fiscal year would fix most, but also leave a few other outliers. I'm guessing a few of the bigger companies may have been able to work a deal out, or perhaps a few dates are off, but a 5 per fiscal year makes more sense overall. Whether each company had their own fiscal year or they were using Nintendo's calendar, I couldn't say. But there are far fewer issues by manipulating what period constitutes a "per year" basis.

As much as I despise the game, objectively speaking SMB3 is the quintessential NES/Famicom release. I don't think any other game even remotely comes close to touching it based on the terms you mention.

I think the rule may have been based on fiscal years, rather than by calendar years. We'd have to know what Nintendo considered a fiscal year in the NES era, but I'm sure if adjusted for that the numbers check out. Try October 1 to September 30 as the fiscal year (that's the fiscal year for the US federal government). It's a best-guess though, since every business can set their own fiscal year, and as such the dates can vary significantly.

I'd rather not play RC Pro Am II, but I'll put up a participation score...unless the participation threshold is beyond my will to achieve a participation score

Well, that helped a bit. I at least managed to double my score at the same point of death. Still not a fan, but it's better than most games I have no interest in playing

I definitely never turned anything on. I fired up the link and ran with the defaults, as it seems like you preset everything correctly.

I have no idea what you're referring to. What is this "ghost mode" you speak of?

Okay, well, after another 20 minutes, I not only haven't broken 5K, I also can't get more than 4 diamonds before getting hit. The pools kill my runs. Shooters are definitely NOT my jam! EDIT: Also, I've never made it past the first lily pad. I can't seem to get the hang of the jumping. Fuck this game.

Fuck, now I have to Google the manual... ...so six diamonds in a row without getting hit for a bonus? That's all I'm really noticing...

How in the actual fuck? I killed damn near everything...is there a hidden bonus somewhere? What did I miss?

Dude, I hate to break it to you, but I barely broke 5K getting to that jump, and that's because I shot damn near everything. There's no way your score says 45,460...I'd say download a clean ROM to use, as that's...damn...