Thank you for sharing your experiences with Super Mario Bros. 3. I think it can be called one of the greatest platformers ever made. It's actually the first videogame I ever played, too! I played the SNES version, as part of the Mario All-Stars release, first. After that, I went back and played the original NES version as well. And when they released it on the GBA as Super Mario Advance 4, I played it again. :)

The athletic theme will forever be stuck in mind as the theme to some of the most fun levels, and also the scariest ones (auto scrolling levels really stressed me out as a kid!).