http://i42.tinypic.com/2ls865v.jpg

I never really paid that much attention, but it does make sense.

Wow. Cool. Now I don't feel bad for all times I killed Mario.

I went to the link and it said this picture has been moved or deleted.

woah didnt see that coming

Well it's just fans over-analyzing, but even if it's true, that doesn't stop it from being one of the best games ever, right?

The link still works fine for me...

I thought that was common knowledge.

well it looks like ur wrong again

Who cares. I downloaded it and its awesome.

it was... all a play? you mean it wasn't real? D:

Well, of course it doesn't change anything. Just interesting that I played it so many times and somehow managed to never piece it together. It all seems so obvious in hindsight, though.

It's always nice to have fans follow me around the site.

Just for the sake of countering a pointless remark though, not only do you not have an instance of me being wrong before, but four to five people on a gaming site do not accurately reflect what one would consider widely accepted as "common knowledge".

It's okay though, I'm welcoming you to try again.

That's a cool concept, and they do something similar to that in Paper Mario.

It's the little things like this that makes SMB3 my favorite game.

The opening screen is the opening of a curtain and and at the end of every level Mario goes "off-stage." So unless you close your eyes every time you power on and every time you finish a level, there's nothing subtle about it. I thought it was common knowledge, too.

It's a nice theme. I always liked the little touches like the shadows on the backdrops and the way the floating platforms were bolted to the wall.

did i completly miss the joke or is that just not funny

Yes, you missed the joke.

But that might just be because there is no joke.

Huh... not sure why I never noticed just how much they went with a stage theme for the art direction (I was somewhat aware of it, but never really gave it any thought). It's true that shadows on the sky don't make any sense outside of this stage theme, likewise with the bolted-on blocks. It also helps to make the end-of-level screen much more reasonable if you take all of this into account. Now I'll have to play through it again soon to watch for imagery and visual decisions that support this idea.

I'm thinking now about the way the boss battle screen fades to black after you grab the rod, then slowly lightens up again with the royal backdrop, with clouds in the middle. That would make perfect sense on the stage as a wonderful way to make the transition -- fade the stage after the boss battle with just a spotlight on Mario, re-arrange the set and backdrop in the dark to produce the King's chamber, and, while this is happening, pass some clouds by vertically, spotlit as well, to give the illusion of Mario falling into the next scene.

Fantastic! This has actually awakened a new appreciation in me for this game, which I would have thought unlikely given how I already regard it as the pinnacle of platforming (sorry, SMW fans).

I noticed, but I didn't know most people didn't. I can kind of imagine why though. It's just.... Mario.

People talk about SMB2 being a play, yet no one even says anything about Mario Party 2 or Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.