Poll of the Day > [SMB1] what is the canon in-world lore reason that Mario has 3 lives?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Does every being in the SMB universe have three lives? Luigi does. Only humans maybe. But why?

Since 1-Up mushrooms are canonically a thing, maybe he just ate two of them right before the game started.

He has a bustling Mario Corpse farm where he grows new mushrooms and always takes 2 with him.

3 lives had always been the standard on arcade games for a while at the time

Zareth posted...

3 lives had always been the standard on arcade games for a while at the time

That's an out-of-universe answer though, not an in-universe explanation.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Since 1-Up mushrooms are canonically a thing, maybe he just ate two of them right before the game started.

What an obvious and simple answer. He was getting ready for a rough adventure and needed some extra lives. Thanks PO.

Im not old enough to have been around, but did anyone ever care about your score in SMB? Like were kids sitting around the NES trying to get a higher score than their friends

I don't think anyone cared about score in Super Mario Bros or platformers in general maybe if you could get an extra life out of it like I think you could in Contra and some beatem ups. That era was more about completion since more games had a definitive end than the ports from the arcade era before it.

MrMelodramatic posted...

Im not old enough to have been around, but did anyone ever care about your score in SMB? Like were kids sitting around the NES trying to get a higher score than their friends

I wouldn't doubt there were people comparing scores but in my experience we just swapped stories about what we were doing and what we were playing. The hot gossip was always Easter eggs and secret areas/powerups.

The first time hitting an invisible block and finding a power-up in Mario or laying a bomb down and finding a whole hidden area in Metroid was mindblowing as a kid

MrMelodramatic posted...

Im not old enough to have been around, but did anyone ever care about your score in SMB? Like were kids sitting around the NES trying to get a higher score than their friends

The kids in the movie The Wizard, I guess?

Ive beat Mario a handful of times and each time I have to lookup a gfaqs walkthrough for those infinite castle levels. I dont think Id ever be able to pass it when it was first released

Also I dont think Ive ever beat it without using warps.

Ive DEFINITELY never made it through 3 without whistles.

Zareth posted...

3 lives had always been the standard on arcade games for a while at the time

This. This is the only correct answer.

Venixon posted...

This. This is the only correct answer.

Except that answer is objectively wrong, because....

ParanoidObsessive posted...

That's an out-of-universe answer though, not an in-universe explanation.

The topic isn't asking why the devs decided Mario should start with 3 lives. The question is literally asking how it's justified via in-world lore.