N-Mark Spade Panel
Template:Item-infobox N-Mark Spade Panels[1], also known as Matching Game Panels[2], Card Matching Games[3], Matching Game spaces[4], or N-Spades[5], are Spade Panels in Super Mario Bros. 3 that appear on the world map for every 80,000 points gained, and they allow Mario or Luigi to play a card game where they must flip cards to match pairs of images with only two mistakes allowed before exiting the game. The game does not reset until it is completed, regardless of the amount of points earned. For each card pair successfully matched, the player gets that prize for their inventory, for a total of nine prizes per game.
Prizes
- 10 Coins (1)
- 20 Coins (1)
- Super Mushroom (2)
- Fire Flower (2)
- Starman (2)
- 1-up (1)
All Combos
The game randomly selects one of the eight predefined configurations. Here are the possible combinations. The fourth, fifth, and sixth from the left on the bottom row will always be the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman respectively.
Strategy
There are patterns in the above image which lend a strategy useful for completing all 8 maps if you encounter them in the game.
An optimal strategy is to pick the space with the most card diversity and find out quickly which layout you are playing (from 1 to 8). Then complete the game using that information. After doing this a few times you will quickly memorize the limited layouts. Each map has 6 horizontal cards by 3 vertical, for 18 total cards. As said above you can always rely on the bottom-right 3 cards to be the same every game. It is tempting to start with these but don't because you only have two chances to fail.
The space with the most diversity is the first card (left side) in the middle row. There are six different possibilities for this card, two each of the coin cards and one of every other type. If you get anything but the coins you automatically know which of the layouts you are playing above.
With the coins you have to do a second round guess. For this I suggest the second card in the bottom row. It seems that the designers wanted the game to be more fun than random so were careful to make limited layouts with a deterministic result.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Nマークスペードパネル[6] N Māku Supēdo Paneru |
N-Mark Spade Panel |
References
- ^ Super Mario Bros. 3 English instruction booklet, page 22.
- ^ Nintendo Power Volume 13, page 10.
- ^ Super Mario All-Stars Player's Guide, page 110.
- ^ The Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 Player's Guide, page 11.
- ^ Hodgson, David S J. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Page 23.
- ^ Super Mario Bros. 3 Japanese instruction booklet, page 19.
