According to a Mario fansite, it is said that this game represents hell! There are many cross shape-based cannons, in a level in world six there is a letter 'H' which the fansite assumes stand's for 'Hell', and the cards, a.k.a. 'Tarot Cards' with the 'N' on them, stand for 'Necronomicon', the 'P' switch which turns the blocks turn into coins stands for 'Possesion', and the pentegran (SP.?) star almost seen everywhere i.e. spaces on the world map and one of king koopa's son's ball that he balances on, and there is no doubt the seven koopalings represent the seven deadly sins, and on one of the blocks you fall through in world one takes 6 seconds to fall through, the 6 arrows before the 'P metre', and the castle in world three where you need to go through 6 doors, that stands for 666 devils number and according to the movie 'the wizard' the gate to Mario 3 is pretty much the gate to hell, as if the devil watches you throughout the game, the clouds have eyes, and the 'Hills have eyes' no litteraly, THE HILLS HAVE EYES... But what scared me the most, there are 8 worlds, 5 spaces in world 8 where a hand pulls you down, 12 tanks in world 8, and 12 jumps to beat bowser... and if you align those numbers as letters, what does it stand for?

HELL.

This is freaky...

¥Roy¥

All I have to say is lol.

Even if all this is true I guess the developers needed something fun to do and see if people will find it.