SMB3 offered an easy 100 lives plus continues. The parnent was referring to the original SMB, where you had to play the whole game, try to solve an invisible m

SMB3 offered an easy 100 lives plus continues. The parnent was referring to the original SMB, where you had to play the whole game, try to solve an invisible maze once or twice (unless you got good at the one or two 100 lives spots), and then play the whole game from the beginning (which you might fail at!) to get another chance at exploring the maze. It was a common tactic to make short games feel long.