Speaking of embarrassing, as I kid I never had a Super Nintendo (not the embarrassing part). Even then I recognized how great Super Mario 3 was, and when I was growing up and even now, that and Mega Man 2 were my favorite games.
Now, however, I've been snapping up old systems and games from Ebay and Craigslist and I got a SNES with Super Mario World. I'm ashamed to say that after all this time, it may have displaced Super Mario 3. I DO need to go back and play SMB3 again, but I've played it so many times in the past I think it's time to play a few new-to-me games first.