SUPER MARIO ADVANCE REVIEW Reviewer: Trent Dickerson Title: Super Mario Advance Genre: Platform Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Nintendo ESRB: E - Everyone Release date: 6/10/01 INTRODUCTION: With the impending release of Nintendo's newest Gameboy, the Gameboy Advance, they were stricken with the dilemma of releasing a Mario game with their new portable. After all, it's a tradition to release a Mario game at the launch of a new system. Why they decided to release Super Mario Bros. 2 under the name Super Mario Advance is beyond me, especially considering the fact that SMB 2 is the least popular and well-known of the Super Mario Bros. series. Nonetheless, Super Mario Advance sold thousands right off the bat. The story for Super Mario Advance is rather simple. One night, Mario had a mysterious dream. He dreamed he was climbing a long stairway that led up and up to a closed door. When he reached the top and opened the door, he found himself gazing out at a world he had never seen, stretching out to the hoirzon. Then he heard a voice say, "This is Subcon, the land of dreams. The evil toad, Wart, has used his magic to lay a curse upon the land. Please defeat Wart and free us from his spell. Oh - and remember that Wart hates vegetables. Hurry! We need your help!" And then a bolt of lightning suddenly split the sky, and Mario woke up to find himself on the floor. He had fallen out of bed! A few days later, Mario and his friends hiked to some nearby mountains for a picnic. Upon reaching their picnic spot, they looked around and found a small cave. When they entered the cave, they were amazed to discover the land Mario had seen in his dream stretching out before them. GAMEPLAY: As with any Mario game, the gameplay is rather linear. You beat one stage, you go on to the next. There are 7 levels in the game, each consisting of 3 stages, except the last which only has two(but they are VERY hard). Throughout each level, you must kills enemies and collect coins by either throwing vegetables at them, using POW boxes, or throwing one enemy at another. For those unfamiliar with Super Mario Bros. 2, there are a plethora of puzzles in the game. Most of which concerning unlocking doors by finding a key, and then carrying the key towards the door while at the same time being stalked by the guardian that protected it. There are 4 playable characters in the game: Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad. Each character has different traits that make them more or less useful for specific levels. For instance, Luigi is not very strong, but he can jump really high. Peach is slow and not very strong, but can float in the air. Toad is very fast and very strong, but cannot jump very well. Lastly, there is Mario who is well-rounded in all the areas, not being particularly special at anything. There are actually two-games-in-one in Super Mario Advance, one being Super Mario Bros. 2 of course, and the other being Mario Bros. Classic, the original arcade game that started it all. Well, technically Donkey Kong started it all, but you get what I'm saying. Anyways, the entire point of Mario Bros. Classic is to be the last man standing and get the highest score possible. Each level has a set amount of enemies, and in order to increase your score you must defeat the enemies by get under the platform they are on and hitting it, thus knocking them upside-down. You must then proceed to kick them off the screen. It sounds easy, but as you progress into the later levels, the environment you are in begins to attack with ice and fire blasts which you must avoid, thus adding more confusion into the mix. And to top it all off, while you are doing all this, more enemies are being thrown at you while you are attacking others. It's an extremely linear game, but it certainly is a nice game to play while taking a break from throwing vegetables. GRAPHICS: The graphics of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario Bros. Classic have been improved upon for Super Mario Advance. The graphics are more sharp and crisp and not as pixilated. Some of the areas in the game that were most improved upon were inside of jars. In SMB 2, they used to be plain, but now the inside of jars is probably the most vibrant looking part of the game. In addition, extra enemies and bigger enemies were added just for this version of the game. The fact that there are ZERO slow downs in the games proves the Gameboy Advance's ability to hand several sprites on the screen at once. Granted, the game doesn't exactly flex the Gameboy Advance's muscles like say Golden Sun, but the graphics are good enough to catch your eye. AUDIO: There's not a whole lot to brag about when talking about Super Mario Advance's sounds. There are 4 background themes in the game, and that’s the overworld theme, the underground theme, the castle theme, and the boss theme. They're nothing special, but they're good enough for a Mario game. Unfortunately, the music from the NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2 had to be watered down for Super Mario Advance, which makes the music even worse. The sound effects in the game are decent as well. Each playable character has a voice which can be heard when the character is selected and when they are attacking in the game. Each boss in the game has a voice too, which is heard quite often since every one of them makes a villainous little speech before each boss fight. The audio department of Super Mario Advance is certainly nothing special. REPLAY VALUE: Surprisingly, Super Mario Advance has high replay value. Upon completion of the normal game, you are provided with two new quests: a quest to find every single red coin in every stage, and yet another quest to find the two Yoshi eggs in every stage. The Yoshi eggs quest is quite difficult because they are hidden in the shadow world which can only be accessed via a secret potion. You have to throw the potion in the right spot, otherwise you will miss out on the Yoshi egg. In addition, there is in fact a multiplayer mode in Super Mario Advance called "Battle Mode", in which you can battle up to 3 other people on one cartridge in a level resembling Mario Bros. Classic. FINAL THOUGHTS: The main things that disappointed me about Super Mario Advance were the graphics and audio departments. The graphics I think I can forgive since although it may not be the prettiest Gameboy Advance game, it is fun enough that I can ignore the sub par graphics. I suppose I am forced to forgive the lackluster audio as well since it was pretty farfetched that Nintendo would have added completely new music to a port of an older game anyways. However, because it annoys me, I still have the right to complain about it. Rating: 8 Stars - I give this game 8 stars because it is a wonderful remake of an original classic. As I said before, Super Mario Bros. 2 was my least favorite of the Super Mario Bros. series, but nonetheless that did not stop me from buying Super Mario Advance as my very first game for my Gameboy Advance. For those who love Mario games and love a good platformer with a decent challenge, I recommend anyone with a Gameboy Advance pick this game up. It's hardly worth the price I paid for it, but it was certainly worth the nostalgic trip down memory lane I look while playing it.