Panic Time with the Mario Gang
Written: Dec 23 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Classic addictive platformer & two-player mini-game! Up to 4 players at once.
Cons: Irritating voice samples.
The Bottom Line: It's not exactly new, but it is timeless stuff and a very valueable little cartridge. Mario fans must have his first 32-bit handheld incarnation.
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| dopple's Full Review: Super Mario Advance for Game Boy Advance |
The Nintendo Gameboy Advance, despite it's size and dim display area, is a powerful system. It can run extreme sports like Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater, 3D shooters like DOOM, and the classic battle racer Super Mario Kart. But most of all, it can run a 2D side-scrolling platform game like no other! And with Nintendo, there is no shortage of side-scrolling 2D platform games, and memorable characters to star in them. The most famous is the the character who pretty much invented and stabalized the genre - that good old mushroom kingdom plumber, Mario!
Only fitting that with the GBA's launch, there should be a Mario game to go along with it (aside from the impressive Super Wario Land 4 - but that's his evil twin in the starring role!).
Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't put together an all-new adventure for our plump Italian hero, but they did dig up a wonderful classic of his - with an interesting history.
In America, we know it as Super Mario Bros. 2 - the weirdest entry into the series. Instead of jumping on Goombas, tossing tortious shells, knocking open question marked boxes & rivaling the evil Bowser, Mario is picking vegetables, playing with chemical formulas and trying to gain control of a giant dream machine!
Needless to say, this was a HUGE departure for Mario. It was also oddly temporary, as Mario Bros. 3 had him back in familiar territory fighting his familiar foe with the good old jump'n'run gameplay.
To make matters more complicated, it didn't even get released in Japan and some other parts of the globe, where it was known as Super Mario Bros. USA. Their Mario Bros 2 was much more like the first game, only with evil black mushrooms and more difficult gameplay. In fact, that is the TRUE sequel to Super Mario Bros - Nintendo just felt it would be too difficult for U.S. gaming audiences and therefore canned it for western release. Instead, they scraped together a foreign game called Doki Doki Panic, replaced the characters with Mario, Luigi, Toad & Princess Peach, and called it Super Mario Bros. 2 in the United States!
We did eventually see the true sequel on the SNES, where it was titled "The Lost Levels" and placed on the Super Mario All-Stars cartridge. But to us, Super Mario 2 will always conjour up memories of strange new creatures and secret red doors that appear when you throw magic beakers.
And Nintendo decided to repackage this lovely game and call it Super Mario Advance for their latest handheld game console.
The main game is pretty much as it appeared on Super Mario All-Stars for the Super Nintendo - cleaner and more rounded graphics, stationary backgrounds, updated music...there are changes - such as bigger weapons and enemies, & a few new enemies such as Robirds. Theres also some new little bonus games, like Yoshi egg challenges. It all only enhances the game.
The only negative difference is one addition they made to the audio: voice samples. You know, so you can hear the characters spout out catch phrases and gestures when they do certain things. These are annoying. If your easily irritated, VERY annoying - so you may find yourself skipping the sound, which is a shame because the music is nice and the sound effects add to the overall experience.
So anyway, you get to play as one of 4 characters, with the option to switch before each level begins - Mario, who runs, jumps and lifts objects at about medium speed and strength. Luigi, who has a high, fluttery jump and can be very slow & clumsy (his high jump is required in several levels though, so he's not useless). Princess Peach, my favorite character to play as, who is fairly speedy and has a very long airtime to her jumps (she basically floats for a matter of seconds). And little Toadstool, who is small & can't jump very high, but runs and works quicker than all the rest. Each has strengths that can be help you immensely in certain levels, though no level is impossible if you have a less-than-desired player.
The levels are cool - sometimes your jumpin around square hilltops, hopping in clouds, struggling to avoid quicksand in the desert, digging your way out of underground tombs, floating from whale to whale in the middle of the ocean, and sliding on icy surfaces avoiding porcupines. So theres little risk of the gameplay and environments getting repetitive. And while theres no warp pipes, there are special ways of warping from level to level for the impatient.
You have a lot of interesting new enemies to defeat - the bosses are the best of any Mario game because of their diversity; at one point your up against a giant rat who throws bombs, which you must use against him. Then your throwing mushroom blocks at a three-headed snake. And finally you combat the evil - Wart! What a name?
This game is strange but very rich in gameplay. It may work better than Super Mario Bros. 3 as far as games you can continously play over and over again - so perhaps that's why they chose to re-release it instead of the that other Mario epic, even if it's not quite as great.
Adding to the replay value, Nintendo threw in the original Mario Bros. arcade battle game! You can connect up to 4 friends to a single Mario Advance cartridge via 4 GBA systems for intense multiplayer action. This makes an already wonderful cart even better.
GBA owners might have to have this, just for it's solid platforming action and fun two-player mini-game - even if they've already played it all many times before. It's simply a classic, if also the oddest entry into Mario history.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dopple
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Reviews written: 140
Trusted by: 6 members
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