Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan)
If you ever wondered why Super Mario Bros. 2 was so freaking weird compared with the other SMB games, it’s because it wasn’t the true sequel to the original game, rather, a conversion of a non-Mario game due to decision makers rejecting the release of the much more difficult Mario 2 in North America.
The real sequel eventually found it’s way to the U.S. as part of the Super Nintendo collection “Super Mario All-Stars”. Branded as “The Lost Levels”, this version included revamped graphics and music, much like the other re-released games on the same cartridge.
I wanted to play this original version and not the “Lost Levels” remake. Fortunately, it was recently translated into English language markets via the Wii’s Virtual Console.
The Mario 2 as we know it may be an imposter, but it likely salvaged the franchise (and possibly the video game industry stateside) as this true successor to SMB was graphically and mechanically similar to the original game, but increasingly cheap and difficult in practice.
And I do mean difficult!
I highlighted many of these frustrating changes in the screen captures. Among them are wind (blows Mario off of platforms or makes it harder to jump), enemies in areas you wouldn’t expect (fire, Bloopers, Hammer Bros, Bullet Bills, you name it), gaps which required precise button taps and timing, and possibly the most famous addition, poisonous mushrooms which shrink/kill you!
It’s a great play to see what may have been, but I’m glad I didn’t own this as a child. Save states were necessary to get past many areas (some took me as many as 30 tries for a series of precise jumps). You could also get lost in areas where you’re looking for hidden blocks, warped to the start of the level, or worse, warped back SEVERAL worlds!
The payoff though is a special “fantasy” World 9, where Mario swims through the board as if it were a water level.
There are other secret levels, but I will address those in my review of the Lost Levels remake… as well as some other rare/little known Mario secrets in the near future!
Super Mario World
How could you not love all of the Mario games?
Growing up, this was the penultimate Mario game. It took SMB3 and injected it with steroids. The graphics were better, sound was better, controls were tight, and everything just popped off of the screen.
Gameplay elements introduced here became cornerstones of the franchise, such as Yoshi, bonus worlds, hidden levels, and more.
Because I loved this game so much, I made sure I played through and beat every single stage, including each stage’s hidden exits: up to and including the incredibly nasty SPECIAL WORLD, which was a hidden world hidden within the hidden Star World. (Follow that?) These stages had names such as “Tubular” or “Gnarly” and they are incredibly difficult to defeat!
Of the levels in SMW, my favorites are:
“Top Secret Area” – A hidden level which was only one screen large but had multiple “?” blocks to give you powerups to help aide in beating other stages.
“Backdoor” – This was a secret way into Bowser’s Castle, which was much easier than defeating the rest of the final world.
“Sunken Ghost Ship” – Once you find out you can swim out into the ocean; the first board is a homage to Super Mario Bros. 3 and their airships. This one is sunk underwater and doubles as a ghost house too!
IMO while the “New” Super Mario Bros. games which followed are excellent, this may still be the best side-scrolling Mario game ever made. The NES games will always have a special place in my heart, but Mario World was not only a sequel, but just about smashed every expectation for a SMB game up until that point and even to the present day. It’s the benchmark to which all other platforming games should be held.
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Continuing on my quest of playing Mario remakes, this edition of the original game retains the 8-bit style, but also adds a lot of different things to the game. Luigi’s outfit differs from Mario’s, akin to how we know them both know with their red/green costumes.
Various sounds were added to the game, as well as animated water and lava.
An overworld map and the ability to save after each stage were key additions too.
One of the biggest changes is that you can walk backward in the level, so if you pass something up, you can now go back. (Which if I recall, even the All-Stars remakes didn’t allow for that.)
My main gripe with this game is how large items have to be on the screen to fit into the Game Boy environment. If they made it smaller, you wouldn’t be able to see what you’re doing, but making things larger means you often can’t see platforms above or below you, leading to your death (especially if one were not familiar with this game, to begin with).
There are some other cheesy scenes added, and a few would be modes that would appear to be tacked on, but offer replay value (such as You vs. Boo and a hidden red coin mode where you have to locate all of the red coins in each level).
I honestly wouldn’t mind a reboot of this version of the game to fit a traditional screen. As it stands, the extras are fun, and the slight changes modernize the game some, but overall it can be challenging to play with the lack of screen real estate and the added “going backward” mechanic.
Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3
A reissue of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island for the GBA, SMBA3 (love these acronyms) makes some slight adjustments for the small screen while also cleaning the game up.
One of the most notable changes is playing with shoulder buttons, as the GBA handheld only had two face buttons (B & A). This is actually not a big change and seems “right”.
The Yoshi sprite has also been updated from SMW2 and looks cleaner. Animations don’t stutter like the previous Super Nintendo version, which really (REALLY) pushed the limits of that console.
Another update is a real clock, for when you lose baby Mario (the SNES version counted half seconds while this update uses full second increments). That helps for a less frantic but still challenging game.
Everything else is still here, but in true “Super Mario Advance” fashion Nintendo added additional stages which are only available in this title. Six “special” levels are unlocked after beating the game, and they are unique and challenging, which is a welcome addition to a title which has spawned several sequels.
In fact, if I were to redo my bucket list of games, I’d probably play this version over the original. It’s that solid of remake/reissue.
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
Continuing on my quest to play all things, Mario, this game may come as a surprise to anyone who never played it, as it contains what I feel is the best-kept secret in the side-scrolling Mario universe: World E.
First, this SMB 3 remake is based on the Super Nintendo’s “Super Mario All-Stars” compilation, which used upgraded graphics and sound. The Game Boy Advance titles further added tweaks, such as Mario’s voice (“That’s just what I needed!”) and other gameplay enhancements. (More on that in a second.)
To help sell the GBA’s e-Reader device, Nintendo also created a special “World E” for this remake, which could be unlocked by using trading cards (sold separately) and the e-Reader device. Like the good Nintendo fanboy (sucker) I was back in the day, I had bought a Game Boy Advance SP (because it had a backlight whereas the launch console did not) and therefore I had the necessary TWO Game Boy Advance consoles needed to use the e-Reader device!
The cards used added special power-ups and abilities that were not native to SMB3. Luckily, I was able to acquire a ROM with all of the levels unlocked which featured many of these abilities.
The best way to describe these levels is “NES Remix”. If you’ve ever played any of those, then the mashups here won’t seem strange. In fact, the additions were so cool I wish they’d release an entire game based on the additional 33 World E levels.
The first few boards are remakes of the first Super Mario Bros but all within the confines of the SMB3 “feel”. Included are elements from Mario 2 and Super Mario World, which, within that SMB3 “feel” are a welcome change of pace. You can pull weeds for veggies to toss, coins, or even the Lost Levels “poison mushroom” (which will make Mario small or kill him depending on the current status).
Rope/vine climbing and digging through the sand from Mario 2 also show up. Mario’s cape makes an appearance, as does a boomerang that you can throw.
Several other tweaks include enemies from all of the games (such as Wiggler), makeshift ghost houses, Koopa Kids, and areas that require precise speed runs.
The new airships are just as fun to play through, and without any more spoilers, there are several more surprises in these levels that leaves me wondering why they’re not more commonplace in the Super Mario lore.
This is a must-play set of levels for ANY fan of the original games.
Super Mario Bros. 3
If I could only tell you how many times I played this (and what game I bought when this came out INSTEAD of getting SMB3!)
Like the others, I played through every board here too with the exception of 1-2 of those options “auto side scrolling” (which drive me insane, sorry!)
I forgot some details of this game too. The frog suit is embedded in my memory, but I often forget about the statue “feature” of the Tanooki suit, or the music box (which was useless). This was a true successor to SMB and a definitive title on the NES. So many staples of Mario were introduced in this game, from chain chomps to boo. (For any sad soul who hasn’t played it – do it now!)
Super Mario Land
Warning: this will not be a popular take.
I am not a fan of this game whatsoever. I’ll play it, but it’s far from even landing in my top five Super Mario Bros. games if it even makes the top ten.
Yes, it was immensely successful. It was the only Mario game for the Game Boy at the time, so how could it not be?
Now, SML wasn’t terrible by any means. But it’s so largely inconsistent from the other Mario titles of its era that it stands out in a not-so-good way. One reason is that Shigeru Miyamoto did not work on this game. That led to some dubious elements, to say the least.
In short, think of Super Mario Land to be a departure from the main series very much like Super Mario 2’s US version was (but nowhere near as startling of a change).
First, Mario is in a new environment known as Sarasaland. I suppose its intended to be a desert-like world, as there are Egyptian-style overtones with the overall style of the game and its enemies. However, the main boss is supposed to be a “spaceman” and therefore you’ll also see UFOs in some stages.
Goombas, Piranha Plants, and Koopas are still around, though the later act as bombs that explode after a few seconds when stomped on, rather than being able to kick their shells around. The bees from the original Mario Bros. arcade game make an appearance, Princess Peach is replaced by Princess Daisy, and the rest of the game fills in the blanks with fire-spitting dragons and other original enemies.
Also missing: the old flagpole, which is replaced with two exit doors. (One of which will send you to a bonus game to earn additional lives.)
Two of the stages have Mario piloting either a submarine or airplane in shooter game style: which is incredibly awkward. The fire flower power-up has been replaced with a “power ball” that Mario tosses: he can only use one at a time, which is another departure from a Mario series staple.
Mario himself is small on the screen, with everything incredibly condensed. This makes for some difficult jumps, but overall, the game is easier and much smaller in scale (fewer levels) than Super Mario Bros.
I didn’t overly hate this game, but I was never in love with it either. It gets a thumb in the middle verdict from me.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Shortly after getting my Nintendo my uncle took me to Children’s Palace to buy more games for my system (since of course, I only had the Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge). He didn’t realize the cost of games when he blurted out he would get me “several” and ended up settling on this and one other game that was on sale. (Gold star to anyone who could guess the other!)
Even as a kid, I thought this game was… bizarre. It didn’t fit the first Mario game at all, and the entire series was turned upside down. (Anyone who knows the backstory knows why this game was released the way it was.) Regardless, it holds a special place in my heart and I absolutely loved it… except for the fact that my dad was the only one of us who actually beat it!
I got to beat it years later, but wanted another stroll down memory lane, playing every single level beginning to end. I had forgotten about some of the enemies (Fry Guy, Clawful) and boards (riding the Albatoss across the entire level).
The final castle is mammoth too, especially if you’re not familiar with where to go.
Super Mario Bros. (All-Stars Version)
For those of you who haven’t played the SMB remakes on the SNES “Super Mario All-Stars” cartridge, these were graphically revamped games that also removed some of the bugs/glitches.
The main draw is that Nintendo revamped the graphics and music. It’s odd, but I like these almost equally as much as the originals. Each holds a fond part of my heart because once my NES was disconnected, as this is how I continued playing the original games for many years.
While I like the upgraded graphics, it just feels weird to play the original Super Mario Bros. with the new style graphics. In my honest opinion, I would’ve preferred that Mario not look so weird. When you play the other remakes, they feel a lot more genuine as opposed to “Mario 1”.
Still, this game is fun and worth playing through just to see where there were changes or updates made. The controls are still tight and several of the strategies used in the original hold true here too.
Leave it to Nintendo to go the same path as Disney and get us to pay for the same game more than once. (And enjoy it!)
Super Mario Bros.
This wasn’t really a bucket list item, as any child who grew up with a Nintendo in their living room had (and beat) this game multiple times. I just wanted a quick Sunday stroll down memory lane and to play from 1-1 through 8-4 with no warp zones.
This game was and still is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I love the small variations in the levels, like the night time worlds and the silver pipes.
PS – was there anything more annoying than the springboards?