I was never as excited for a new piece of hardware as I was for the Game Boy Advance. I grew up with the previous iteration of the handheld, and by and large I passed on any competing systems. Well, except for the Game.com because my little brother asked for that one Christmas, but I’m not going to count that one because it had a poor library. For years I wondered when more advanced handhelds would catch on, and finally Nintendo announced the Game Boy Advance. This was supposedly a 32-bit system though all of the games looked much closer to what you would find on the Super Nintendo. One of the first games announced for this handheld was a brand new Mario game with the ‘Advance’ moniker.
When I saw screenshots I was surprised to learn that Nintendo was returning to the mechanics of Super Mario Bros. 2. This is especially odd because this wasn’t even originally a franchise title and was instead re-skinned for the North American market when it released on the Nintendo. Well, as it turns out this was a remake instead of a brand new game. I was disappointed, but it was still the title I picked up when I got my Game Boy Advance. I found Super Mario Advance to be the very best version of the game even though the main focus here was showing off the new system by introducing a host of features that are mostly aesthetic.
Super Mario Advance still tells the same old story as the original. Mario has fallen asleep and discovers a dream world left in ruin by a tyrannical ruler named Wart. Later he and his friends find this same place, and set out to free the slaves of slumber land. It’s obviously not going to win any awards, but it’s still a general step up from simply ‘save the princess from Bowser.’ You’re greeted with the familiar character selection screen upon starting but this time it’s a rotational wheel. The original title was a very unusual side scrolling platformer, and this one copies the gameplay down to a tee.
Jumping on enemy heads doesn’t damage them; instead you have to pick them up and throw them at other foes or down a cliff. You can also pull up weeds and vegetables (primarily turnips) when you spot the leaves dangling above the surface of the ground. These can be used as weapons when thrown, and will be your primary means to dispatch the many enemies that populate this world. There are no koopa troopas or goombas here (due to the fact that the original version wasn’t intended to be a Mario title) and instead you must deal with masked shy guys and other monsters. Your character has a life bar in this title which can be expanded by throwing a potion in a specific place to open a door to a reversed world where you have only a few minutes to pluck coins and a mushroom if you chose to activate the portal in the right place. It might sound rather disconnected, and to be fair it is different from the typical Mario game. Fortunately everything comes together in a big way. The gameplay makes perfect sense just seconds after you jump into this off-key adventure.
So what’s new here in Super Mario Advance, then? Not a lot to be perfectly honest. If you liked Super Mario Bros. 2 then you will undoubtedly like this remake. First and foremost the difficulty has been toned down quite a bit. When you destroy more than two enemies with a thrown item you’re awarded with a heart. That wasn’t the case in the original release. Furthermore these heart icons are significantly larger and more animated making them easier to spot. The biggest enhancements are mostly related to showing off the game’s new graphic engine. Some turnips that you pull are now super large requiring more time to pull up. Furthermore, some of the enemies are bigger as well but are just as easy to deal with. Some other changes were made such as platforms that bounce you upward thanks to the hardware’s scaling hardware, but this doesn’t make a huge difference in general gameplay because it’s a seldom seen inclusion.
The big change is that Nintendo saw it fit to include voice samples. Every time you perform a charge jump your character says something. Additionally whenever you grab an item they do them same, and even pulling up plants or enemies features similar in-game commentary. It was a means of showing off the new hardware, but it gets old very fast. While the voice samples are generally annoying I instantly found myself enamored by the fact that before facing a boss they give a quick line of spoken dialogue. These are hilarious and cheesy, but they add a lot of character to the title and aren’t overbearing like a lot of the other spoken samples.
When this game debuted it was the perfect chance for Nintendo to flaunt the GBA’s graphical qualities. I mean, even the opening sequence pays homage to the huge jump in graphics featuring Mario beckoning his friends to go beyond the small screen resolution of the original Game Boy. With that said I originally was disappointed because this feels more like a tech demo of sorts. Nintendo implemented a bunch of scaling effects that simply weren’t possible on the original Nintendo. Scaling and rotations are the big one, and the additions are welcome but they don’t really add a lot to the experience. Aside from the new effects this isn’t a huge step beyond the remake we saw in Super Mario All-Stars. It’s still very pretty, and the zany art style is all the more impressive with the better hardware. There is some nice use of parallax scrolling here and there, but by the time it was released that display method was long overplayed. Still, the re-drawn environments look very nice and the whole Mario crew animates extremely well.
Each character does feature significantly different animations for their super jump which is really nice. The soundtrack was completely re-done for this remake. The music was handled with care and the composers added more dimensions to each composition. What’s surprising is the fact that the voice samples play so clearly through the speaker. I have no idea how the developers were able to make these recordings sound so great here.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is an amazing game no matter the format you play it. Yes, even if you’re experiencing it for the first time on the Famicom Disk System as Doki Doki Panic. Still Super Mario Advance is the best version I’ve played so far. The enhancements aren’t major, but they do make a difference. This is the easiest version of the game to play. Modern video games seem to be toned down in my experiences, and that makes this the most accessible version of the game. Everyone should experience it at some point, and this is the easiest version to attain given the virtual console release on Nintendo’s Wii U console.
