Super Mario Advance Review
You’ve played it on the NES, SNES, and now the GBA! This version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is better than ever, with enhanced graphics, more secrets, and a new “Yoshi Challenge”, where your goal is to find about 2 Yoshi Eggs in each level you visit.
The storyline isn’t the greatest, but its different than the regular “Peach gets captured by Bowser” type that we’re all familiar with. Anyway, Mario has a dream about a land called “Dream World”. This land is being taken over by King Wart, a weird looking frog-thing that you must stop before he turns Dream World into a nightmare. So, later Mario and his friends come across this Dream World, where they have to battle Wart. Make sense?
The gameplay is still the same old pick-up-the-plants-and-throw-them-at-enemies, but with a twist. As mentioned before, there is the Yoshi Challenge, but there are little things, like oversized enemies and plants, and Robirdos, which is a giant robotic version of Birdo (the pink guy that shoots eggs). If you are really good at Mario games, you should still get this game, ‘cause the Yoshi Egg Challenge will definitally keep you at it for awhile.
The graphics are good, but they aren’t great. When you compare Super Mario Advance’s graphics to something like Rayman, they’re far from great. They don’t really look like they have been updated since when Super Mario All Stars came out on the SNES, except they look a little bit better. One thing that Nintendo did add is a rotating wheel, which is used to get out of most of the vases. Another great thing is the backgrounds. Very detailed.
The sound is overall pretty good, actually. What you’ll hear is basically a mix of the classic Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario World music - slightly remixed! One of the new features is that the bosses and characters can actually talk. This is very good because you can understand what they are saying.
As an added bonus, Nintendo also threw in the Classic Super Mario game, complete with battle mode and all. Battle mode can be played through one cartridge! Overall, i think the game is great for any Mario fanatic. It’s also great for a nostalgic trip. The battle mode with four players is enough to buy the game in itself.
Visuals: 8
Sound: 9
Originality: 4
Replay: 5
Overall: 7