Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance

In true Miyamoto fashion, the game starts with simple running and jumping and gradually gets more complex. Soon, you're swimming, flying, tossing fireballs, and riding one of several Yoshis--cute little dinosaurs--that appear throughout the game. The overall level design has yet to be exceeded in a 2-D platformer, with each colorful level packed with enough secrets to keep players busy for weeks. A lot of precision jumping is required, but the controls are so tight that directing Mario (or even Luigi, who wasn't playable in the original) becomes as natural as breathing within a few minutes of playing.

As if packing the entire original game onto the tiny cartridge wasn't enough, Nintendo also put two multiplayer versions of the original Mario Brothers in there, which are playable solo or with up to three other people using Game Link cables to connect all your Game Boy Advance systems. Both variants are a blast, but the single-player adventure is what kept us coming back for more. If you missed it 10 years ago when Super Mario World appeared on the Super Nintendo, don't make the same mistake twice. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• The game is very replayable thanks to multiple level exits
• Surgically precise controls
• Outstanding level designs that never get old

• Speech effects that were added for Mario and Luigi get old fast

Mario and Luigi can jump up and down pipes, climb vines, swim, and toss Koopa shells. Yoshi the dinosaur can spit eggs, munch, and climb with his ever-helpful tongue. Cool touches include spinning platforms, forced-scrolling levels, and great attacks such as the spin jump. Mario and Yoshi fly with the aid of a unique feather, shoot fireballs when equipped with a special flower, and can even raise cute baby Yoshis. Each boss poses a unique challenge. Cross-eyed Lemmy Koopa likes to play hide-and-seek in pipes, while Iggy Koopa prefers to battle on a giant Koopa shell floating on a lava lake.

This game isn't going to impress anyone on a technical level today, but I think that as far as gameplay is concerned, this can still compete in today's market. It's a timeless classic, the sort of game that will truly never go out of style. I never would have guessed I'd be able to hold this massive masterpiece in the palm of my hand. I'm reserving my copy of the GameBoy Ultima version of Mario 64 right now...


yAnd In a Decade Later, It Still Lives!y   January 7, 2002
Sixto Limiac (I Don't Know!)
26 out of 35 found this review helpful

It was 1992 and it lived in perpetual veneration. It was the year of the Super Nintendo, the return of a particular messiah. It was Mario's moment. I can still visualize the little toothless kid I was thundering from school, slamming the door on the way home, snatching the SNES controller, and directing Mario as my mom repeatedly chastised, "not so close to the TV!" I couldn't help it, at seven years old I was a gaming addict. Eventually, my face drooped closer to the TV, and in a decade of eye-ball glazing, I can salute the GBA port of Super Mario World Advance in praise, for it sizes up to the same rewarding fulfillment of its SNES forefather.

Processed with an effervescent graphical makeover, the GBA version exudes a nice blend of enhanced colors along with a slight pinch of detail. Another touch in the range of additions are the revamped music and the short, cheery quirks from Mario. Running on a higher resolution and opulent audio, Super Mario World Advance clocks in an indistinguishable experience to that of the SNES. Received as a faithful port, all the bullet stomping, shell-kicking, invincible star rampaging, and all the other aspects of 2D at its finest stuffed me on the sofa, solely rapt like I was seven-year-old again. Safe to say, in a decade later this 2D platforming masterpiece still lives in a prospect of excellence. For those who actually missed Super Mario World on the SNES (shame on you) now is the time to be acquainted with the incredible classic everyone will be revisiting.

In summary, Super Mario World Advance has the player rescue princess Toadstool from the clutches of the unrelenting turtle-villain known only as Bowser. The player's path is to sweep through the seven vast worlds where movement takes place on dotted maps. After a level is diced another dot becomes accessible and up until a castle is reached. There a Koopaling (one of Bowser's children) awaits to be whitewashed in one of many ingenious ways. Upon defeat, the next world opens and past levels may be incessantly replayed. Super Mario World Advance plays in an almost non-linear tone. Each world gushes out a great heap of secret and alternate directions. Hidden stages are typically unlocked by finding a hard-to-spot finishing point.

The colorful rebirth of Mario on the GBA remains intact, giving gamers-on-the-go a workout for the fingertips. Yet, of all its memorable and rewarding facets, Super Mario World`s real boom was its new hero, Yoshi. A dinosaur with one threatening tongue, Yoshi was ridden and used often. His use for exposing secret stages were required, letting the player experiment and endlessly search for any missed areas. With the option of handling a new and welcomed character, playing in an extensive quantity of levels, and almost non-linear gaming, gamers can see why this 2D groundbreaker help pave the way for an era of outstanding gaming.

From the world-shattering 2D of Super Mario World to the revolutionary Mario64, Miyamoto has definitely set the fundamentals of the Platform genre. And the genius who prearranged the re-releasing of Mario pastimes on the GBA is definitely a lucrative, and for the gaming audience, a grateful one. The GBA's port stocks all the bouncing stars, the flaming flowers, the growing mushrooms, the floating capes, and every1-up the SNES kept. Even if you have the original, the GBA one is still worth the weight loss of your wallet. Completed with slight enhancements, an unlimited lasting appeal, and glistening with Nintendo quality, this is Super Mario World with the liberty to play anytime and anywhere. Because sometimes it's just good to dwell on the past and into your gaming memories.


New challenges 100s of new details, not as good of graphics   February 21, 2002
Geoffrey Johnson (Lake Villa, IL United States)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful

Nintendo decided to skip Super Mario 3, and go for 96 level Super Mario World, in the second installment of Mario on Gameboy Advance. The game starts with a new intro of Mario, Luigi and Peach out in a hot air balloon, where Mario and Luigi go off flying with their caps, when they return, the Princess has disappeared! For those of you who have played Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo, nothing big has changed, but there are 100s of details which have improved, which most people would never notice, such as the ability to save anywhere (because this is portable), more sound effects like the voices of Mario and Luigi and also hold 999 lives! An amazing new feature is the colored Yoshi's! Once you find a colored Yoshi in the hidden Special World, you can find them everywhere at random. The graphics however are not as bold and bright as Super Mario World, instead they are light and dull. The sound really is not up to par with the original game either. There are new controls as well, such as the jump and run are still the A and B buttons, but now the spin jump is the R button. There are also new intros and finishes to the game. Like Super Mario Advance, there are several new challenges, such as there are now 350 dragon coins in the game, get them all, and see a little scene where Princess Peach turns them into Princess coins. For every 1 million points you earn a star is added to the start screen. Silly little challenges that will keep people working for years to come.


I should have played it before I wrote my previous review.   February 20, 2002
D. K. Malone (earth)
17 out of 26 found this review helpful

1) If you've never played SMW before, now's your chance. Do it! It's still a great game and this is an amazing port.

2) If you've played SMW to death on SNES... ugh. This is tough. Since the GBA doesn't have a 4 button layout as the SNES controllers did, they've had to improvise a bit. Spin-jumping has been relegated to the R shoulder button, and it's awkward. VERY awkward. Even after all of these years, the feel of the orginal's controls is still etched into my brain. Playing a game religiously for over two years will do that, I s'pose. I honestly don't know if I can get used to this set up.


remake of classic super NES classic mario game   January 25, 2002
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

super mario world for GBA is the exactly remake of the super NES classic released with the system when it launched 10 years ago. The game features sharp, colorful graphics, 96 levels to explore, bonus games, excellent music of Nintendo composer Koji Kondo. This remake has all of that, and in addition for the first time has voices included for both mario and luigi (which was the same upgrade for the remake of SMB2 in the original mario advance), and also give Luigi his higher jumping ability. Yoshi, the co-star of SMW, also appears in this game to gobble up enemies. I, a long time mario fan, has been waiting for this game along with other remakes of classic marios for the GBA, will guarentee that this game will not disappoint you if you love platform games, this is a must have for mario fans and newcomers should at least give this game a rent to try it out. Keep up the good work Nintendo!