Review by KeyBlade999

"Mama mia! A bird on a carpet!"

Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Bros. 2 is the remake of the sequel to the world known Super Mario Bros. Well, let's get some history done. Back in the 1980s, Nintendo starting making some arcade games, namely Donkey Kong and Jumpman. Later, they moved Jumpman, or Mario, as you know him today, to their new system, the NES. They made several games for it, such as Super Mario Bros. 2, and its sequel, Super Mario Bros. 3. They kept going until the NES was becoming old. The SNES was then released. Games such as Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario RPG were released. Also released was the Super Mario World series: Super Mario World and then Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Later, though, even the SNES became obsolete, as all consoles eventually do. Nintendo therefore released the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros., and Mario Party are some of the games released for this console. Later, the GameCube was released. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Mario Sunshine, among others, were released for this console. The Nintendo Wii was the next home console to be released. Super Paper Mario, Mario Party 8, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Mario Galaxy are some of the more well known games for this. However, as you know, Nintendo worked on handhelds, too.

Their first handhelds were the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. I don't remember if any Mario games were released for these. However, there are some Mario games for the next consoles, the Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance SP, and Game Boy Micro, all of which play Game Boy Advance games. Some NES and SNES games were remade and put onto these more accessible systems. Super Mario World got its remake as Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. Yoshi's Island got its remake as Super Mario Advance 3: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 also were remade, and became Super Mario Advance (the subject of this review) and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, respectively. Other originals include Super Mario RPG's sequel, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Mario Kart. Nintendo also released the Nintendo DS. The original was released in 2004; the Nintendo DS Lite in 2006; the Nintendo DSi in 2009; the DSi XL in a point in 2010. New Super Mario Bros. (the original Super Mario Bros.'s remake) was released in 2006. Super Mario 64 DS was released in 2004. Mario Party DS was also released. Others include Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Yoshi's Island DS, and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Anyways, yeah, a lot of handheld Mario have been released, especially recently.

Well, let's jump into the Subcon of this review!

The gameplay is pretty much the same as all of the other early Mario games. This is a side-scroller type of game, but a bit different than Super Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., you walked from one side to another and - MAYBE - went up or down a pipe or two. Here, there are a lot more pipes and many, many doors. This game IS a side-scroller, make no mistake about that. However, the game will force you in many directions. Up, down, left, right, in, out, or warping, all included here. The basic end of a level in when you fight a boss, a new character to the series that is seen more and more. I will not tell you that character's name.

In addition, using some Game Boy Advances, at least one game cartridge, and some link cables, you can a multiplayer version of this game. It is somewhat like the minigame in Super Mario Bros. 3 where you fight for cards. You can also play it by yourself, which let's you set high scores. It is an easy game, somewhat, and is even more fun with friends!

The story is different from the others and stands out. Mario, after beating Bowser, supposedly, has a dream. In this dream, he is in a cave or something and spots a door. He wakes up, yada yada yada. The next day, he, Luigi, Peach, and Toad head out on a picnic. While there, Mario spots the door from his dream. It leads to a world called Subcon. They find it is in trouble, apparently from the corrupted ruler Wart (heh). They travel across seven worlds in an attempt to stop him. In short, this is a picnic run wild!

The graphics are okay. There are many more new enemies, and you don't see many of the original ones from Super Mario Bros. There isn't a single Goomba in this whole game, not a single one! Instead, you get Shy Guys, Birdos, and birds on carpets. There are some new environments, too. There is a desert, a glacier, rolling plains (sort of), the sky, and hilly areas. That alone would make one think, that on a system like this, so old, that the graphics would utterly make you puke. Well, as before, Nintendo has surprised us and gone above and beyond what everyone else could have possibly done. It is simply amazing.

The sounds... eh, okay...? Actually, they could be worse. They are rather repetitive and such, but decent. The sound of smashing an enemy is the same, as is jumping, and so on and so forth. They physical sounds (jumping, smashing, etc.) are pretty much mostly ripped off from the previous game. The themes for levels are new though, and okay. I would say that they aren't horrible, but playing a level in the same theme may get boring. Don't worry; you won't be in the same level for too long.

The time for completion can vary a bit. It varies from six hours (for experts and those with shortcuts) to a week or more (beginners or completists). This game is decent for replays, too. After all, it doesn't go on after you win, like Super Mario World. You aren't just going to play it once. You will play it dozens of times!

Super Mario Advance: Super Mario Bros. 2 is truly a great game. With new environments and enemies, as well as the four-character system, you cannot miss this. Well, you can since it is 2010 and NES games stopped selling last decade or so. However, you can buy the remake. Enjoy it, too! Seriously, although minor flaws mainly in gameplay exist, you can really enjoy this game as much as I have.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 04/05/10

Game Release: Super Mario Advance (US, 06/10/01)

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