NuMetalManiak Reviews: Super Mario Advance Titles
NuMetalManiak I remember the first time I got myself a Game Boy Advance. That was at a time when I was intrigued by kids owning the Game Boy Color, so getting the next best thing was pretty cool. Along with it was a game by the name of Super Mario Advance. What I found out was this game was a lot older than this release I picked up. And there were several game titles going by the moniker Super Mario Advance shortly after than that. Basically speaking, I am reviewing ports of older games, and how they compare to their originals. You may recall I talked about Final Fantasy III in an RPG Review, and there I mentioned how much the DS port was abominable. So what do I think about the Super Mario Advance titles that made their way onto the GBA?I won't go into too much detail on the games themselves. The first Super Mario Advance gives us Super Mario Bros 2, originally an NES game, and easily the most underrated NES Mario game there ever was. This port of course has updated graphics and gameplay. Super Mario Advance 2 has the venerable SNES game Super Mario World, whom pretty much everyone knows at this point. Super Mario Advance 3 is Yoshi's Island, also known as Super Mario World 2, with a few new additions. I'd like to mention I'm currently playing through the original SNES release right now, even though I'm playing an RPG at the same time. And Advance 4 is merely Super Mario Bros 3, again with updated graphics over the SNES game. Each and every one of these games also is bundled with Mario Bros, the arcade game that was also an NES game, and of course it's updated heavily. Also, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, an RPG I previously reviewed, also had this updated Mario Bros as well.
As far as new things brought onto the table, the first Advance game had a few new things added, like the A coins which are like the Yoshi coins from Mario World, and there was a brand new boss on World 3 plus a new challenge after beating the entire game. Advance 2 offered the ability to play as Luigi, with his much higher jumping ability. Advance 3 gave new Secret Stages in addition to Extra Stages, except these were awarded after beating the entire game which kind of sucks. The Endless World of Yoshis level somehow became one of the most infamous levels though. And Advance 4 actually had e-Reader levels, but since I never owned one, I didn't really know much about that.
Of all the things the Super Mario Advance titles did to the originals, the most notorious would have to be the voice acting. Oh goodness, that voice acting sure is something. Every character got voice acting, and so did some bosses (in Advance 1). But in all honesty, that voice acting can become quite excruciating to hear. Think about it, would hearing "mamma mia" in such high pitch every time Mario or even Luigi loses a life in-game, or any other voice clips that do get grating after awhile. This applies for Mario Bros as well. And for Yoshi's Island? The one game where Mario is a baby? I believe I mentioned on a list I made that the Baby Mario crying got worse. It was quite annoying in the original SNES release, but in the GBA remake it went from being quite annoying to just completely grating. And if that weren't enough, the Yoshi's get tons of grunts and noises as well. Sadly, these noises end up getting reused in later games, like Yoshi's Island DS for example.
So yes, the Super Mario Advance titles are just updated rereleases of classic Mario games, giving new graphics, some basically new gameplay, but unfortunately the voice acting is quite terrible. It's a love-it-or-hate-it affair for the most part. There wasn't anything completely out of the ordinary as far as the remake's gameplay goes, it's just the voice acting that gets me everytime. Now I shall resume my Yoshi's Island playthrough.