Super Mario Advance 2 Review

Game reviewed: Super Mario Advance 2
Developer: Nintendo
Reviewed by: speculative
Genre: Platformer
Release date: 2/10/2002
System: Gameboy Advance

Introduction:
The Super Mario Bros. franchise continues on Gameboy Advance with the release of Super Mario Advance 2. Super Mario Advance 2 is a port of the SNES game Super Mario World. Super Mario World is undoubtedly one of the greatest platformers ever created. How does the game hold up on the Gameboy Advance?

Graphics: 3.5/5
I’m a big fan of rating games by comparing them to other titles for the same system, so I’ll give the graphics a 3.5. Frankly, they’re not nearly as detailed as the graphics of Rayman Advance (Compare the background graphics, for example) or Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. That said, Mario’s graphics are still very good. Increased detail in the backgrounds might have actually detracted from game play elements anyway. One complaint I do have about both this game and its predecessor, Super Mario Advance, is that the graphics were designed to fit on a TV screen; therefore, the level designs are built to fit a small character. On a TV, this isn’t a problem, as everything is easy to see. On the GBA, the ideal screen is built to fit a larger character who is easier to see, as well as larger enemies. Some of the enemies in the GBA port of Super Mario World seem a bit small because of this situation. For comparison, take a look at a Warioland game and you’ll see the characters and levels in those games have been designed from the ground-up with the Gameboy systems in mind.

Music: 4/5
The music in SMA2 is excellent. It is only slightly diminished from the SNES version of the game because of the GBA’s speaker, but the music still sounds excellent. Like previous SMB games, SMA2 re-uses the same compositions for levels throughout the game; however, the music never seems stale. Most of the tunes are bright and lively. The most noticeable addition to the SMB music-lineup are the “cave” and “haunted house” compositions. The music for the haunted house levels is slightly eerie yet remains whimsical. One nice feature of the game is that when Mario is atop Yoshi, a “riding theme” drum-beat is placed over the top of the level’s current musical theme. Overall, there is a nice variety of music.

Sound Effects: 4/5
The first thing I remember about sounds effects is the “echo” present whenever Mario goes down a pipe or enters a cave level. Super Mario World was the first game I can remember playing that had sound effects that changed as the environment changed. Also, many of the sound effects from the previous SMB games appear in SMA2 with improvements. For example, there isn’t a simple “whoo-eep” sound when Mario jumps on a spinning turtle shell. Instead, there is a “ka-chack” sound that seems to be composed of layers instead of a single sound.

One addition to the GBA version of Super Mario World is the voice samples. I think that Nintendo learned their lesson and didn’t make them nearly as prevalent as they were in Super Mario Advance (a port of SMB2 for the NES). While they don’t really add anything to the game, neither do they become annoying, and it’s slightly amusing to think that someone got paid to say, “Ah, just what I needed!” in a Mario-esque voice so that Mario could exclaim every time he grabbed a power-up.

Storyline: 2.5/5
“Save the Princess!” Even if the Super Mario Bros. franchise didn’t invent the “save the princess” scenario, it is one of the first console games to popularize the “rescue mission.” Just who is this Bowser character and why has he kidnapped Princess Toadstool? The world may discover how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop before Bowser’s motives are revealed. Suffice it to say that he’s the bad guy, he’s got some offspring helping him out, and Mario is going to have a rough go of it whenever these guys are up to no good. Frankly, any plumber worth his salt would have used some Liquid Drano on that clog and saved himself a lot of trouble… While the storyline is certainly lackluster, fans of Mario aren’t looking for cut scenes or screen after screen of dialogue boxes anyway. What they are looking for is game play and fun, and SMA2 has that in spades.

Characters: 4/5
Mario may be one of videogame-dom’s leading men, but he’d have a rough go of it in a starring role on the big screen. His main skills include jumping, crouching, flying, growing larger, shooting fireballs, and swimming. If he were to make a go of it in Hollywood, more likely than not Mario would be the industry’s leading stunt man shortly after his arrival. Overall, the characters in SMA2 are very flat and undeveloped. This is perfectly fine though – as mentioned before Mario fans aren’t looking for a deep story. All the characters are presented fluently in a unique, engaging artistic style. There are plenty of frames of animation for a port of a first-generation 16-bit game. As an added bonus to this port of SMW, Luigi is included as a playable character, complete with voice samples.

One great addition to the Super Mario franchise is the addition of a companion for Mario, called Yoshi. Yoshi is a green dinosaur that looks like a cross between a brontosaurus and a stegosaurus. Yoshi can eat enemies with a long tongue that shoots out of hit mouth, and also eat other items like turtle shells that are on the ground or apples that are in some levels. SMA2 also includes some great new characters in the form enemies, including a giant version of “Bullet Bill” and several variations of new dinosaur-themed foes. Some of the main boss themes are re-used, most often using the same screens with some gimmicks to increase the difficulty level of later bosses. Overall, the enemies in SMA2 are creative, lively, and well-rendered.

Controls: 5/5
The controls in SMA2 do exactly what you tell them to do. Unfortunately, when you’re cruising along and run across a flock of flying turtles, the fine-tuned controls can’t save you if you don’t have a good game-plan for out-maneuvering them. For example, SMA2 sometimes stacks flying enemies on top of one another, similar to the flying “V” formation that geese use to trek across continents. What this means is that sometimes you can run and jump, and sometimes you have to use a little strategy to get past the enemies in the game. I’ve often cursed myself for overshooting my goal when leaping from a precipice, but I can’t remember ever blaming it on the game’s controls.

The added game play elements, such as a new flying system via superhero’s cape, are translated expertly through the control system. The controls are instantly responsive, and in fact reminiscent of twitch-style shooters from the 16-bit era. By comparison, Grand Theft Auto III’s character controls feel extremely sluggish and unresponsive. One oddity present in the game is the ability to “shift” the entire screen to the right by pressing the top right button. This might very well be the first example of “camera control” present in a console video game.

Humor: 3/5
This game really doesn’t have humor per se, but it is generally light-hearted and whimsical. For example, as in SMB3, the ghosts in the haunted levels only chase you when Mario’s back is turned to them. (Obviously, this game is not for the hard-core fragger who is more concerned about pings than princesses.) Nintendo is the Disney of the video game medium. Nearly all of their mega-franchises (SMB, Zelda, Donkey Kong) are suitable for “kids of all ages.” There are no specific “jokes” present in the game, but some are played out in the brief cut scenes that appear after beating on of the main bosses.

Performance: 5/5
Generally, performance is not an issue on console games. If any mention of performance is made it usually means that the game shipped with bugs, which is unusual for a console title. As with most of Nintendo’s first-party games, the performance was excellent. There were no performance issues with the game.

Multiplayer: 3/5
Unfortunately, as a “lone gunman” I cannot test the multi-player features of Gameboy Advance titles without picking up another GBA unit and gaining some flexibility in my toes. For those with a social life, there is a 4-player feature present in the form of the included “Mario Bros.” This version includes improved graphics and better control than previous iterations. SMA2 is made to be a single-player game; therefore; I’ll give it a score of “average” for its multi-player aspects.

Game play: 5/5
Most games can only dream of attaining the level of quality of the game play in SMA2. Super Mario Bros. is the game that almost single-handedly raised the video game industry like a phoenix from the ashes back in 1985, and SMA2 is an advanced, improved iteration of the style of game play that SMB introduced. There are few games that allow one to achieve a Zen-like state of playing, but SMA2 is one of them. Many of the enemies are easy to defeat if a player their time getting through each level, but serious gamers will hold down the fire button for “run-and-gun” sprints through each level. While players could take a more relaxed approach to the game, constantly holding down the run-button changes the game dramatically, invariably making SMA2 a more harrowing and rewarding experience.

In SMA2, game play is generally still a left-to-right proposition, but with the advances in technology at the time, the designers did add a little variety to the game in certain places. For example, caves, castles, and water levels generally move in every direction, as in SMB3. The meat-and-potatoes levels can generally be completed by a veteran Mario gamer well before the time limit runs out. The special levels, or boss levels, can take 5-10 minutes apiece. Many of the levels actually have a longer shelf life because they hold a secret such as an entrance to the Star Road or simply multiple exits that lead to chances at free lives or other power-ups.

Along with jumping on enemies’ heads and shooting fireballs at them, Mario can also defeat his foes by eating them with Yoshi or twirling his cape. When Mario is riding Yoshi, and an enemy hits them, Mario jumps off. Yoshi runs away, but Mario can re-mount the dashing dino if he can catch up to him. Yoshi can fly if Mario is equipped with the cape, and he can also eat enemies. If Yoshi eats a turtle, different abilities will be bestowed upon him depending upon the color of the turtle’s shell. Some allow Yoshi to spit a fireball, while others allow him to fly under his own power without Mario’s cape. Mario’s flight capabilities aren’t fluff; in fact, he needs to fly to reach certain areas of the game in order to advance. The designers made sure that it wouldn’t be beneficial for gamers to simply fly over the top of each level. Besides Yoshi, Luigi offers some additional help to gamers in the form of extra-floaty jumping. Personally, I’ve always liked Luigi, but his floaty jumping seems like an anti-thesis in this case to the precise, quick controls of Mario. I steered clear of Luigi for the most part.

The power-up system has changed slightly. Instead of having an inventory of power-ups, such as in SMB3, Mario can now keep a spare power-up in a box at the top of the screen, and access it when needed. Generally, power-ups are well-placed around the different levels to balance their difficulty. Even during the difficult sections of SMA2, the game never becomes “throw the controller across the room” frustrating. It’s obvious that the Nintendo developers who designed Super Mario World spent a lot of time balancing the game play, in part because when the game was originally released it was the flagship title for the SNES.

One marked change from previous games is the lack of an insta-warp to later levels. Instead, there is a separate “world” which one must complete to be able to warp to the end of the game. This world is called the “Star Road” and is shaped like a giant star. There’s a lot of wacky, fun levels in the Star Road so it’s worth the extra effort to find the entrances. They are scattered throughout the game; the first one is located in world 2 and there is a tip box in one of the haunted houses that hints at its location. There are some very hard levels in the “Star Road” that can tax a gamer’s patience; however, completion of these levels isn’t necessary to beat the game. Donkey Kong Country 2’s secret level system used a similar scheme. This system is similar to “price discrimination” methods that merchants use to sell the same good to different people at different prices. For example, a casual gamer might take the fastest route to the end of the game and be satisfied, while a hardcore gamer would beat every level of the Star Road. While both players beat the game, they paid different prices to achieve the same goal. This aspect of the SMA2 warp system exemplifies the Mario franchise’s “one-size-fits-all” philosophy.

Conclusion:
Super Mario World is old enough that a reviewer on “Gamers.com” thought that the 5 Yoshi coins hidden in each level were an addition to the GBA version. (They’re not – they were present in the SNES version as well.) Even if you played Super Mario World for the SNES system back in its heyday, Super Mario Advance 2 is definitely worth another play-through. I beat the game in under 15 hours, but if you want to find all the secrets and beat every level, expect to spend at least 30 hours on the game. This is a must-have title, and an amazing amount of game for a portable system. Super Mario Advance 2 is an excellent example of the best of level design and game play on any system.

Averaged Score: 3.9/5
Final Score: 4.5/5
Only a few small, overlookable things keep SMA2 from being a perfect 5. For example, the characters are smaller than they might be for optimal viewing on the GBA screen. However, Super Mario Advance 2 is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and therefore receives a final score slightly higher than its average score.

About the reviewer:
Played games since: Before anyone had heard of Nintendo (except for that gorilla game), Sega, or Sony.
Main platforms: Atari 5200, NES, GB, SNES, PSX, PS2, GC, DC, PC
Favorite Genres: Platformers, Action/Shooters, RPG's
Favorite Titles: Super Mario Bros. 2, Rayman 2 (DC version), Planescape Torment, UT99

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