Super Mario remake series

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Super Mario remake series is a series of re-releases of Mario titles for handheld consoles, often with updated graphics and added features. The series features updates of games spanning the NES, the Super NES, and the Nintendo 64.

1 Games
2 Criticism
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Games

[edit] Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

Main article: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is an update of the 1985 NES game Super Mario Bros., and it also contains a modified version of its 1986 Japanese sequel, Super Mario Bros. 2 (known as The Lost Levels in Super Mario All-Stars, and here called For Super Players). It was released in 1999 for Game Boy Color. It includes a Challenge Mode, Toy Box, and Vs. Mode, and it has the Minus world glitch fixed.

[edit] Super Mario Advance

Main article: Super Mario Advance

Super Mario Advance is an update of the 1988 NES game Super Mario Bros. 2 , known in Japan as Super Mario USA. Super Mario Bros. 2 is itself a remake of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom Disk System. It was released in 2001 for Game Boy Advance.

[edit] Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2

Main article: Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2

Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 is an update of the 1991 SNES game Super Mario World, released in 2002 for Game Boy Advance. It includes a new system that keeps track of Dragon coins collected, and new Princess Peach coins to collect.

[edit] Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Main article: Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 is a port of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, originally released in 1995 on the SNES. Critically hailed as one of the best games of the 16-bit era, Yoshi's Island was originally hurt by its release at the end of the SNES's life. Fans were eager to see it re-released, and it became a big hit, despite receiving noticeably less marketing than Super Mario Advance 2. It is mostly unchanged from the original version, but has six new levels, as well as voiceovers for Yoshi (taken from Yoshi's Story).

[edit] Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

Main article: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3 is an updated version of Super Mario Bros. 3. The game was very well received by both retro and modern gamers. Reflecting its status as the best-selling stand-alone game of all time in its original incarnation, the remake sold very well.

This remake is also the only Super Mario Advance game to use the e-Reader accessory. Players could swipe e-cards to add and unlock items. Nintendo also developed an E-World, a world made up of Level Cards that the player swiped in. However, the e-Reader did not catch on in North America, and was soon discontinued after the release of the game. Because of the quick discontinuation, only a quarter of the e-Cards that were released in Japan are available in the US.

[edit] Super Mario 64 DS

Main article: Super Mario 64 DS

Super Mario 64 DS is an updated version of the 1996 Nintendo 64 title Super Mario 64. The update was a launch title for the Nintendo DS in 2004 and included many enhancements: redesigned models and textures, giving the game a much improved graphical look; the ability to play as Yoshi, Luigi and Wario; 30 new stars (as well as some older star objectives removed and replaced with new ones); 5 new mini-courses; single-card multiplayer; and 36 touch-screen mini-games.

[edit] Criticism

Because they are remakes of games considered classics, the series has had high expectations that, according to some journalists and critics, are not always met.

All four of the Super Mario Advance games (along with Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga) feature the original Mario Bros. 1983 arcade game. The game features multi-player capabilities, with the additional ability to link-up to any other copy of Mario Bros., regardless of which game it was included with. As the series continued, this fell under criticism. By Super Mario Advance 4, GameSpot called the game a "throwaway feature" ^[1], while Craig Harris from IGN complained that Yoshi's Island had some "really cool" mini-games that could have been alternatively offered. ^[2]

Out of the new features, the voices were by far the most controversial and loathed addition. While some people love the voices, others detest them. For Super Mario Advance, Marc Nix wrote that "these four never shut up" ^[3] but nevertheless did not detest them. Shahed Amed from GameSpot said that the voiceovers were "bearable" ^[4], but Ryan Davis' review of Super Mario Advance 4 blasted the voiceovers, saying that they "feel incredibly out of place" and that the repetition was bothersome. ^[1] Interestingly enough, Super Mario Advance is the only game in the series where the boss characters were given actual voices in addition to the main playable characters.

Some also noticed that the graphics looked a bit worse than their original or Super Mario All-Stars counterparts, as the games were ported into a screen of a lower resolution, palettes are changed slightly, colours are overly bright and some colors are lost. This is especially true with Super Mario Advance 2 in which the sprites are "fuzzy", "overly bright", and "washed-out". In Super Mario Advance 4, while there was a palette bump-up, the game lost much of its parallax scrolling in the backgrounds. Some fans have noticed that the layers in the background of many of the levels only scroll at different rates vertically, meaning that there is no different rates of scrolling horizontally. For example, when Mario flys up to the sky in a grass level the cloud layer seems to "overlap" the other layers, but there is no difference when Mario is just walking. In Super Mario All-Stars as well as E3 trailers of Super Mario Advance 4, the backgrounds scrolled horizontally as well as vertically, although Nintendo got the scrolling rates wrong.

The screen's aspect ratio is also different in the Game Boy Color/Advance remakes than a standard TV. Because of this parts of the screen is cut off. This is often frustrating in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe as well as some of the Super Mario Advance games.

Additionally, certain purists have taken exception to slight changes to gameplay, such as changes in difficulty and level designs, and features missing compared to their original counterparts.