Super Mario game remakes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remake of Super Mario games have been released over the years by Nintendo, often with updated graphics and added features. They feature updates of games spanning the NES, the Super NES, and the Nintendo 64. Some games have also been remade in the Classic NES series. In addition, the games of the series have seen re-releases unchanged through Virtual Console.
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[edit] Games
[edit] Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario All-Stars is an enhanced remake of the first four Mario games: the 1985 NES game Super Mario Bros., its Japanese sequel, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, its American sequel, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3. Released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it sports graphic enhancements, glitch fixes, and the ability to save one's game, allowing the player to restart from a save point instead of from the beginning, should a player lose all of their lives. An alternate version, also containing Super Mario World, was bundled with the Super Nintendo in December 1994.
[edit] 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 glitch fixes.
[edit] Super Mario Advance
Super Mario Advance is an update of the 1988 NES games Super Mario Bros. 2 , known in Japan as Super Mario USA, and Mario Bros.. 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. The main updates are voices (a la Super Mario 64), Birdo's redesign as a female, and a save system.
[edit] 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. The save system is now enhanced to save whenever rather than at specific points. The player can switch between Mario & Luigi depending on the circumstances of the level. The voices from the first Advance game are carried over.
[edit] 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 that didn't make it into the original, as well as voiceovers for Yoshi (taken from Yoshi's Story). Also, several glitches are fixed, like in the other Mario Advances.
[edit] 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. The voices were once again used, having begun on the first SMA game. A save system was added. The music was remixed. The inventory menu was made larger.
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
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. Yoshi is now the starting character instead of Mario.
[edit] Criticism
Because they are remakes of games considered classics, the re-releases have 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 flies 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.
Most of the criticism thrown at Super Mario 64 DS came from the game's control scheme; due to the original being a groundbreaker in 3D gameplay, analog control had been very important, so the D-pad on the DS is often considered a poor substitute. Possibly aware of this, developers included alternate control schemes allowing the touch screen to be used as an emulation of an analog stick. However, even this control mode is flawed, because the circle on the lower screen (which shows the speed the player is going) moves along with the stylus. Once the player moves the stylus to the edge of the screen, they need to move their stylus back into the middle again.
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.
Even though Super Mario All-Stars was successful, reviews were mixed, but mostly positive. Fans who are used to the games' standalone releases criticized the enhanced graphics and updated music, however.
[edit] See also
- List of Mario games by genre#Remakes of platformers
- Classic NES Series
- Enhanced remake
- GP2X
- Console emulation
[edit] References
- ^ a b Davis, Ryan. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 for Game Boy Advance review. October 17, 2003
- ^ Harris, Craig. "The Ultimate List: Multi-Boot Games". January 16, 2004.
- ^ Nix, Marc. Super Mario Advance review. IGN. June 14, 2001.
- ^ Ahmed, Shahed. Super Mario Advance for the Game Boy Advance review. GameSpot. June 5, 2001.
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