Every Nintendo system has to have a Mario game. That's just the way it is. So I wasn't surprised to find out that one of the Game Boy Advance's launch titles was a Mario game. But I was surprised to find out that the game would just be an update to a classic. Of course to me it wasn't the greatest news in the world. I was expecting a whole new game, not just some updated game which Nintendo just threw together! And to make things worse, Super Mario Bros. 2 is just a NES game! What happened to the GBA being compared to the Super NES?

But to be fair to Nintendo I really can't compare the game to the NES version. There's been so many improvements, from graphics to gameplay, that the two are almost unrecognisable as the same game. If Super Mario Advance is going to be compared to another game it should be the Super Mario Bros. 2 included in the Super NES game, Mario All Stars. The two have basically the same look, although the Game Boy Advance version has added some nice improvements, such as the enemies and vegatables.

The real improvement though is in gameplay. Nintendo's added so many things to the game. There are some small improvements like every character having his own lives and being able to see each character's stats in the select character screen. But then there are the big ones, especially the addition of voices. Although it's sometimes annoying to hear Toad saying "Okay!" it's also really cool to hear Mario say things like "Let's agoooo!" Even the bosses talk, which isn't necasarily a good thing when you consider Birdo's seriously strange voice. More additions include having to collect coins so you can get 100% and get something nice, giant enemies and vegatables, and greatly improved music.

Of course this preview wouldn't be complete without me talking about the other half of the game, the origanal Mario Bros, the game that started it all. The game has seriously been updated. Nintendo has made the game much more detailed. That includes everything: Mario and Luigi, the enemies and pipes and platforms, and the backgrounds. Most of the gameplay is the same. You get very few lives to get past as many levels as you can. The levels are basically the same, just getting harder as you go along. There are three main enemies: the spiked turtles, the crabs, and the hopping flies. You can play it in two multiplayer modes: cooperative, which needs you to have two paks, and battle which can be played with four people and just one pak.

Overall I think that Super Mario Advance is a great game for you to pick up. That is, if you've never played it before. But if you've played and beaten earlier versions of the game then it might not be such a sure thing. Your choice.

Now Playing in Background: Mario Advance Intro

-NGN.com