Looking back at the 16-bit era of videogaming especially on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), there are more than a few titles that are considered some of the best ever made, even by today’s standards. If you asked gamers who owned a SNES to name a top ten game list, titles like Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, F-Zero, Super Mario Kart, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Super Metroid would all be scattered among the choices. But there’s one title that would most certainly wind up appearing on each and every list: Super Mario World. Starring Nintendo’s flagship character, it became the system-selling title that every hardware manufacturer dreams of. Now 11 years and a few system generations later, 16-bit Mario gaming perfection returns in stellar fashion with the release of Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (SMA2) for the GBA.

SMA2 is an almost-direct port of that classic SNES title, containing a few new wrinkles. The original marked the first appearance of what is now another one of Nintendo’s instantly recognizable mainstay characters, the green dinosaur Yoshi. While a little skimpy, the storyline fits right in with the Mario universe of games and its residents. It goes a little something like this: Mario sets off to Dinosaur Landwith brother Luigi and Mario’s girlfriend, Nintendo’s own royalty herself, Princess Peach for a little R & R. But of course the rest and relaxation part of the equation gets quickly thrown out the window as the Princess is kidnapped by the Mario Brothers’ archenemy Bowser, the king of the Koopas. Mario and Luigi with help from their new comrade Yoshi set out to rescue the princess-in-peril.

Where SMA2 gets its charm is from the addictive side-scrolling platform action over the game’s 90-odd intricately varied and creatively designed levels. Mario titles have always been given that extra something special by Nintendo in all facets of the respective title’s makeup. They protect their world-famous plumber and his family and friends from appearing in anything but an A+ title, and that is certainly the case here. The graphics retain the same 16-bit beautiful and somehow elaborately simplistic appearance as the SNES version, and despite being basically over a decade old, can place many other GBA title’s visuals to red-faced shame.

Controlling the brothers Mario throughout your adventuring is made easy by the game’s tight control scheme. It helps that the game is based on a 16-bit era title, where there wasn’t the controller complexity involved of mapping gameplay to the fewer controller buttons existent back then compared to today’s generation of system’s button configurations. Even though only two buttons and two triggers are at your disposal on a GameBoy Advance system, there is no problem getting your controlled character to do what you want him to when you want him to in your side-scrolling escapades.

Differing from its SNES doppelganger, in SMA2 you can now use Luigi. And just for good measure, he is given distinct abilities from his shorter, rotund brother. Being thinner and taller, Luigi has some mean vertical hops in him. Who said plumbers can’t jump? You get the choice before each new board is started as to what brother you want to use on that particular level. It throws a little more strategy into the gaming mix than was present in the SNES version. There are some areas that you can benefit from having a higher jumping ability, but usually Mario does the trick just fine on most levels in SMA2.

One other great feature is when you need to save your game. Instead of using passwords that could force you to replay levels from the beginning, the game has an instant save feature that lets you save from literally anywhere in the game. It’s a nice little convenient feature that not as many GBA games have these days.

If the port of Super Mario World wasn’t great enough, there’s also a version of the old classic original Mario Brothers arcade game, Mario Bros. This was great two-player arcade battling back in the day, and is just as fun here when you consider now you can have up to four players duking it out at once with a game-link connection. But of course the real gem is SMA2. Mario Bros. is just gravy on the potatoes.

Is this game really THAT good to garner a 10 out of 10 rating? Just on pure nostalgia value, no ifs, ands or Koopa butts about it. There’s nothing to complain about concerning this title. It’s pure old-school gaming fun at its finest. GBA owners, this game needs to be in your stockpile. If you haven’t already, go out and buy it now! It’s an instantly classic redefinition of an already classic title from the Golden Age of gaming.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com