The world's greatest side-scroller is back for an encore on GBA. Was it really more than 10 years ago that the Super Nintendo plowed into the gaming world? Jeez this makes me feel old! I remember those days when I spent hours playing SMW in front of my TV trying to find all 96 goals and save the Princess too. Beaning Bowser with Mechakoopas was always a good stress-reliever, not to mention that the ending sequence had such catchy music! You know: "dum da dum, da da duh da da daa..." And I forgot how many lives I lost trying to get through Special World for the first time (shiver). That Awesome course hasn't gotten much easier even with 10 years of practice...
Ahem, anyway, I'm glad to see this classic game returning for a new generation of gamers. It looks just like the original, although the sound isn't quite as full due to the smaller speakers. The programmers also added some small improvements. Among them is the ability to switch back and forth between the brothers! As in SMB2, Luigi jumps much higher than his brother, but he also flies a bit slower. The screen text was also altered to always include poor Luigi in those "castle clear" cinema sequences (if you go back to the SNES version, you'll see that it only says "Mario," not "Mario and Luigi"). So nice to see the two brothers getting more equal billing! The ending sequence also shows both of the brothers heading back to Yoshi's house, with the one who stomped Bowser leading and the other taking up the rear. So cool! And the colored Yoshis are a lot easier to come by. Once you find them in Star World, you'll come across them in regular Yoshi eggs across all of Dinosaur Land depending on which form you're in! For instance, if you hit the block as Caped Mario, you'll get a Blue Yoshi (!), and as Fire Mario, a Red Yoshi. Totally sweet!
There's also the addition of a cute cinema sequence when you reach all 96 goals, as well as a nice opening one when you start up the game. The essence of the original SMW was brilliantly captured for the small screen, and those of you who missed it absolutely MUST grab this game! It's a piece of Nintendo's history, and one of the greatest Mario games ever made. And for the seasoned veterans like me who played this back in the dark ages (i.e. 1991), it's like an old friend returning from hibernation (at least to you fools who sold you Super Nintendos!). Playing this brings me back to the good old days of 16-bit platformers--before fancy 3D graphics made everything so complicated. While the games of today are certainly fun, exciting, and flashy, every once in awhile it's good to look to the past and remember what has always constituted a good game--one that you can love just as much now as you did 10 years ago.