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3 and that you've already played a least one of the Mario Advance remakes. Therefore, it should be a simple application of Bloom's higher taxonomical functions to collide those two experiences, chocolate and peanut-butter style, and synthesize for yourself a reasonable idea of what to expect here. You should know whether or not you'll like this game before you even open the box.
The overall quality is on par with the previous installments of the Mario Advance series. The round, squishy graphics from Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES are reproduced here perfectly. The levels and action of the original game are exactly as you remember them. A brief prologue has been added out of a dutiful sense of recognition that, yes, it's the year 2003 and if a game doesn't tell a story it had damned well better have the word "Tetris" somewhere in the title. Mario's lanky sibling Luigi has been turned into a fully playable - and immensely floaty - character. And, for better or for worse, Mario has been given a voice. (Mercifully, his newfound larynx is far less grating here than it was in the remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2 or Yoshi's Island.)
Of course, being a remake of a remake, Mario Advance 4 does suffer a bit in the translation. Most notable is the sense of crowdedness endemic to SNES-to-GBA ports, the unavoidable result of losing half of the older console's pixels for the sake of fitting everything into the handheld's lower resolution. This information loss is every bit as annoying here as in any other remake, possibly even more so. SMB3 is a tough, unrelenting game, designed specifically to be a perfect challenge for a completely different set of screen proportions. Certain bits of the game - usually the already difficult bits, like auto-scrolling stages and water levels - now tend to be stupidly hard. Keep track of how many times you plummet to your doom as a result of a once-simple jump which has become a leap of faith, how many times you're speared by an unseen squid as you swim downward into a blue void of mystery when you could easily have seen the deadly cephalopod coming on the big screen. Save a quarter for every curse you mutter because of these cheap deaths, and at the end of the game, go buy yourself a new doghouse. ProTip: unless you like being frustrated by compromised gameplay, you're probably gonna want to warp whistle your way past Worlds 3 (Ocean Park) and 5 (The Sky).
A lesser problem with the game is that the physics and control seem a little more slippery than in the original NES version. But that could simply be a false memory distorted by my atrophied gaming skills, which once ate Battletoads and Contra for breakfast but are now sluggish and dull after years of soggy 3D platformers and complacent RPGs. Make no mistake: if your idea of a hard game is Spyro the Dragon, Mario Advance 4 will humble you.
The good news is that you will enjoy every moment of humiliation that you're handed. Despite Mario Advance 4's flaws - imagined or otherwise - it's still based on one of the most popular games of all time, and that popularity was earned the hard way. Specifically: with great gameplay, clever enemies, smartly escalating challenge, and cool power-ups. Unlike the first true Mario sequel, The Lost Levels, SMB3 didn't simply offer "more of the same, but harder." It smashed the mold for action platforming established by the original game, further raising the bar for everyone who hoped to cash in on the simple but brilliant Mario gameplay formula. It established Nintendo's portly plumber as a genuine gaming superstar - a character whose every new appearance was guaranteed to be fun.
Admittedly, SMB3 hasn't aged with complete grace. It lacks the immensity and variety of Super Mario World; its levels seem almost scandalously brief compared to those of, say, Mario Sunshine; the whimsy and personality of Yoshi's Island are but a faint echo here. But those aren't flaws within the game itself; rather, they're a tribute to the quality of its successors. In many ways, Mario 3 is the perfect realization of the concepts established in Super Mario Bros., a bridge between the classic arcade action games and the more adventurous exploits of the 16-bit era and beyond. This is simply a different sort of experience than contemporary Mario offers. It's a game that was designed to be completed in a single sitting, without saves or passwords. The levels are short, but each one contains a daunting degree of difficulty - by the time you reach the roulette block after two intense minutes spent traversing a fiendishly hard pipe maze puzzle or leaping across a series of floating platforms, you'll welcome the respite. And were it not for the personality established by the offbeat enemies and unique powerup suits of SMB3, the crayon-scribble wonderland of Yoshi's Island might never have existed.
However, the real strength of Mario Advance 4 isn't its value as a historical gaming document. What makes this game a must-have for everyone who has ever enjoyed a Mario adventure is what Nintendo has added to the mix. Graphics, sound and battery saves aside, Mario Advance 4 actually changes little about the original game. Veterans will feel right at home stomping on brobdignagian turtles or hopping about in Kuribo's Shoe. Purists will be disappointed to find they have little to complain about. Newcomers will be able to experience the game that inspired a terrifying commercial in which millions of children were assimilated into a globe-spanning Mario face. But in addition to a faithful port of SMB3, Mario Advance 4 offers potentially limitless opportunities for expansion thanks to cleverly-integrated support for the eReader peripheral.
When you open the Super Mario Advance 4 box, you'll notice a pair of eCards inside. One is a power-up card that allows you to add an unlimited number of Leaves to your stock, and the other opens up a single stage in an entirely new world. This information is permanently saved to your cartridge after being scanned, allowing you to revisit these bonus levels at your leisure. And herein lies the real potential of the game - by releasing new eCards (the first two series went on sale simultaneously with the game), Nintendo can effectively offer players an endless number of new stages and challenges to keep them coming back to SMB3 for years. Each eCard contains information for a power-up or complete stage within only a few KB of code; a single megabyte of save RAM could store hundreds of new levels. While we haven't had a chance to make use of any cards except the pair included with the game, Nintendo has teased us with images of elements from other Mario titles appearing in upcoming bonus levels. Unlimited unlockable stages is enticing; the opportunity to mix-and-match power-ups from Super Mario World or Super Mario 2 in these completely new stages should be enough to make a fan weep (and possibly send a truckload of Christmas hams to Kyoto).
Naturally, the eReader support isn't without its own hitches. The first is price - these new levels and power-ups don't come free. They require the use of the eReader device ($35), and the cards cost $6 per pack. Oh, and since you can't use the eReader and a game simultaneously in the same system, you'll also need a GBA Link cable ($10) and a second GBA ($60-100) or GameCube with GameBoy Player ($150). And transferring information from a system with an eReader to a GBA with Mario Advance 4 is a feat of almost Rube Goldberg complexity. Believe it: Nintendo is making you work for your extras. But, honestly, it's easily worth it, especially if you've played all the existing Mario games to death and are tired of waiting for Mario 128 (or that holiest of grails, a completely original Mario Advance game).
Mario Advance 4 isn't perfect, but it clearly tries its best to get there. Even with its cropped screen dimensions and the awkwardness and added cost required to access its eCard features, Nintendo has managed to cram a mind-boggling amount of fun onto a tiny cartridge. Whether you were inculcated with SMB3 fanaticism by Fred Savage a decade ago or have lived a deprived life and never touched the game, this is a title that deserves to be in your GBA collection. The potential and flexibility offered by the game's eReader support alone makes the previous Mario Advance titles look like rip-offs in comparison. Unless you're allergic to replay value and quality game design, you need this game.
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