Handheld gaming is more than a compromise of power and portability. Whether it’s the ability to play anywhere, multitask or hold an entire console in your hands, it’s a special experience consoles have never replicated. In a world where high resolutions and teraflops reign supreme, we take a look at a portable relic every month and reflect on what makes it memorable. Be warned, spoilers may occasionally populate these articles.
Despite having many celebrated IPs, no character is more synonymous with Nintendo thanMario. The mustachioed plumber got his start in 1981 in Donkey Kong, where in the English translation he is named Jumpman, which is a step up from his nameless status in the Japanese release. But from these humble beginnings, Mario soon had no shortage of work as he was starring in his own games and appearing in supporting roles in games such as Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Mario’s success naturally meant that when Nintendo entered the 16-bit arena to include Super Mario World with the purchase of a Super Nintendo console (yep, back in the 1900s, game consoles used to come with games). A decade later, the handheld Game Boy Advance became a popular spot for 16-bit classics to find a second life. Thus is the case with Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2.
Pocket Power: Super Mario Land
Mario: Scourge of Bowser and PETA
Super Mario World is from a bygone era where most games didn’t delve too deep into the story in too much detail during the actual gameplay, but instead outlined the story in the instruction booklet that was included with the game. Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool (currently known as Princess Peach) were taking a vacation to Dinosaur Land, a place that was not too dissimilar from the Mushroom Kingdom but filled with unique geographic features and dinosaurs. After recently being defeated by Mario and Luigi, Bowser and the Koopalings must have also had a similar idea about taking a vacation to Dinosaur Land, as Bowser has once again captured the princess and conveniently found seven castles on seven islands to have the Koopalings take over.
The story continues, at least according to the booklet, as these events don’t exactly play out this way in the game. Mario and Luigi embark on their quest to rescue the princess and stumble across an egg in the forest. The egg hatches and out comes a dinosaur named Yoshi, who explains that Bower’s bratty spawn have imprisoned all his friends in eggs. Yoshi also gives Mario a cape, which can grant him the power of flight. Mario, Luigi and Yoshi continue on their journey. Knowing the story in the booklet, one can’t help but feel bad for Yoshi. The frog-tongued dinosaur just wants some help rescuing his friends and the Mario brothers shamelessly bounce off his back to avoid plummeting to their doom in bottomless pits, leaving poor Yoshi to fall to his demise.
This isn’t the only instance where Mario’s treatment of Yoshi is called into question. While this may not be the case and may simply be the result of the animation limits in 1990, some have claimed that Mario hits Yoshi on the back of the head to make him attack. In more innocent younger days, the assumption was Mario was simply gesturing to give Yoshi the attack command, though it can be seen why others would interpret it as Mario giving Yoshi a smack upside the head. The preferred head canon is the gesturing command, as Mario seems like he’d be too nice to resort to violence to make his companion attack, but with the animation limits, players are free to fill in the gaps however they see fit. Having to use one’s imagination is part of the charm of classic games, even if it does sometimes lead to debates such as this.
Platforming With and Without Dinosaurs
Despite being fodder for the debate about which side of your approval Mario’s behavior falls, Yoshi is a useful companion in Super Mario World. When riding on Yoshi, if Mario is hit by one of Bower’s minions, Mario won’t take any damage and Yoshi will run away. Assuming Yoshi doesn’t run off a cliff, Mario can jump on Yoshi and resume riding him. Yoshi’s tongue attack is useful for taking out enemies or eating fruit, which can have its own benefits, and also storing Koopa shells for later use. And yes, if Mario ever finds himself falling down one of those bottomless pits, he can jump off of Yoshi, sacrificing the dinosaur as Mario can reach the next platform. Yoshi is a useful companion indeed, but he does have his limits. He won’t follow Mario into Ghost Houses or any of the castles or fortresses.
Without Yoshi, Super Mario World plays much like the previous Mario games. Mario collects coins and is powered-up by mushrooms. Stars make him invincle, flowers let him throw fireballs and the cape lets him fly. Mario’s standard attack is jumping on enemies, but can utilize turtle shells and use his spinning cape as a weapon. Mario is a skilled jumper and uses his super high jumps to get around most of the world, but this game introduces his spinning jump. It doesn’t have the same height as his regular jump, but is useful in other ways.
Branching Pathways
Like Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World uses a world map. There’s a linear path to end of each island, but the world map does allow for some exploration. Some levels, indicated by red dots instead of yellow, have two different end points which can open different paths on the map. Unlike Super Mario Bros. 3, the player can return to previously beaten levels to farm coins, 1ups, other power ups or grab a Yoshi. It would be a huge stretch to claim Super Mario World is an open world game, but it does have enough diverging pathways to encourage exploration off the beaten path.
Exploring can lead to discovering secrets such as Star Road. This secret area has entry points on various islands in Dinosaur Land. Star Road is where Mario can find different color Yoshis that offer different abilities. The blue Yoshi can fly, the yellow Yoshi can use a ground pound attack, while the red Yoshi gets terrible indigestion and turns any Koopa shell into fireballs. Finding different colored Yoshis isn’t essential to completing Super Mario World, but they are fun to find. Additionally, completing Star Road in the original SNES version brings changes to the color scheme and changes the appearance of some enemies.
The Only Constant Is Change
Porting the SNES classic to Game Boy Advance did bring about a few changes. For example, Luigi can be played in single player mode, but instead of simply being a palette swap for Mario, his appearance and jumping style was changed to match how he was represented in the American Super Mario Bros. 2. A quality-of-life improvement that was added is the ability to save anywhere, instead of having to complete a Ghost House or Caslte. The difficulty was also made more forgiving with regard to losing all power ups when hit, though this wasn’t a game that needed to be made easier. Classic Mario Bros. is also included in the Game Boy Advance port, which supports up to four players via link cable.
Super Mario World isn’t just one of the best Mario games out there, it is one of the best platformers in general.
Super Mario World isn’t just one of the best Mario games out there, it’s one of the best platformers in general. Super Mario World combines the elements of what made the classic 8-bit Super Mario games great and added new features that took advantage of the more powerful hardware. Enemy creatures in Mario games have always seemed to have a lot of personality, which was true of the 8-bit games, but really came to light when they made the jump to 16-bit. The levels become more progressively difficult but never anything unbeatable, and while the focus of Mario games is platforming, the boss fights against the Reznor and the Koopalings are nice sendoffs before moving to the next island. The final battle against Bowser is also a wonderfully-creative take on how Mario can keep fighting the same villain but having it always feel fresh.
Review: Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG succeeds at invoking feelings of nostalgia for the 16-bit era while looking good enough to pass for a modern game.
