As Scott established in his review, Super Mario Bros. 2 was just a placeholder until the true sequel, Super Mario Bros. 3, was ready. What I find ironic is that Nintendo has re-used the same game for the exact same reason. The highly-anticipated port of Super Mario World, would not have been finished in time for launch (as of this writing, it is only a few months away) so Super Mario Bros. 2 was the substitute. Unfortunately, by taking such a shortcut, Nintendo has wound up with the same result. When it was all said and done, Super Mario Advance left me wanting a true Super Mario game.
There isn't much I can add as far as what I think of Super Mario Bros. 2 that can't be gathered from my opening paragraph. On top of that, Scott covered all the bases in his review. I do give Nintendo credit for some of the improvements made to the game. The digital voices for each character are excellent—though sometimes annoying—and the music sounds great even though it comes from the Game Boy Advance speaker. The option to save your progress was a nice touch as well. But minor improvements like these don't make the game more enjoyable.
The game I did enjoy was Mario Bros.. Playing through this video game relic brought back a lot of great memories from my youth and it is a blast in two-player mode. In fact, I'd say I spent more time with this game than with Super Mario Bros. 2. Debuting in 1983, it's likely that many of our readers never laid eyes on Mario Bros., let alone played it, so it is worth a look to today's gamer. However, like Scott, I regretfully have to admit that in this day and age, it can't be looked on as anything but a mini-game or quick diversion.
Scott put it best when he called these games the "two least compelling Mario games in a single package." Super Mario Bros. 2 lacking the usual Nintendo magic, was never a favorite of mine and moving it on a handheld did little to change my opinion of it. And the addition of Mario Bros.—multiplayer or no multiplayer—is not a compelling enough reason for me to get too excited over this release.
- Extra Credits: Differences in Scale vs Differences in Kind - May 15, 2013
- Extra Credits: Why Console Specs Don’t Matter - May 3, 2013
- Extra Credits:Intrinsic vs Extrinsic - April 27, 2013
