I grew up playing games on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), most of my favourite games when I was younger included my favourite plumbers Mario and Luigi and their dinosaur friend Yoshi, and of course Princess Peach, who always seems to be running into bad luck and getting captured by the villain in this game King Bowser. I honestly spent hours trying to rescue the Princess in games such as Super Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3, Super Mario World 1 and 2, The Lost Levels and of course Mario 64 when Mario became for 'advanced' on the Nintendo 64 console. The Mario Franchise has brought gamers worldwide countless hours of entertainment, and their games were one of my favourite past times when I was a child.
Which is why when I found this game on Amazon, I was so happy as it is a little portable piece of my childhood that I can carry around with me and play on my long and frequent journeys on the bus or at night time when I want to wind down after a long day.
This game originated from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) though I only really played it on the SNES on my Allstars Game cartilage.
First things first, for anyone who isn't exactly familiar with the Mario franchise, here is the storyline behind this game:
Mario is dreaming, and is in a strange land (aka Mushroom Kingdom 2) where a Toad named Wart has taken over and is making the locals sad.
Mario (and co.) must go through a number of levels and defeat a number of different bosses in order to free the dream worlds Magic Kingdom 2 citizens from the evil Wart, and the story begins....

You can play this game as either, Mario, Luigi, Toad or Princess Peach though this game is only a one player game. Each character in this game handles differently and has their own abilities:
Mario- Handles normally, has no special ability
Luigi- Quite hard to handle as he is quite 'slippery', when Luigi jumps he flys in the air for a while as he shakes his legs, this is really distracting for me and has left me rarely ever using him as a player.
Toad - Handles normally, has no special ability
Princess Peach- Uses her skirt to fly through the air, she handles quite easily and is my favourite character to play with on this game.

So there you have it, you set off as Mario (or your selected player) and go through the levels ahead, killing enemies (such as birds, shy guys and fish) by aiming and throwing vegetables at them and also killing bosses (like Birdo or a Rat that throws bombs at you).
The different power ups within this game include:
Red Mushroom: Makes Mario grow and then he can take an extra hit from enemies
Star: Makes Mario invincible to enemies for a short period of time.


This game is really easy to play, though the game isn't so easy to play that any child I am guessing under 4 would have the co-ordination to play even though the game is rated E for everyone, though there are some children that advance quicker than others. None the less I would say that this game is more suited to children aged 6 or 7 up, as from this age on they would probably get more fun out of it and be able to cope with at least the easier levels. Though there is mild violence (in which I mean you have to kill enemies and by throwing vegetables at them) it is really cartoonised and not very aggressive or harmful.

You cannot play this game on multiplayer, though as it is a Game boy Advance game it is more likely that you will want to play alone anyway.

The graphics on this game really don't disappoint, they stay true to the old Mario games. This game is played in a 2D format, advancing from one side of the screen to another. I am really glad that Nintendo decided to stay true to past game in this way as I think that this is part of the 'charm' of the better Mario games. The graphics are both simple and efficient to their purpose, each world is decorated in a detailed and colourful way and the game is drawn up in a cartoon display just like past Mario games.

The Mario level music is also very similar to the old Mario games. This is great for Mario fans, as the music on older games is unique to Mario games and easily recognised as it is upbeat and catchy.

This game is for the Gameboy Advance, but it is also compatible with the Nintendo DS and DS lite, you can put it into the bottom cartilage socket and play this game just like on the GBA, though of course there are no touch screen abilities when you are playing it on the DS or DS lite.

You can buy this game on Amazon used for around £5-10 and new for around £10-30 at the moment, I wouldn't buy the new game if you weren't planning on playing it, as I imagine it is a collector's item, though the used games, £10 is a great price to pay. I ended up paying £18 in total for my copy new on Amazon, I don't think it would be easy however to buy this game on the high street, due to its age.

Overall I think that this is a fantastic and really well thought out game that has brought me countless hours of entertainment, both on the Gameboy Advance and the SNES. This game was a brilliant buy and worth every penny to me, it is great to have a portable version of this game to take with me and play anywhere. This game is a must have for any Mario Fan, I believe that the classics are really the best when it comes to Mario games. 5 out of 5 stars!

*also on ciao under lorrainek90