This game is an update of the 1985 Super Mario Bros for the NES and was released in Europe in August 2001, which was a year and two months after the American release! It's basically the same as the original but with a few differences such as less levels, and there's also a challenge mode which allows you to go through the original levels to find items and get beat high scores. It's an old classic revived for the Gameboy Color that's still just as enjoyable as when it was released.

I remember playing this on my friends Gameboy back when I really wanted my own console but didn't get one until about four years ago. It was one of my favourite games at the time and I finally got my own copy just last year. I enjoy this game not just for the levels you can explore and the main gameplay but also for the additional fun features it has. The levels start off easy enough but gradually get more and more difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible to complete! Controlling Mario is easy as most Gameboy games are since the whole control system is less complex than other consoles. You simply use the D-pad to move around, press A to jump and B to attack when you power up. You can't attack unless you get a power up though, so you're only means of defence is to jump on top of the monsters, so the game is more of a test of how you can avoid the baddies rather than defeat them. There's a few different power-ups though, which you can get by hitting floating blocks which are all over the worlds. One allows you to send what looks like fire out in front of you to kill enemies which makes it easier but doesn't last long, and Mario can also increase in size. I say Mario but you can also play as Luigi by pressing a button (I foget which one) before you start a level. The plot is your simple Super Mario plot - save Princess Peach from Bowser.

My favourite extra feature of this game is the toybox, where you can play fortune telling by choosing a card and getting a series of fortunes from extremely unlucky which features Bowser's face to extremely lucky which has Peach's face and gives you an extra life before you start playing the game. Another thing in the toybox is pictures which you can print out if you have a Gameboy printer. Some of these pictures are black and white logos while others are colour pictures of the characters in the game. The character pictures appear in the Photo Album and more of them are unlocked as the game goes on. In this toybox you can also edit a welcome message which appears along side a picture when you switch the game on.

I highly recommend this game and in my view it's one of the best Gameboy color games released. It gives you a whole adventure with two different modes so there's loads to keep you occupied, and when you get bored with that there's always the extra features and more to be unlocked as you complete the game. It's easy to buy now, I got a cart only copy for about £5 on ebay but you can still buy boxed copies with instruction books at a higher price than this. If you own a Gameboy advance or SP then this will work, however it isn't compatible with the DS.