The Platinum Age of Plumbing (Super Mario All-Stars (N64))

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Super Mario All-Stars (N64)
Date:	01/08/06 (162 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Four classic games in an economical and affordable package, re-mastered and de-bugged.

Disadvantages: Not the originals.

It’s difficult to believe that Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) owners used to pay in excess of 30 pounds for one simplistic game cartridge, containing as much as 200 KB of data. The move from 8- to 16-bit game consoles in the early 1990s saw popular titles from the older platforms, such as Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. series, re-released and re-vamped, complete with ever more extortionate price tag, in a practice that has unashamedly continued to this day. Thankfully, one shred of uncharacteristic generosity entered the Nintendo pipeline sometime before the SNES (Super-NES) release ‘Super Mario World,’ in the form of the four-for-the-price-of-one compilation cartridge, ‘Super Mario All-Stars.’

‘All-Stars’ collects together the four canonical Super Mario Bros. NES games and updates them for SNES audiences. Gone are the blocky retro character designs and limited palettes, with new backgrounds adding three-dimensional effects and cartoon-realistic eyes. Even the primitive sound effects have been improved upon, without losing any of their original charm; this even goes for the excellent steel drum musical themes, which sound better than ever. Basic gameplay remains the same, the practical move from two- to four-button joypads merely doubling the existing jump and run options.

Pressing the start button on the title screen brings up the menu of playable titles, all old favourites with the exception of ‘The Lost Levels,’ the continuation-of-sorts to the first Mario Bros. game, which was originally available only in Japan (under the deceptive title ‘Super Mario Bros 2’). Here in this collection, we have ‘Super Mario Bros,’ ‘Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels,’ ‘Super Mario Bros 2’ (the Western version this time) and ‘Super Mario Bros 3.’ With the exception of the afore-mentioned Lost Levels, each release stands independent and distinctive in the Mario legacy. There are various save options for each game too, which prove very handy.

Tackling each game individually, there is a clear progression between the titles. All are relatively simplistic left-to-right scrolling platform games, the player’s objective being to travel to the exit at the far right of the stage by eliminating or avoiding enemies, collecting power-ups and coins when possible, and navigating between solid ground and free-floating platforms. The debut title is the most simplistic of the lot, featuring some variation in level style and play, from fertile grassland to less hospitable dungeons, but is still great fun to play. A two-player game only in terms of turn-taking, as with other Mario releases of the time, players could control either Mario (red) or Luigi (green, and noticeably taller here to add extra diversity). The enemy sprites consisted largely of Koopa Troopa turtles and those little squashy brown things with the feet. ‘The Lost Levels’ follows exactly the same style, but adapts each level to prove more challenging to veteran players.

Things get more interesting and complex with Mario 2, even if some of the more elaborate changes evidently proved unpopular due to their omission from later sequels. Players can now choose from a cast of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Toad, the short toadstool headed guy. The premise this time round is something really pathetic and contrived, something along the lines of escaping from Mario’s nightmare world or something, but basically involves traversing various stages and terrains and defeating repetitive boss monsters along the way. I admire this game’s more artistic moments, such as the puzzle element introduced by the system of cursed keys and the bizarre extra-dimensional realm of bonus mushrooms accessed through magic doors, but on the whole it’s less rewarding than the other two major titles. It’s interesting to play the different characters to see their various special moves: Mario is the plain all-rounder, Luigi can jump long, high and slow, Toad’s a fast little blighter and the Princess can float momentarily because she wears a dress. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of playing time from this one, and enemies have to be dispatched by throwing items rather than simply bopping them on the head.

The best of the bunch is the more recent title, ‘Super Mario Bros 3.’ Returning to the Mario/Luigi two-player style of the first, this introduced the map system allowing some small degree of freedom in the otherwise linear gameplay, and introduced a whole load of new collectable items to Mario’s inventory, most notably the autumnal leaf that allows the characters to sprout racoon tails and fly for a brief period. There are many more stages in each world, and plenty of variation between them: my personal favourite is the fourth world, where many of the same things happen as have come before, but both the landscape and the nasty critters occupying it have increased drastically in size. Each world features a mini-castle and a final confrontation with one of Bowser’s offspring on a flying fortress to a synthesised variation on Holst’s ‘Bringer of War’ theme. This is a really cool game that would only be topped by its predecessor, ‘Super Mario World.’

The three-and-a-half games collected here are all NES classics, and collecting them together in one tidy package is economical and sensible. Controls are straightforward, and won’t take long to get to grips with once the clumsy joypad enters the player’s hands: the directional pad moves the players left or right, the under-used up and down buttons only really proving useful when ducking, swimming or entering pipes from above or below. The red and yellow (A and B) buttons perform identical jumps, and the green and blue (X and Y) buttons activate the faster run mode. Whichever button your thumb feels most comfortable with.

The graphics and sound are nice, vibrant and enjoyable, although there are no doubt some die-hard retro fans who view the SNES re-mastering as a blasphemous act. This package was extremely popular, achieving a reported 10.55 million sales. A 1994 re-release included the additional ‘Super Mario World,’ and was bundled with editions of the Super Nintendo sold in the early-mid-90s, the rest of the games remaining unchanged. Even without this addition, Super Mario All-Stars was an essential purchase for all patriotic rivals of Sega’s blue hedgehog with attitude, even if a kindly Italian plumber is admittedly somewhat less happ’nin.

Summary: Collects together Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 & 3 and 'The Lost Levels.'