Pink Dinosaurs and Racoon Statues (Super Mario All-Stars (N64))

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Super Mario All-Stars (N64)
Date:	21/07/01 (767 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 4 games in one, improved graphics, The NES is relived

Disadvantages: No difference in gameplay, it's too old for me to persuade people to get

Super Mario All-Stars – The only several-games-in-one package that is actually worth buying. After the extreme success of the Super Mario Bros. Games, Nintendo had decided to recreate all these games onto one cart. So they made this Masterpiece.

I’ll briefly go through all the games included in this cart, so you’ll have a basic idea:

---------Super Mario Bros.
This game was the first released (1985). There is your usual ‘Daisy has been kidnapped, save her’ story, and you must be guided through 32 levels, day, night, snowy… They do get harder in order, as you expect. The learning curve in this game is actually not bad; it is easy at first and progresses to become harder throughout.

The graphics are an improvement from the NES; it’s the same game but a smoother Mario has replaced the blocky Mario, it is SNES after all. The enemies have also been improved, graphics-wise. The gameplay of this game is very basic; it’s your plain run and jump. There are three pickups in the game, the ones you would predict. The Mushroom makes you bigger, thus letting you withstand one hit only. This brings on no new moves. The fire flower gives you the chance to fire two flame things from your hand and defeat any nearby enemies, which you are faced with ahead of you. Lastly, you are given a super star, which are rather rare in the game. When you do collect this, you are flashing a colourful aura, and you are invincible for this short time. Now is your perfect chance to RUN! If this is one of the first Mario games you have played, then it will be found not too bad at first, but when you get into the game you will realize how hard this game can get; despite it’s simplicity.

So if you ever get this game (emulated or bought from a car boot sale) and you have not played any of the games before then it will be good to start with this one.
Overall: **** Yes, something good that is from the 80’
s.

---------Super Mario Bros. 2

Next along the line came this game. A lot of people will see this game and say ‘it’s exactly the same as Super Mario Advance’. Well they are right, but along the wrong lines.

This game came from the year 1988, and was eagerly awaited after the mad success of the first Super Mario Bros. game. It has a totally unique game system from any of the others, where you actually can jump on monsters and not kill them. In this game (I’ll have you know it was previously called Doki Doki Panic) you pick vegetables up from the floor and throw them at your enemies. You can also pick up the enemies and do the same, which is killing two birds with one stone. The graphics of this (NES-wise) are pretty basic again, but still are a major improvement over the original SMB game. On the SNES, again, the graphics on the characters have been improved and the textures on some things are much more suited to the SNES. Out of the 3 SMB games, the graphics come a predictable 2nd.

“So, Mr. Adidadi_young, what are your thoughts on gameplay?” Well, I do think that it was not quite the gameplay I expected when I saw this. Still, it is innovative and new (old-new). There is the obvious ‘Y to run, B to jump’ pattern, but when you atop a shrub sticking out the ground, press B to pick it up. Same goes with enemies. Also, pressing Y will help you dig in the sand when you reach it.

Characters… well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect Mario (of course) but 3 of the Nintendo mascot crew have decided to join him. Along with Mario comes Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool. If you choose Mario, you’ll be getting a good, all-round character, who is quite fast at running, quite fast at digging up and quite high jumping-wise. If you choose who I think is Mario’s brother (Luigi), you are getting a person who is rather slow at digging up veggies, a mediocre ru
nner but one hell of a high jumper. His high jump can reach especially high places, including on the 2nd level (1-2, do this if you own this or Mario Advance), you can jump on an enemy and high jump to a patch of grass, saving you to go through the door and skipping more than half the level. Toad… when you say/think Toad, an automatic reflex of “Mario Kart” comes to mind. Toad is one sprinter; the fastest in the game, and can dig up those vegetables in no time at all. Highly recommended for all levels. Princess Toadstool is the last of the lot, and has some unexpected characteristics. She is the slowest at digging up, and is quite a bit slow to run, but if you hold the jump button, she can float for about 2 seconds; this is highly recommended for beginners and also for the people who need to reach secret areas. She’s quite high when it comes to jumping, too.


Well, with 6 worlds and one major boss to go with each world, this game does last a while… it did with me. Expect about 5 – 6 hours in total if you are good at platforming games, and about 10 if you aren’t.

Overall: **** Another very good game in addition to the game (All-Stars).


---------Super Mario Bros. 3
This game is probably the most famous of all 4 of the games on Mario All-Stars. This was probably what most people got this for (for the most reasons), and I myself was an eyewitness to many that this was the most popular game. You start off on the first land in the Mushroom Kingdom, and then go on to several other worlds, which have unique attributes. These include icy worlds, water worlds, cloud worlds and a rather pleasing giant world. You start off from having an invite from the Princess, and surprisingly SHE DOESN’T GET CAPTURED AT THE BEGINNING!

The aim, a bit too predictably, is to reach the end of every level. This is by jumping, running, flying and turning into statues. Yes. The graphics are obviously t
he best, when you compare them all to the NES versions it is the same order (SMB3, 2, 1), only this has been majorly improved. All character designs have been improved, all the texturing has had a full makeover, all the backgrounds are improved and the level quality has been made to look like there was no SNES version.

The gameplay is one big factor on this game; the powerups (the number of then and also what they are) have to be the best in any Mario game yet. The mushrooms make you big (no one saw that coming, huh?) and you can withstand one more hit, then you will go back small again. The fire flower (you have guessed, haven’t you) makes you white and red, and you can shoot two consecutive flames at a time to vanquish your enemies. The next basic power up is the brown feather, which makes you grow a tail and also some insignificant ears, which when you run you can fly into the sky. Without running you will not get any fly power, but you can hover. The next one, as we move onto the more advanced powerups, is the Frog Suit. This, as blatantly obvious as it is, makes you better at swimming. Holding Y improves it further, by pressing Up, Down, Left and Right to actually swim in that direction, instead of constantly pressing B to keep your head at bay. This is really handy in some levels, not to mention the whole of World 3. Next up? There’s the Raccoon Suit. Imagine that the feather is half of this. It is a totally nice-fitting suit, which totally covers Mario with brown, and the tail and the ears. Now, holding Y to run and jumping will make you fly, but there is one unexpected move that comes with this. If you hold Up, you can turn into a statue of which resembles nothing at all, but there you go. Enemies will walk straight past you, as if you were not there. Beware, though: you can only hold this for 5 seconds. There is one more, which comes in quite handy, especially with the feather; this is the ‘P’ Wing. This makes your run const
antly be at full at all times, so you can fly off in the sky right from the start!

Overall: ***** This game is very varied; nice to look at, has loads of powerups and is playable to an extent of making you smile.


---------Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.


Unfortunately, there is not too much to say about this game, so I’ll first of all say it’s a direct port of SMB1, same graphics, gameplay, same number of levels etc. But, there is one major difference: It’s hard.

Yes, it’s the same, but much, much harder. “Super Mario Bros. Expert Edition” it should be called. I have completed this game, and the second time, which makes it the expert mode (yes, the game is made harder the second time round). This took time and patience. If you are a hardcore platform fan you will love this, just make sure you have padded the controller for when you throw it at the T.V. It is a great game, SMB1 is a classic and this is the same with a revamp. Oh, and there is also 2 playable characters: Mario, who is more or less the same, and Luigi, who is faster and a higher jumper, just takes a LONG time to stop. Stick with Mario; except for the times you know you should use him. One more thing, this game has an introduction of purple mushrooms… they do the opposite of the ones you originally knew.

Overall: *** Not a classic, but a great challenge once you have finished the other 3.


So what can I say? This is also, along with Super Mario World, one of the best games ever. And Nintendo didn’t have to do that much for the SNES version anyway. Download it for the graceful ZSNES or blow away the dust from your old God and play it if you don’t remember.

Summary: