Instead of releasing a new Mario game
on their latest handheld machine, they've taken two old ones from the Super
Nintendo (aka SNES), tarted them up a bit and released them on the same
cartridge.
The original Mario Bros. game is simple enough and takes place on one screen,
albeit with some vertical shift as it won't all fit on. Spiky enemies emerge
from pipes down in the sewers and you, as Mario, have to jump up and hit the
platforms when the baddies pass over you, rendering them unconscious. Run over
them next and score your points. Extra points can be collected with coins that
appear along the way.
Connected to another GBA with a link cable, you can play as both Mario and Luigi
in either this classic mode, or the battle mode. Sadly, as I was just playing
with myself, the machine made a farting sound when I tried to select
'multiplayer' to see what would happen.
Sideways scrolling is the name of the game in Super Mario Bros 2 as you
run from right to left, avoid getting killed and collect cherries, other
paraphenalia and boost your strength with love hearts. These love hearts act
like the rings in
Sonic the Hedgehog.
With them in your possession, getting hit by a baddie the first time won't
kill you, but the next touch may well do so you must be careful.
Instead of killing the enemy by jumping on top of them, here you can either
pick things out of the ground to chuck in their direction or jump on one baddie's
head to pick him up and chuck at the rest. Sounds a bit unfair to them, but they
doubtlessly deserve it.
Don't expect to be knocked out by the graphics or sound - and with the GBA
the volume is incredibly quiet even on its loudest setting - while the gameplay
is simple but effective. It doesn't take a genius to work out what's required
and that's where the game benefits since you can simply pick up and play
without excessive reading of the manual, although a brief scan through the
characters within the game is necessary.
Gaming fans will be tempted to snap this one up if they're big fans of Mario,
but if you played it ten years ago will you want to go back to it? For those
who do it's a reasonable price to pay given that you're getting two games,
but just don't expect to be bowled over by the content.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Sideways scrolling is the name of the game in Super Mario Bros 2 as you
run from right to left, avoid getting killed and collect cherries, other
paraphenalia and boost your strength with love hearts. These love hearts act
like the rings in
Don't expect to be knocked out by the graphics or sound - and with the GBA
the volume is incredibly quiet even on its loudest setting - while the gameplay
is simple but effective. It doesn't take a genius to work out what's required
and that's where the game benefits since you can simply pick up and play
without excessive reading of the manual, although a brief scan through the
characters within the game is necessary.
