This is the first 2D Super Mario Bros. game for a very long time, the last one being New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U from 2012. I can’t believe it’s been 14 years since that game was released. I felt that series lacked a lot of the character of the originals. The artwork felt quite flat, and each game looked very similar to the last one. At first I thought this one looked very similar again, but actually, as I played it, lots of little details stood out in the animation. I think the way Mario looks and moves in this one is actually very reminiscent of the artwork from the 1980s. He looks quite a lot like he did on the old game and watch games.
Stuff about Mario
This is a Switch remake of a Game Boy Advance game. I never played the original, but I did intend to. It’s a sequel to the Game Boy Donkey Kong game, which I replayed in September 2024 and have always loved.
This came as a part of a bundle when I bought my Switch 2 in June. In this version all of the tracks in the game are part of one giant map, and there is a free roam mode where you can drive around and find secrets. It also has a new mode called Grand Tour where you race from one end of the map to another going through six tracks along the way. As you reach the end of each of these sections players below a certain position are out of the race. By the end there are only four people left, and the person in first at the end is the winner. I particularly enjoy this mode online. It is absolutely hectic, especially at the start.
This is the second Paper Mario game, a sequel to the N64 one. It was originally released on the GameCube, but I played the recent Switch remake. It’s an RPG with a neat graphical style, all of the characters are made out of flat pieces of paper. This actually has numerous gameplay implications. You can turn to the side to fall down grates, you can fold up into a paper aeroplane to get over gaps, you can slip through tiny cracks in walls, and countless other things.
This is the second Mario platformer for the GameBoy. The graphics are significantly improved, it looks quite a bit like Super Mario World on the SNES, although it is obviously in greyscale and much lower resolution. It also has a world map where you select levels like the SNES game too.
I picked this game at random as something to play with my youngest son, Joe. I’d never played this version before, and we managed to get all of the retro achievements within about twenty minutes. It only has two of the original games four levels, and is obviously very simple graphically. We both had a lot of fun playing through it though, it definitely has a lot of the feel of the arcade game.
This is the 1994 Game Boy version, not the original 1982 arcade machine or any of the ports. It starts as if it was a simple port of the original game, but quickly becomes so much more than that. After you finish the first four levels you are taken to a map screen where you chase Donkey Kong in an attempt to rescue Pauline across groups of four levels. In the first three levels of each group you need to find a key, then carry it to an exit door. Each forth level is a boss fight against Donkey Kong.
This may be the fifth time that I’ve gotten all 120 stars in this game, although it could be more. My brother bought this at release in the US as we happened to be there on holiday at the time. It was just unbelievable at the time, such a leap forward in video games. I really doubt we’ll ever see anything like it again. The last game I played Jumping Flash! only came out the year before and the difference in controls and depth is incredible.