Super Mario Advance 2 is Nintendo’s 2002 Game Boy Advance re-release of Super Mario World. Super Mario World was originally released in 1991 in the states. Unlike its sequel, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, I did play this growing up on the SNES but nowhere near as much as I played Super Mario Bros. 3. I have to admit that playing through it again after NSMB, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 and Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 I was left kind of underwhelmed. Its quite possible that I am just burning out on Mario, besides Tetris DS, the Italian plumber has been occupying nearly all of my gaming time. Still, there are a couple of things that irked me playing through Super Mario Advance 2. For one, the addition of Yoshi seems like an afterthought at times. There are a number of events and powerups that force you to leave your new-found dino-companion. I was also bothered that there were certain instances when you had to figure out secrets to successfully complete the game. I will touch on both of these points over the course of the review which starts now.

General Gameplay: The general feel of Super Mario World is similar to Super Mario Bros. 3 with some changes and a lot of additions. Super Mario 3’s raccoon leaf was replaced with a cape feather which not only allowed for spin attacks and flying but also allowed for longer air time. Super Mario World also introduced the concept of collectible items referred to either dragon or Yoshi coins. Speaking of Yoshi, Mario gets plenty of interaction with the dinosaur by liberating Yoshi eggs from the Koopa brats, growing baby Yoshi’s in the secret star worlds and of course riding Yoshi around while having him eat berries and enemies. More on Yoshi in the powerups section in a bit. Super Mario World also introduced the concept of multiple endings with some levels having both a secret exit involving a hidden key and keyhole as well as the normal tape at the end of every non-castle level. More on this in the world section.

The World: Super Mario World consisted of 72 levels with 96 exits and spanned seven worlds, Star Road and a Special World accessible via Star Road. 24 secret endings felt a little excessive, but a goodly number of them were quite unnecessary for the successful completion of the game (even though I knew I had to at least finish all of them if I couldn’t figure them out myself to satisfy my neurosis). It did irk me that in order to beat the game the “normal” way of progressing through the seven worlds (it is possible though pretty challenging to defeat the game in only eleven stages), you had to find a couple of secret exits particularly in world six. I think both Yoshi’s Island and NSMB did a better job of making secrets optional rather then compulsory allowing for you to roll through and just finish the game then go back and solve the puzzles which is how I have been playing. Still, I have to hand it to the designers, they did a good job of both hiding some of the secrets and making some quite challenging. And whomever placed the five Yoshi coins on “Butter Bridge 2″ you are a very sadistic individual, but after about thirty tries, I did manage to get all five! The Special Zone was also pretty difficult but in a fun way.

Powerups: For the most part these are the same as SMB3 with the exception of the before mentioned leaf/feather switch. There are a few lesser used ones that were new such as the “P balloon” which inflated the plumber and allowed him to float. But the biggest addition was Yoshi. Yoshi added all different sorts of functionality. He could eat enemies, most notably koopas and depending on the color of the koopas shell, they allowed you via Yoshi to fly, spit fire or do a hard stomp. You could even get different color Yoshi’s all of which could do one of those abilities by default regardless of what color koopa/shell they swallowed. A couple of levels even had a special powerup for Yoshi in the Yoshi Wings which spirited you to a special part of the world. I really liked the Yoshi addition, so I was particularly annoyed at what Yoshi could not do. Yoshi could not climb the vines/beanstalks in SMW as well as a couple of the rope transports. I wish they had added the beanstalks from Yoshi’s Island into SMW instead of requiring you to leave your dino behind. Yoshi was also left behind in the albeit rare instances you needed to use a P balloon. None of these are really game breakers, and I must admit in some of the instances, they did include Yoshi friendly options, but it was always sad when I had to leave him behind.

Saving: Super Mario Advance 2 did have the most “liberal” saving policy of all the GBA re-release series. At any point, even in the middle of the level, you could save your progress though it would only start you back on the world map. I have to admit there were a number of times I would turn off and on my DS Lite in order to restore rather then go through the process of powering up again. But with levels such as the “Top Secret Area” which consisted of four powerups and Yoshi, I was just saving myself a relatively short trip via the Star Road.

Resources: Again, I relied on GameFAQs Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to get me past a couple of tricky spots.

• Crazyreyn - Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World

Conclusions: Even though I had a few relatively minor gripes, Super Mario Advance was still a good game. I did manage to stay in various degrees of entertained getting through all 96 exits and getting all the Yoshi coins through world four. While I think Yoshi’s Island had better puzzles and Super Mario Bros. 3 had overall better gameplay, Super Mario World was still a very solid game which introduced concepts that made the rest of the series better. If you made it this far, let me know if I am just burnt out on Mario and being petty or if I had legitimate, albeit minor whines. Either way, everybody can breath easy, I will be playing something non-Mario related for the next review.