For the second Mario SNES installment, Super Mario World
makes its way to the GBA with exactly the same grace and poise the first one
did. Retro is not just "yesterday's news", but all the rage as Mario joins up
with Luigi, this time round, for further adventures as they visit Yoshi on
his island, but then Princess Peach goes missing and you have to rescue her
from the Koopa King. Yes, the plot doesn't really matter a massive deal, but
what is important is that the action takes place over 9 worlds and 96 levels,
some of which contain hidden areas.
Again, the original Mario Bros. game is included. It's 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.
The main event here, though, is Super Mario World, which sees the
screen scrolling as you run from right to left, avoiding getting killed and
collecting cherries, other paraphenalia and to boost your strength with mushrooms,
which act like the rings in
Sonic the Hedgehog.
With them in your possession, getting hit by an enemy the first time won't
kill you, but the next touch may well do so you must be careful. They'll also
allow you to crush blocks or tougher enemies.
In this game, you can also climb aboard Yoshi and shoot his tongue out at your
enemies to swallow them whole, or press the right shoulder button to perform
more powerful "spin" jumps.
As before, in addition to killing the enemy by jumping on top of them, you can either
pick things out of the ground to chuck in their direction or snatch the shell of
one enemy and chuck at the rest. Sounds a bit unfair to them, but they
doubtlessly deserve it.
The graphics and sound on the GBA are much the same as you'd expect from the
SNES original. In fact, as I understand it they're exactly the same, which is
a good thing. While playing this it made me realise I'd like to see quite a
few of the Nintendo handhelds from the early 80s emulated for the GBA. They
could be tarted up and distributed in both new and original modes with a
selection of different games placed on each cartridge.
The gameplay is simple but effective here and I've dropped the "originality"
factor, since it would mark as a zero here, but it's the enjoyment that's the
important one.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
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
The main event here, though, is Super Mario World, which sees the
screen scrolling as you run from right to left, avoiding getting killed and
collecting cherries, other paraphenalia and to boost your strength with mushrooms,
which act like the rings in
The graphics and sound on the GBA are much the same as you'd expect from the
SNES original. In fact, as I understand it they're exactly the same, which is
a good thing. While playing this it made me realise I'd like to see quite a
few of the Nintendo handhelds from the early 80s emulated for the GBA. They
could be tarted up and distributed in both new and original modes with a
selection of different games placed on each cartridge.
