System: Game Boy Advance
Genre: Action
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release date: February 11, 2002
ESRB rating: E
Players: 1 - 4 simultaneous
Save: Battery
Memory size: 32 megabits
SMA2 screen shot

Overview

Nintendo's "Classic Mario Game Rehashing Machine" has pumped out another product: Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. As the name implies, inside you'll find a port of the SNES hit Super Mario World. Also included is a modified version of the arcade hit Mario Bros., which unfortunately does not differ from the Mario Bros. mode in the first Super Mario Advance.

For gamers who have totally mastered SMW, Nintendo has altered it ever so slightly in an effort to keep the game fresh. The biggest change made was to Luigi; along with a thinner look, Luigi jumps higher but has less traction on his boots, comparable to his abilities in the Japanese version of SMB2 ("Lost Levels" in Super Mario All-Stars). And now that the brothers have different abilities, you can switch between them by pressing R on the map screen.

Also on the map screen, pressing Select brings up a "Records" screen. The Records screen shows you a scrollable list of courses, who completed them (denoted with "M" or "L"), and a column showing whether you found all five Dragon Coins for that course (nothing like the Yoshi Egg mode in SMA, but it's better than nothing).

Although the Game Boy Advance has two fewer buttons than the SNES controller, playing SMW on it is no problem. The R button executes the spin jump manuever (A button for the SNES version), while holding L and pressing the directional arrows scrolls the screen (L and R buttons on the SNES controller). The SNES version actually used two buttons for running (X and Y), which is now the responsibility of the B button on the GBA. This setup is not awkward at all, and SMW veterans should be able to get back into the groove with next-to-zero practice time.

Screenshots