Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

"Raccoon Mario > you!"

Way back in 1988, Nintendo released the third game in the Super Mario Bros. series. Aptly titled Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo departed from the off-the-wall vegetable tossing antics of Super Mario Bros. 2 and returned to the crazy platforming action of the original - with some new twists of course.

Once again, Mario must rescue Princess Toadstool from the clutches of the nefarious Bowser. This time, however, Mario must deal with the seven terrors that are Bowser's equally nefarious children as well. And so the stage is set for one of the greatest Mario games in history.

I've been waiting for the day there would be a GBA port of SMB3, especially after how well the GBA port of the SNES hit Super Mario World turned out. I expected this rendition to be nothing less than stellar and Nintendo did not disappoint. ''Super Mario Advance 4'' proves that some things are timeless.

Graphics 10/10 - OK, so it's 8-bit. But back in the day, SMB3's graphics were cutting edge for the NES. Super Mario Advance 4 faithfully recreates the vivid and colorful world of SMB3. Vibrant colors splash across the landscape and give the gamer plenty of lively environments to run around in. All of the zany, over-the-top madness of the NES game has been redone with the utmost fidelity to the original.

Sound 9.9/10 - Super Mario Advance 4 retains all of the bells and whistles from SMB3. Everything from the ''ding'' of hitting the coin blocks to the ''woo-dop'' of squashed Gombas is there. The music doesn't disappoint and it would be unfair to judge it in relation to modern-day games, which have the luxury of fully orchestrated scores and the like. Nonetheless, it holds its own. The music and sound effects are remarkably clear, albeit tinny due to the GBA's speakers. The only complaint I had was adding Mario and Luigi's voices to the game. Initially, the novelty is interesting, but it can get tiresome after a while. Thankfully, you can always turn the volume down.

Control 10/10 - Superb control has always been a hallmark of the Mario games. Mario (and Luigi) control tightly and there's never a moment when you feel like Mario's doing something he shouldn't.

Gameplay 10/10 - The gameplay is simple enough: negotiate the hazards of each stage en route to the ultimate goal of defeating the evil Bowser. Each stage has its own particular set of pitfalls and it takes fast reflexes and acute timing to succeed. The neat thing is that each world has its own particular theme. The best example is World 4, the giant world. In this world, all of the enemies have been Super-sized to monstrous proportions. The sight of Mario standing next to a humongous Koopa merits a Kodak moment. The only grudge I have here is the inequality of the stages; some stages are rather long and others are too short. Still, that's not enough to take the gameplay score down a notch.

Replay Value 10/10 - Super Mario Advance 4 never gets old. The added Mario Bros. game will see to that. If you're not off fighting against Bowser, you can always try and see if you can beat your high score in Mario Bros. There's so many different routes to get to the final showdown with Bowser and you'll find yourself playing hours on end figuring them all out. I guarantee you'll still be playing this game in a month.

Super Mario Advance series has shown how a good videogame port is supposed to be done. Super Mario Advance 4 is just another game in a list of kick-ass GBA ports. If you don't have it, get it. You'll have a blast recapturing all the old school charm of days gone by.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/03