Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

GBA - USA - 1st edition.

Developer	Nintendo
Publisher	Nintendo
Published	2003-07-11
Platforms	Game Boy Advance
Genres	Action, Platformer
Themes	Action, Cartoon
Series	Mario, Super Mario Bros.
Multiplayer	Alternating co-op, Simultaneous versus
Distribution	Commercial

Super Mario Advance 4 is a remaster of Super Mario Bros. 3 developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance on 2003-07-11. The game takes the 16-bit remaster of Super Mario Bros. 3 from Super Mario All-Stars and adds additional material. It also includes the same remastered version of Mario Bros. from the earlier Super Mario Advance titles.

The game is part of the Mario series and the fourth and final game in the Super Mario Advance series.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	No.

I tried playing this game in an emulator, but, seeing it was just a remaster of the original game, I quickly grew bored of it. Then, years later, feeling an urge to play SMB3 again, I decided to try out this version of it as I was curious to see what Nintendo had added to the game. I beat the regular game, but not all the additional content.

Review

Good

Although it's based on the All-Stars remaster, this version does add a lot of little things:
- There are now cut-scenes at the beginning and end of the game.
- A Luigi mode has been added which lets a single player play as both bothers.
- Speech has been added for Mario and Luigi and is played at various times.
- If the player has an e-Reader, the game supports several cards which add new levels, a new power-up based on the cape from Super Mario World, and videos.
- There is a record and replay feature which lets you record yourself playing a level.
- Winning a spade block changes it into a heart block with a chance to win more lives, then a club block to win more, and, finally a diamond block where you always win 10 lives.
- If you play the game on a Game Boy Player, it has rumble support.
- The transformed kings are now various Mario-themed creatures.
Although the screen resolution is smaller, the game does a great job of making it feel the same by scrolling around the maps.
The game has been made slightly easier. Lives are awarded more readily, several maps have been nerfed, getting a power-up as regular Mario doesn't just make you Super Mario, and some enemies are easier. This makes it easier to have fun with the game rather than work to master it. Also, if you beat all the levels, you unlock a mode where you can play any level you want.
More glitches, inconsistencies, and typos from the original were fixed.

Bad

By lightening up all the graphics and adding backgrounds to every section, several maps lose some of their foreboding feel. The forest background of 8-1 really doesn't fit.
I don't care for some of the altered dialogue designed to make it read more like the Japanese original.