Super Mario Advance- Turn down the volume, for the love of pete!

Who's up for playing a Super Mario game with the sound off?

I can see I've got your attention. About 2 years ago, I was at a Video Game store in Buffalo NY with my cousin Jason, and while he and friends were looking around, I was looking at one of those Gameboy Advance displays. The ones that are attached to the counter so you can't make off with it. The game of choice was the latest Super Mario Game: Super Mario Advance. This included Super Mario Bros. 2 and the original Mario Bros. It dawned on me I didn't play Mario Bros. yet, but after playing SMA for about 30 minutes, I don't think I would want to touch the other game with a yardstick.

By now, you must be saying out loud: "Hey John, are you nuts, it's Mario. He rules." And yes, fellow players, he does. He's been around for over 20 years. I realize every time they come out with a new game, they try to find some way to improve on the rotund plumber who you never see with a plunger in his hand anyway. This time, they just succeeded in porting the Super Mario All Stars version of Mario 2 on the small screen, and added a few touches to seperate it from the SNES game. This is where they went wrong.


I never thought I'd want quiet in a video game.


When I first saw a video clip of SMA in action, and I heard Mario speak, I thought that would be a good thing, especially to achieve it on a portable game. Now that I played it, I don't know what I was thinking when I came up with that idea. I can respect the fact that the over 40 crowd has little or no idea what Super Mario 2 or Mario Bros is all about. Well, I'll briefly explain. In Super Mario 2, you can play as one of 4 characters. Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Toadstool, AKA Peach. You'll guide them through the 7 worlds of Sub-Con and defeat Wart, the King of Evil Dreams. You can pick up vegetables from the ground and toss them at your opponents, which do not include the original enemies from the 1st SMB game. I'll explain why another time. Maybe I'll throw in the review to the original SMB2 another time.