Nowadays, Nintendo seems to be re-releasing old games. They appoint old classics to new systems in hopes of attracting Nintendo fans who were either too young to have enjoyed these games or older players who would just love a new excuse to have a chance to play these games again. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is such a game, as you will find in the following text, except with numerous little extras to keep the holder playing.
Platform: Gameboy Color, will work on Gameboy Advance
Graphics: 6
Although I can’t say that I’m very impressed with the original graphics, I suppose they were very good for their time. The graphics in the original mode were left basically untouched, leaving most sprites painfully simple. Although I’d have to say they were done well, in the long run.
What did boost the rating somewhat were the graphics in some of the other modes. In the Album, there are numerous spaces for photos, gained along the way, which can be printed out on a Gameboy Printer. These were pretty well done for Gameboy graphics. Whether it was a shot of Mario hitting a “?” block to a simple portrait of a Goomba, each of these photos seemed to have a lot of time put into making them look good.
Music: 6
Well, what can I say? Again, the few new adjustments boosted the rating a notch. A few other tunes were added, which turned out nicely, but you don’t get to hear them as much as you could, because you’ll probably be playing the original mode for the majority of game play. The soundtrack in the original mode was left basically untouched, but whether this was due to what Nintendo thought older fans would find desirable or if the programmers were just too lazy is beyond me. There are about three tunes in the original mode: the classic Mario theme, the underwater music, and the tune that plays whenever you’re in a castle. Although they do bring back memories of the old NES days, they tend to get repetitive and somewhat annoying after a while. Overall, I don’t feel that as much effort was put into the game’s music as there could have been.
Modes: 7
The extra modes are what put the “Deluxe” in the title. They add a little something to do if you’re stuck on that one level you just can’t get past, incentive to keep playing, as well as just adding to the game itself. They are listed below with their own separate ratings.
Original mode: 9
Although I have my share of complaints for this mode, it is the base of the game. And I liked it! Everything about it seemed unchanged. All of the enemies were the same, so were the levels and basic difficulty. But, along with all of these things that remained unchanged, so did the addictiveness.
Another complaint I have though is the lack of real challenge at the end of a dungeon. Old Bowser just didn’t really put up a lot of fight. Sure, he blew fire, but all you basically have to do is jump over him! The Koopalings did not appear either, but I suppose they weren’t much more than an idea at the time (if even that).
Challenge mode: 7
This mode lets you select any of the levels you have currently been to or beaten. Once selected, the player goes through the level as normal, looking for five red coins and a Yoshi egg along the way. Some of the coins are hidden, others are sitting right in plain view, whereas the Yoshi egg can be nearly impossible to find. The egg is usually hidden in an invisible block at some point in the level, and usually requires the “egg finder” (see Toy Box mode) or just plain dumb luck to come across. If you beat the set high score, it’s recorded, along with the option of racing Boo (or something along the lines of that, I’ve never done it) once you get a certain number of points. The certain number is incredibly high as I remember it, and only the score you get after successfully completing a level without dying in this mode is added to the “total score” sum.
Also in challenge mode is the motivation to beat the set high score, as I mentioned in the above paragraph. Best the set high score for any level and you will receive a token, just as you would for finding Yoshi’s egg or collecting each red coin from that particular level.
Vs mode: ?
Since I’ve never played it, I guess I can’t really score it, can I? It seems to involve to different players racing each other through a level, with various obstacles such as hitting blocks to make invisible walls appear, letting the player advance and/or slowing the other player down. You would need someone else with both their own copy of the game and a link cable between the two players to make this work, of course.
Toy Box: 6
This is mostly something to do if you don’t want to play the original mode. A nifty little calendar will never leave you wondering what the date is, and gives you the option of marking certain days down. The fortune telling will reveal how it “thinks” you will fair, giving you a 5up should you happen to get an “extremely lucky” fortune. A little hole leads to printout pictures of thing like Nintendo logos and pictures with comments, among other things. And then, there’s the “egg finder” as I call it. This will randomly select any level and show you at what point the egg is found in the Challenge mode. Of course, you still have to find the hidden block yourself.
Fun Factor!: 8
This is a fun game, to say the least. Although I haven’t covered every little detail about this neat remake and there are many new features, there is a point I am trying to stress (seriously, there is!). For all its faults, it is still a very fun game. A new challenge to the younger generation, a nostalgic journey down memory lane for the slightly older, I believe this would still be categorized as a classic game. And I think it’s a darn good one at that, despite my complaining.
Rachelle Davison, 2001.