The Wonder Years week 1: Super Mario All-Stars
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 04.18.2007
Come join the 16-bit nostalgia rush in 411’s newest column! Owain J. Brimfield takes you on a trip to gaming’s, you guessed it, “Wonder Years”…
Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:
SUPER MARIO ALL-STARS
(Nintendo, Super NES, 1993)
Undoubtedly a classic title, this pick also enables me to go off on a brief tangent to explain this column's name. Way, way back in the day, when I was around the tender age of seven, I would spend a lot of my time being entertained by the rubbish in the local bargain video store. One day, buried among the dross, I stumbled across a hidden diamond by the name of The Wizard. I doubt there's a member of the "Nintendo generation" who hasn't seen this classic, but if you missed out, it was basically a glorious feature-length advert for Super Mario Bros. 3. Now, I was no stranger to games at this point, regularly rocking the old DOS shareware classics by Apogee like Commander Keen and the original Duke Nukem platformer, but this was something new to me, and lit a fire under my tender gaming bottom. Christmas came, brought with it a NES, and the rest of my childhood is history. The Wizard has not only taught us many things (chiefly, of course, that the Power Glove was "so bad"), but it also featured in its cast, heading the bill above a pre-stardom Christian Slater, a young chap by the name of Fred Savage, who would go on to star in… yep, you guessed it.
Now that we have that tenuous link out of the way, let's get down to business. While Super Mario World may have been the Super NES's system seller, it was Super Mario All-Stars that really showed what both Nintendo and the console were capable of. This was the game that sold me on 16-bit; I still vividly remember acting like a complete brat and throwing a tantrum when I found out I wouldn't be allowed access to the console until I opened it on Christmas morning. Man, it was worth the wait though! An effortless remastering of Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3, plus a glimpse at the never-before-seen, Japan-only Mario sequel, titled The Lost Levels just to make the package seem even more special to us deprived Western gamers. The bright, funky new 16-bit graphics and cheerful music seemed symbolic of a purity of gaming that Nintendo excelled at providing.
I don't think there's any real need to expand on Mario's plot, as it has gone down in the annals of gaming history as one of the simplest devised. Suffice to say, it's the very first Mario that does it best - castle after castle of fiery Bowser death, and more and more frustration at the ever increasing hordes of Toads popping out of the sack (no, that's not a euphemism). Is there any greater gaming satisfaction than Princess Peach (née Toadstool)'s appearance, and the subsequent message at the end of world eight, "your quest is complete"? I submit that there is not. Lost Levels retreads the package, amping up the difficulty levels considerably - rumour has it the reason this game was never released in the west as Super Mario Bros. 2 is because Nintendo thought it would be too hard for us delicate little foreigners. To be honest, they may well have had a point, as it took me longer to beat this than Super Mario World, and I didn't buy that until six months later! It's this facet, however, that gives Lost Levels arguably the greatest replay value of the four games on offer.
Super Mario Bros. 2 has a somewhat tarnished reputation in the Mario canon, which I feel is a tad unfair. An Americanisation of the Famicom title Doki Doki Panic, it's certainly subpar for a Mario title, but treated in it's own right it's a highly enjoyable platformer. Particularly if you play as Luigi, who has bizarrely been gifted with the ability to leap entire continents with a single bound. Also of note is the between-levels slot machine game, which is criminally generous in affording the player extra lives. In recompense however, Wart is a much harder boss than Bowser ever was. Super Mario Bros. 3, though, is the real highlight of the package. Out went the linear gameplay, and in came a set of ‘overworlds' of (by the standards of the time anyway) epic scale. Frankly, there is nothing not to like about this game, from the impossibly jaunty music, the sheer number of levels (90 at my best count, smashing even the hyped-up count of Super Mario World), some of the best graphics on the console to date, to the new abilities Mario obtains, from the Hammer suit to the Racoon tail. And how can you forget indisputably the best power-up of all time, Kuribo's Shoe! Buoyed by it's quality (and of course, given a helping hand by Freddie Savage), Mario 3 went on to become the best-selling game of all time, a record that, impressively, still stands today.
One curious addition to the whole package was the capacity to save your game, an ability that is frankly redundant and, for me at least, slightly spoils the purity of the experience. Still, remarkable foresight on Nintendo's part as it's certainly helpful in this modern age of five-minute attention spans, allowing the gamer to pick up and blast through a couple of levels whenever they choose. I remember one publication at the time described the cartridge's lifespan as akin to "the half-life of plutonium", and that description is perfectly apt. It might not take the average gamer too long to see the end of some of these Mario games, but just try doing it the real man's way - no warps, completing every single level. And no using the P-Wing in the first levels of world eight in Mario 3! Even when you've done that, you can turn your hand to speedrunning, a concept to which the Mario games are perfectly suited. I believe the current world record for Super Mario Bros. is 5:06. Give it a go.
Super Mario All-Stars is the absolute foremost "collection" game ever released, and it's hardly aged a single iota. I recently spotted a boxed copy in a local gaming emporium for a mere £15, so get out there and treat yourself. You owe it to yourself - hell, you owe it to gaming to play this classic.
Super Mario All-Stars trivia
The following year, a limited edition version of All-Stars was released, adding the Super NES's own Super Mario World into the mix. Picture that confection of platforming perfection, and then try to pick your jaw up off the floor.
The original four NES games have sold a combined total of over 70 million copies.
Super Mario Bros. 3 features a two-player version of the 1983 arcade "classic" Mario Bros., in which Mario and Luigi compete for coins in a Mario-isation of Joust. It hasn't aged as well as everything else on this cartridge.
Super Mario All-Stars is number 18 in my official all-time Top 100 games.
Tangential musings
How is it possible that Bruce Willis keeps getting balder and balder without apparently aging? If the Live Free or Die Hard trailer proves anything it's that finite baldness is a thing of the past.
I totally managed to call seven of the eight Wrestlemania winners. Unfortunately, in the absence of any evidence, you'll just have to trust me.
Incidentally, TNA is criminally underusing Alex Shelley. Jobbing to Shark Boy on Impact? Bah. Why isn't the guy X-Division champion yet?
Looks like Metallica will be playing the new Wembley stadium this summer. If only I wasn't moving house next month I could afford to go. Damn fresh starts!
And finally…
As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - Resident Evil meets 1950s schlock horror in the hardest game you never played. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.
