Super Mario Advance

Super Mario Advance brings Nintendo’s distinctive Super Mario Bros. 2 adventure to Game Boy Advance in an enhanced portable package. This is the version built around the Western NES Super Mario Bros. 2, the game set in Subcon where carrying and throwing are central to the action. It is not the Japanese 1986 Super Mario Bros. 2 later known as The Lost Levels. Instead, it follows the colorful, character-selecting route that made the NES release such an unusual branch of the Mario series, with Nintendo’s GBA additions and a second classic game on the same cartridge.

Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach set out to free the dreamlike land of Subcon from the tyrant Wart. At the beginning of a stage, choose the hero whose particular strengths best suit the terrain ahead. Mario is the balanced all-rounder, while Luigi’s high jump makes him useful for reaching awkward ledges. Toad is quick and strong when it comes to lifting objects, and Peach can hover in the air longer than anyone else. The cast turns route planning into part of the fun, encouraging a different approach when a climb, a gap, or a crowded encounter is proving troublesome.

This is a platform adventure with a very different rhythm from the original Super Mario Bros. Enemies are not usually dispatched by landing on their heads. Instead, pull vegetables from the ground, lift foes and objects, and throw them at hazards or one another. Doors, ladders, vines, jars, shifting sand, and vertical spaces make the journey through Subcon feel exploratory as well as fast-moving. It is a game of reading the room: spotting what can be picked up, deciding where it should go, and using each character’s movement style to get safely onward.

Seven worlds provide the route to Wart, with deserts, icy ground, underground passages, and other changing settings giving the stages their own flavor. The Game Boy Advance version also places Red Coins through the worlds, giving careful players another reason to look beyond the most direct path. These collectibles sit naturally alongside the platforming rather than replacing it; a player can press forward toward the next door or take time to investigate a suspicious ledge, a tucked-away route, or an object that seems placed for a purpose.

Finishing the main journey opens the Yoshi Challenge. Every level hides two Yoshi Eggs, and they can be sought in any order, turning familiar areas into a fresh scavenger hunt. That extra objective makes the portable remake more than a straight replay of the older adventure. It rewards remembering how each stage is arranged, returning with a particular character in mind, and checking the corners that were easy to pass by during a first trip through Subcon.

Super Mario Advance updates the presentation for the Game Boy Advance with improved graphics and sound, while preserving the instantly readable play of the original design. The larger, more polished look makes the four heroes and the strange inhabitants of Subcon stand out on a handheld screen, and the game remains focused on direct controls and brisk stage-to-stage progress. It works equally well as a first encounter with this take on Super Mario Bros. 2 or as a chance to revisit it with new goals woven into the adventure.

The cartridge also includes a spruced-up Mario Bros., the arcade platform game that marks Mario and Luigi’s first arcade appearance together. Here the brothers clear pipe-dwelling creatures from compact single-screen arenas, flipping enemies from below before finishing them off. It offers a sharp contrast to the sprawling Subcon quest: rounds are immediate, hazards return quickly, and success depends on timing around platforms and pipes. The original Game Boy Advance release supports simultaneous play for up to four players, making this bonus a lively companion to the solo adventure.

Super Mario Advance should not be confused with the later Game Boy Advance games that share its name. Super Mario Advance 2 is the portable Super Mario World remake, Super Mario Advance 3 is Yoshi’s Island, and Super Mario Advance 4 adapts Super Mario Bros. 3. Nor is this simply the Super Nintendo Super Mario All-Stars collection: that compilation also remade the Western Super Mario Bros. 2, but Super Mario Advance is its own GBA release with added collection challenges and Mario Bros. included. For players looking for the portable, enhanced Super Mario Bros. 2 specifically, this is the entry to seek out.