Find Games

Go

• Channels
• Home

1. News
2. Games
3. Reviews
4. Previews
5. Cheats & Tips
6. Features
7. Blogs
8. Tags
9. Forum

• Mobile Gaming
• Nintendo DS
• Sony PSP
• iPhone
• Game Boy
• N-Gage
• myMO
• Forums
• Modojo Biz

• myMO
• Register

• Tools
• For Developers/Publishers
• Private Messaging
• Search Forums
• New Forum Posts

• Modojo Partners
• 
• 
• 

Mario's Handheld History Pt. 2: The Advance Years

This time we examine the numerous ports and original adventures Mario participated in during the GBA's lifespan...

...Continued From Page 2

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Now this was a surprise treat. Out of nowhere came an exquisitely crafted RPG from Nintendo, developed by relative newcomer Alphadream Corporation, whose only title prior to this was the somewhat surreal Tomato Adventure, also on the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo were suitably impressed enough to approach Alphadream to create a Mario RPG title for the Game Boy Advance.

The game also has a pretty bonkers storyline. A goodwill ambassador from the Mushroom Kingdoms neighboring kingdom the BeanBean kingdom arrives at Peach's castle to offer a gift. Its all a ruse though, as the present is opened the envoy is revealed to be the evil witch Cackletta and the gift actually contained her evil minion Fawful who then proceeds to suck out Princess Peach's voice using some kind of crazy magic. They make good their escape and the castle is left in shock. Toad rushes over to the house of the Mario Brothers and Alerts them of the terrible news. They run as fast as they can to the castle only to find their old enemy bowser, whom they duly start beating up on. They're shocked to find that the princess is fine... appearance wise. Her voice has been taken and replaced with speech made up entirely of explosions! Bit of a shocker! Even Bowser is concerned, complaining that he can't possibly kidnap her while she's in this state, she'd wreck his castle! So rather unexpectedly The brothers Mario team up with Bowser and begin their quest to recapture Peach's voice.

The way the game works initially appears to be standard RPG fare but the way the battles work are far more involved and much more fun than your usual turn based RPG. Involving timed button presses and getting the brothers to team up to perform combo attacks. The presentation of the game is top notch in every way, and when the game was localized from the Japanese the team did their best to inject the game with plenty of humor, self-referencing jokes for young and old alike. Classy stuff, this one is highly enjoyable even if you generally don't go big on rpg's. If you like Mario, you'll love this!

Mario Vs Donkey Kong

Ooh whats this? It Looked like an all new Mario game to me? Even better! It was in effect a sequel to the 1994 original Game Boy Donkey Kong. Surely someone was smiling on us from up above. At the time this game was unique in that it was written in America by the Nintendo Software Technology Corporation, which was originally set up to craft games specifically for the US market. The game thus has quite a different feel to many other Mario titles but the gameplay, carried over from Donkey Kong '94 was not only replicated but considerably expanded upon.

The story went that Mario, the busy plumber/rescuer/business entrepreneur had set up a toy factory and started selling Mini Mario toys. Donkey Kong was, as Gorillas do, sat around at home, chilling out, watching TV when he sees an advert for Mario's new toys. Being an Ape and not having any real currency he decides he's gonna take em all and raids the factory. Mario being naturally pretty cheesed off at this has the task of journeying through a selection of stereotypically themed stages, like Jungle world, Fire world etc.. Every time getting so close to DK only for him to scram off to another area of the mushroom kingdom. Each world has a variety of different level types, the most common involving either finding a key to unlock a door, or having to negotiate the tricky platforms to get to one of the Mario toys and collect it. After this you'd get a level where you have to safely guide the Mario toys into their toybox, avoiding enemies for both yourself and your toys. After this you'd have a face off with ol' DK himself involving the throwing of barrels at each other and usually the eventual escape of Kong.

Just like Donkey Kong '94 this is an excellent title that delights and infuriates, is very well presented and will keep you entertained for a very long time. Upon its completion you unlock additional game modes which make it last even longer.

Classic NES: Super Mario Bros

Released to coincide with the arrival of the GBASP NES classic edition, Nintendo launched an entire collection of classic Nes titles, at budget prices in Packaging reminiscent of the Original Nes boxes. The games themselves were infact actual duplicates of the true Nintendo cartridges ROM chips, transplanted into a GBA cartridge, upon which also lived a little Nes emulation program. This meant that the games were perfect clones of their Nintendo ancestors. They even managed to use some hardware trickery to get the GBA to shrink the games screens down to the resolution of the GBA screen, which did lead to some jagged edges and flickering but not enough to make the games unpleasant to the eye.

Thing is though, we'd already had Super Mario Bros Deluxe on the Game Boy color and that version was arguably a more polished effort with all its extra features and game modes. This GBA port was merely a port. A port of one of the most important games of all time yes but still just a port. I still carry it with me all the time just so I can plug it in every now and then and cry my daily dose of nostalgia tears. For the price it can be picked up at its silly not to get it.

Mario Golf: Advance Tour

Camelot Software Planning returns with another scorcher of a golf game with Mario and chums. Following the formula set down by Mario Golf on the Game Boy Color, there is an Rpg element of progressing through the ranks, gaining experience through playing rounds of golf, engaging in various minigames and challenging other characters, leading to their eventual unlocking. The difference is now you have two characters to guide through the game, making awarding your gained experience points more interesting.

The way the game looks is really rather polished, with Snes mode 7 style perspective effects in game, well rendered character graphics and spangly spot effects for when you hit the ball. The musics a nice selection upbeat catchy tunes. The Game Boy Color Mario Golf had the ability to link up to an N64 with the transfer Pak, Advance Tour also links up to a console companion, Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour on the Gamecube to unlock additional items and characters.

You don't have to be well into your sports to be able to enjoy a round or two with this game, its real easy to get into and should last you aaaaaages.

Mario Pinball Land

There has been a tradition of pinball games on Nintendo's portable platforms, dating back to Revenge of the Gator by Hal labs. Mario Pinball Land Hails from a company called Fuse Games, a small developer from England who worked with Nintendo for this game and went on to create the recently released Metroid Pinball title too.

The way the game works is there are 5 worlds to choose from ( oh yeah, Peach went and got herself kidnapped again, while they were fooling around at a fairground attraction that turns you into a ball and fires you around. ) and each of these worlds is split up into different screens full of pinball fun that you access by clearing the screens, getting stars and then using those stars to unlock doors which lead you to more screens and eventually to a boss stage.

The thing is, however beautiful the game is to look at, its just a bit on the hard side. In pinball games the flipper flips the ball at a certain angle dependent upon where on the flipper the ball is when you flip it. Only in this game its rather hard to accurately judge how to angle your shots. Leading to stages lasting an infuriatingly long time and simple mistakes setting you back considerably. You have to have a lot of patience to master this game. With time you'll become more and more accurate and the rewards will come and you'll find it to be a very enjoyable game. It just could've done with being made a little easier to start.