I’ll keep this short. This is a great remake, but the game is fundamentally broken and unfun.

To elaborate, I was excited to get this game in the recent free promotion on 3DS, because I like free things. I was very appreciative of all its wacky features, like Game Boy Printer integration and the calendar, not to mention including (most of) the Lost Levels, the Boo race mode, the extra collectibles, the additional frames of animation, the added world map (even if it’s purely cosmetic). All good stuff, which makes it a great example of how to do a remake or rerelease right.

The two big drawbacks are using the same graphics, unlike the Mario Advance games and All-Stars, and the smaller screen size but same size sprites, which makes the whole thing much harder. Upcoming pits and enemies basically take you by surprise, putting the game at an even harder state than its wonky physics and slipshod controls already condemn it to. I don’t think SMB is a good game, because I grew up with World, not to mention Donkey Kong Country 2 and Yoshi’s Island.

But, I felt like I should play through it so as a Nintendo fan, I could say I did. Afterwards I also got the requisite point score to unlock the Lost Levels, through copious use of the VC restore point function, but I didn’t play that there because 1) It’s just annoyingly hard, and 2) It’s by far the inferior version, without even the NES version’s graphical update, still the smaller screen, and missing I think it’s 6 whole worlds?

Still, the fact that it’s there is cool, and it makes me long for more remakes of this type, with a ton of cool stuff added on. The Advance games are little better than the All-Stars versions or originals, and you still have the screen size tradeoff to contend with. There’s just a lot of character too in those menus, with Peach sitting around with her Toads and stuff happening, a fortune telling minigame with very limited purpose. It reminds me of the Game Boy Camera software with all its crazy little touches that tell you that they had fun making it. Anyway it’s a cool little oddity, but I’m glad I never have to play SMB again (unless I decide to give All-Stars a proper shot at some point).