Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World

“Super Mario World” was the flagship title for the Super Nintendo over ten years ago and has now returned on the Game Boy Advance. While nothing has really changed about the game, “Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World,” is one of the best titles currently available for the system.

Nintendo has used the Game Boy’s power potential wonderfully and recreated the game perfectly with spot-on graphics that are as crisp and colorful as ever, as well as familiar sounds and music that fit perfectly into the Mario world.

The controls work well on the Game Boy Advance, but are a tad more difficult to use without the extra two buttons that exist on the Super Nintendo’s controller. Nintendo has dropped the difficulty down a notch though, which was not necessary, but will help those adapting to the controls.

You will find the game levels are exact replicas of its original, which is good, as “Super Mario World” is one of the best 2D Mario titles around. The game is still a bit easy but full of secrets and levels to keep you entertained.

Nintendo has even added in a few extras, such as using Luigi instead of Mario, and other minor tweaks.

The only problem with “Super Mario Advance 2” is the inclusion of the “Classic Mario Bros.” game that also showed up in “Super Mario Advance” back in June. While this is a fun game to play, especially multiplayer, it is a disappointment for owners of “Super Mario Advance” as nothing new is included.

“Super Mario Advance 2” is one of the best titles on the Game Boy Advance now. It revisits one of the best Mario games made and does so perfectly.

The game works very well as a handheld title and with all its secrets to unlock and level of enjoyment the game offers, you will be playing and replaying for a long time.

*****

Tekken Advance

It is hard to believe that some PlayStation series are making their way to the less powerful Game Boy Advance, but titles like “Spyro” and “Tony Hawk” have shown it’s possible and can be done well.

Now, Namco has brought its popular PlayStation fighting series to the Game Boy Advance as well in “Tekken Advance.”

It did not seem possible to bring this 3D-styled fighter into the realm of 2D handhelds, but Namco has made a surprisingly enjoyable version of the series that really shows off what the Game Boy Advance can do.

“Tekken Advance” uses many of the same principles of its predecessors, only trimmed down to the Game Boy Advance’s abilities. You still get a nice selection of characters, each with a unique fighting style. The controls are simplified a lot but work very well and still allow multiple combinations of moves.

The game still uses the same 3D visual style, which runs very smoothly on the Game Boy Advance.

The character models are nicely detailed and have a large variety of animation, with only the background and floor textures lacking in detail.

Namco has managed to transfer most of the sound over as well, with good background music and excellent sound effects to complement the game.

The only drawback to “Tekken Advance” is that despite its large selection of modes to play through, you can quickly master the game and the challenge drops considerably, leaving you with little left to do.

However, two games linked together makes “Tekken Advance” almost as fun as playing multiplayer on the PlayStation versions and really extends the life of the game.

Another fighter will most likely come along at some time and prove itself better than “Tekken Advance”.

But for now, it is the best fighting game available on the Game Boy Advance and is fun for those quick gaming fixes.

****

Chris Weishaar is a sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication from Bronson.