For anyone who grew up with Mario, the thought of him turning a quarter of a century old is daunting. Well, Mario has just hit the 25 year mark and Nintendo have decided to celebrate their flagship Mascot's birthday by rewarding fans with Mario All-Stars Limited Edition game package for the Nintendo Wii. It's a repackaging of an old Super Nintendo game with a few extra goodies, but is it worth your money ?.
If you ever owned the original Super Mario All-Stars then you will know exactly what to expect here. This is a collection of the four NES-based Mario games, from Super Mario Bros. 1 to 3, including the addition of "The Lost Levels" (originally in the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros 2). All of the games come in their SNES form with improved visuals and character designs. For any hardcore Mario fans out there this will sound like heaven, however causal fans might need a bit more to capture their interest.
Nintendo were hesitant to change anything and didn't add any additional prompts to help players learn which Wii controls to use at the beginning of the game. The might have been almost too faithful with these ports, even any on-screen directions are displayed with the original SNES Pads which will surely please old-school fans of the franchise. It would have been nice to see Super Mario World included here, it feels like Nintendo took the least expensive route for this release.
Collectively these well known games represent the birth of a genre and a step forward in the gaming industry at the time. It's hard to Imagen how important the original Mario games on the NES were when we see games like Mass Effect 2 and Uncharted 2 entertaining fans, but everything began with an A & B button. These games are classics in every sense of the word, they have stood the test of time because they are just as fun in 2010 as they were on their release date. Even Super Mario Bros 2, which added the strange mechanic of throwing vegetables at an unconventional set of enemies, is a fantastic game in it's own right. There is also Super Mario Bros 3, arguably one of the greatest video games of all time, it's not the pedigree of the games on display here that is in dispute, just the price.
This limited edition package not only includes Super Mario All-Stars (unavailable on the Wii's virtual console) but it also contains a soundtrack and booklet tracing the history of this fantastic franchise. Both are welcomed additions but not nearly as comprehensive as true fans would like to have seen, at a retail value of $29:99.
The surprising thing about the soundtrack included in this package, is that it has 20 music selections from Mario's entire legacy, all the way up to Mario Galaxy. So this might have fans feeling like there is alot on offer here, however the reality sets in when you realise half of the music is just sound effects. It really feels like Nintendo could have done allot more for fans of their top mascot. For example, the sounds can range from the ping of a coin, or the two second sound you here as Mario enters a warp pipe. To label this a selection of 20 soundtracks seems a bit misleading and almost like they are cheating the fans. There are only really 10 arrangements from Mario's past adventures to enjoy on the soundtrack and that's just not good enough in my opinion. The Mario franchise is host to some of the most spectacular music in gaming history, the Mario Galaxy series alone has enough quality material to replace everything on the soundtrack that Nintendo have included. They only included one of these great themes and i found that very poor by Nintendo's standards, i have always been impressed by the amount of detail and effort Nintendo have put into their top franchises, but here i feel slightly let down.
The other huge disappointment is with the booklet tracing Mario's 25 year history. Yet again fans are mislead by the description of a booklet "covering Mario's 25 year history". This really is just a quick look rather than a thorough in-detail look at the legacy of Mario. The book fails to mention anything about Mario's gameboy adventures, his appearances in many other Nintendo games, or even Super Mario World 2, so you begin to understand why i feel a bit ripped-off by Nintendo when they are selling it to me as a book covering Mario's entire 25 year history. Mario has had an enormous influence on the gaming industry and this booklet was the perfect opportunity to display this, but it's just another failed opportunity.
It was impressive that Nintendo managed to gather some of Mario's notable creators including Shigeru Myamato for commentary, however, the remarks are limited to a sentence or two at best in selected games. There is not enough depth here to get exited, it would have been wonderful to hear other creators (outside of Nintendo) talking about how Mario, or Mario games had influenced their careers and thoughts on the gaming industry. It seems like Nintendo took the cheapest and fastest route and it really shows with the bellow average content added alongside some classic game ports. The possibility's here are limitless and fans really deserved a better package than this.
Overall you can't go wrong with the games included in the Mario All-Stars Limited Edition game package, however, the extra content which was really the whole reason to get exited about this package is lacking any real depth or passion. This is something that i could have put together myself with my own computer and i feel very disappointed with the lack of imagination put i9nto the design of this celebration of one of gamings most treasured franchises.
The games are fantastic but the additional content is disappointing 7/10
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