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So what’s the best game to get someone who never had a NES, missed out on the classic Mario games when they first came out and had just gotten a brand spanking new Super Nintendo and needed some games to play on it? That game is of course one of the best compilations of all time Super Mario Allstars


 
Even though I had never owned a NES I had played Super Mario Bros a few times and Super Mario Bros 3 once or twice, but alas never the number 2. I enjoyed what little I had played on them, but they weren’t something that really caught my interest. I really started becoming interested with the games once I got my Game Boy and started buying NMS and became the Nintendo fanboy I am today. There was a huge review for Super Mario Allstars one issue, it was a huge deal, I wanted this game. Fast Forward to Christmas 1993 after much debate between a SNES and a Mega Drive (I wanted a SNES, he wanted a Mega Drive) we asked our parents for a SNES. I’m not sure if we knew before hand that we were getting it or not, but my god was that Christmas morning one of god damn win. We got the Super Mario Allstars SNES pack, honestly what better way to start your Super Nintendo Collection.


 
I guess the best way to go through these would be in order, so let’s start with Super Mario Bros 1. Secret admission time, I’ve never finished Super Mario Bros, I get up to the last world and I just crash and burn. I don’t know what it is about that world but I just can’t get past it. So I guess as a result of that I’m not as fond of this game as a lot of other games are, I think that might also be in part due to the fact I didn’t have a NES and I sort of missed the boat on it. I had played it before I got my SNES but never really fell in love with it. Having said that I do enjoy the remake for Allstars, it looks amazing, the soundtrack is great and I think it plays a little bit better. Plus I think its a little more forgiving part in thanks to being able to save between levels. All in all the Allstars version is my fav version of Super Mario Bros, one that I know I shall someday finish.
 


Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels, where the hell do I start with this, how about the fact that I god damn hate this vile piece of crap. I really don’t get why people go so gaga over this game. I think a lot of it has to do with the Japan only factor, some people seem to treasure it as some secret lost game and hate on Super Mario Bros. 2 because we got that instead of this. I say thank god and I really wish Lost Levels had of stayed in Japan. To me it plays more like a badly made ROM hack of the original with stupid invisible blocks that you won’t know about till you bump you head on them, flying bloopers, poison mushrooms, gusts of winds and all this stupid crap that just makes it a mean and spiteful game. You can really tell it wasn't made by Shiggy, it just lacks a lot of the good game designs you can usually see in his games.


 
Super Mario Bros 2 to me was the lost chapter of Mario games, I’d not played it before I got Allstars. I had read about it, but didn’t really know a lot about it, barring that you could choose between 4 different characters, one of whom was my main man Toad (I was a fan of the Super Mario Bros cartoon and loved Toad). So because it was the one I knew the least about it was the first one to play and to be honest I really really enjoyed it. It’s always bemused me when I see people trash on this game for not being the real Super Mario Bros 2. This game is a hundred times better in every single way then Lost Levels. True it plays different to any other Mario game made since, however it is just soo much fun to play even to this day. Even though the game is heaps easier then the first it just feels like a much bigger and better game. Most levels have multiple ways you can get to the end, a boss fight at the end of each stage. Boss fights that are more then just running underneath Bowser, secret hidden worlds, the magic potions I can go on, its just such an amazing game. Plus in one scene you pull up a turnip and out comes a rocket ship, how freaken awesome is that.
 


So that brings us to the last title in the collection, Super Mario Bros 3. What more can be said about this game that hasn’t already been stated. It’s to this day one the finest example of 2d platforming the NES ever produced. Everything about the game is amazing, who cannot forget about the first time you got the raccoon tail and flew, or the first time were in Giant World and saw a Giant Goomba coming towards you. If I had to sum up the game in one word, that word would be Epic. There were just soo many god damn stages and soo much variety in those stages from battles on flying ships to levels in the desert with the sun trying to kill, it’s just such an amazing game and easily in the top 5 NES games ever games. Also the little Multiplayer add in for the original Mario bros in Super Mario Bros 3 was greatly appreciated, the SNES was a present to both my little brother and myself, the first thing we did after we got the SNES on that fateful Christmas day was bug our parents for another controller, just so we could play it against each other. We would of killed hours playing that against each other, I would kill for Nintendo to make a modern day version of that.


 
I loved Mario Allstars, it really was the perfect way to start my life as a Super Nintendo gamer. Its an amazing little collection and Nintendo really did an amazing job bringing the games into the 16bit era. They sound amazing, the look fantastic and they play just as fun as they always had. And as a true testament to just how perfect these versions are they are getting re-released as you all know on the Wii for Super Mario Bros 25th anniversary, if you’ve never played them before go and hunt them down. I will say on that note as awesome as they are its alittle annoying Nintendo didn't do anything new to them, I mean what about all the extra stuff from the GBA remakes of 2 and 3 they could of brought in, oh well can't have everything I guess. See ya next time, I got a rocket ship to catch.