Super Mario All-Stars for Wii Reviews by Gamers

I was surprised that this was a direct port of the original Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES. The graphics were not updated, and it didn't even include Super Mario World (which was included with a later release of the game on the SNES). Just sad really, if you're going to repackage a game, at least do something to make it fresh again.

By "it", of course, I mean giving a classic game new box art and selling it for some holiday cash. By no means is Super Mario All Stars a bad collection of games, but this has already been done. Pixel for pixel, this is a straight port of Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo. No facelifted graphics, no rearranged music, not even a redone title screen. The only thing new here, sadly, is the box art.

People lucky enough to snag the Limited Edition (myself included) are treated to a 20-track CD including main themes from Mario's biggest games and sound effects from the original 1985 NES cart, plus a little booklet with never before seen artwork and interview snippets with Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the composer, Koji Kondo, and producer Takeshi Tezuka.

Super Mario All Stars should be reserved for the younger generation of gamers who haven't seen Mario's roots, but I fear that the seventeen year old graphics and MIDI music selection may feel let down by their still-current-generation Wii. For the obscenely nostalgiac, this package doesn't disappoint. For anyone into retro games who has not yet experienced The Lost Levels (Japan's Super Mario Bros. 2, unreleased in the United States until the 1993 SMAS cartridge), you will find a more challenging platformer than you have likely played in ages. For those of you who, like me, played the heck out of the original and were hoping for at the very least a graphical update or a new music arrangement, stick to your SNES. In all cases, however, unless you're a sucker for limited editions (like me), you're probably better off renting.