Best Video Games

Features

• Enjoy this collectible reissue of 1993′s Super Mario All-Stars for SNES, now for Wii
• Collection includes four classic games for Wii: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3
• CD soundtrack containing themes and sound effects pulled from Mario games ranging from the original Super Mario Bros. through Super Mario Galaxy 2, as well the “Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme”
• 32-page Super Mario History booklet featuring interviews, concept art and interviews
• All games support multiple controllers, including: Wii Remote controller, Wii Remote Plus controller, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro or the Nintendo GameCube controller

Description of Super Mario AllStars: Limited Edition

Super Mario All-stars: Limited Edition commemorates the 25th anniversary of the release of the original Super Mario Bros. with a collection of four classic platforming games from the Super Mario Bros. franchise for play via a single Wii disc. This new release is a reissue of the original 1993 Super Mario All-stars collection for NES featuring enhanced versions of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. The collection also contains an exclusive soundtrack / sound effect CD and the 32-page Super Mario History booklet. Additional features include: classic arcade-style multiplayer support, as well as multiple controller support.

Games Included

Super Mario All-stars: Limited Edition is the ultimate archive for platforming fans on the Wii who are always ready for their turn when it comes to the Super Mario Bros. franchise. The games included in the collection are Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. Each game features the enhanced graphics and updated sound from the original Super NES Super Mario All-stars collection, and all four can be played on the Wii system using one of several controllers: the Wii Remote controller, Wii Remote Plus controller, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro or the Nintendo GameCube controller.

Four classic NES Super Mario Bros. games in one Wii collection.
. CD Soundtrack

The musical themes and sound effects of the Super Mario Bros. franchise have left a lasting influence on all players. With this in mind Super Mario All-stars: Limited Edition also includes a Super Mario History soundtrack CD, a compilation of memorable music from the Mario franchise. Containing classic theme songs and fun sound effects from the original Super Mario Bros. game all the way up to the acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy 2 game, this special disc also marks the first official release of the “Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme,” widely recognized as one of the most famous pieces of video game music in history.

Super Mario History Booklet

Rounding out the Super Mario All-stars Limited Edition is a 32-page Super Mario History booklet featuring interviews, behind-the-scenes details and rare concept art. Fans from every generation can enjoy firsthand insights into the beginnings of Mario, illustrated with candid photos and never-before-seen design sketches. Together with the game software and soundtrack, it’s the ultimate tribute to a unique game series.

Game Collection Features

• Collection includes four classic games for Wii: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3
• CD soundtrack containing themes and sound effects pulled from Mario games ranging from the original Super Mario Bros. through Super Mario Galaxy 2, as well the “Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme”
• 32-page Super Mario History booklet featuring interviews, concept art and interviews
• All games support multiple controllers, including: Wii Remote controller, Wii Remote Plus controller, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro or the Nintendo GameCube controller

Additional Screenshots CD soundtrack included.
. Classic NES conflicts.
. Upgraded graphics

Customer Reviews

This review is for the Super Mario All Stars bundle for Wii to celebrate Mario’s 25th anniversary. Now to understand whether you want to buy this bundle or not, you need to break this bundle down to understand what you’re getting. This bundle comes with a game, a book, and a cd. Let’s look at the pieces.

Super Mario All Stars the game: This game is 4 games in 1. The games are: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels (technically 2 in Japan, but that is a whole separate topic). Technically, this game is a direct port of a game of the same name released for the SNES in the early 90′s. The updated graphics that the box refers to are updated from the 4 games in their original setting (8 bit) to 16 bit (which is what the original All Stars game was). The game for Wii is the same game for the SNES.

There is another All Stars game that was available for SNES that includes Super Mario World on top of the other 4 games. Super Mario World is not on this game. If you want to play it for your Wii, you will have to use the Virtual Console to get it.

The book: This is the History of Mario book. It has screenshots and art sketches of the game along with blurbs and fun facts about the games from the team behind Mario all these years.

The cd: The soundtrack history of Mario has 20 tracks. The last 10 are sound effects from Mario 1.

1. Aboveground BGM (Mario 1)
2. Aboveground BGM (Mario 2)
3. Athletic BGM (Mario 3)
4. Aboveground BGM (Super Mario World)
5. Slider (Super Mario 64)
6. Delfino Plaza (Super Mario Sunshine)
7. Aboveground BGM (New Super Mario Bros.)
8. Super Mario Galaxy
9. Title (New Super Mario Bros. Wii)
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2
11. Coin
12. Jump
13. Super Mario transform
14. 1UP
15. Enter a Pipe
16. Hurry
17. Lose a Life
18. Game Over
19. Course Clear
20. Castle Clear

I’ll admit, looking at the track list, it is not all that spectacular. After all, only 20 songs? They could have fit more. But there is a reason for only 20 tracks. The tracks that are shown here were all handpicked by the series composer, Koji Kondo. He was assigned with the task of picking his favorite song from each game to represent the respective game. In an “Iwata Asks” interview for this game, the cd is considered Kondo’s greatest hits.

Another thing to consider especially if you are buying this in America, is that we are getting a soundtrack at all. Nintendo of America has released soundtracks before, but they don’t do it nearly as often as Nintendo of Japan or even of Europe does.

You see, most of the time for a game series like Mario, to get the official video game soundtrack, you have to import from Japan using playasia.com, ebay, etc. Doing this will lead to a fairly high, but common cost of about $50 . So to know that Nintendo of America is releasing this soundtrack is excellent news. Nintendo of America does not release official soundtracks often, so this cd is that much more valuable even if it’s only a “best of” type of cd as opposed to the standard complete soundtrack.

Conclusion: Even if you have complaints about the game being a direct port or inferior to a better game from yesteryear, don’t let that prevent you from buying this bundle. The book and cd alone are worth buying it for the Mario fan in your life. Plus, the incredible value of 30 dollars. This is the textbook definition of bang for your buck, great value at a low price.

If you have any more questions about this bundle or anything else I mentioned here that you are still confused about, ask below and I’ll answer to the best of my ability.
First, something needs to be made very clear- this is an EXACT port of the standard Super Mario All-Stars as it was on the SNES. When I say exact, I mean just that. There are no improvements made to anything, no enhancements, no widescreen option, no extra games to unlock, nothing. Heck, even the SNES controller appears when you’re selecting files on the main menu, showing what button does what. Shouldn’t -that- at least have been changed?

That being said, the games are still fun, and if you’ve never played any of these before, you’re in for a treat. This collection includes Super Mario Bros, The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario Bros 3. Super Mario World isn’t included for some reason, but maybe just because it was only on versions of the game that came with the SNES console. Still, each game here provides hours of fun. There aren’t many games from the 80s and early 90s that I can say that about, as most of them don’t age very well, but these Mario games hold up. Super Mario Bros 3 in particular, which single-handedly changed gaming back when it came out. There’s not really any plot to these games (though I do remember having coloring/activity books as a kid that explained what was going on), so you won’t be stuck with boring cutscenes to sit through. You’ll run, jump, kick koopa shells, shoot fireballs, and more through dozens of levels in each game. Really, I feel stupid explaining anything about them because I’m pretty sure everyone, regardless of their age, has played these in some form before. Be it on the NES, SNES, GBA, the Wii’s Virtual Console, or through *cough* other means, the games in this collection are considered classics for a good reason.

Being a straight port from the SNES version, that means that the original 8-bit versions aren’t here. This is one of many problems with this collection. Why bother porting the cart exactly as it was without any added features? It’d be nice to have those on here as well, to show the difference in graphics for people who might not have played the originals. Also, would it have really been that hard for Nintendo to throw in Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, the GameBoy games, and maybe even Super Mario 64? I get that this was released to celebrate 25 years of Mario, so why re-release an older game without going all out with the extra stuff? The bonus CD and booklet are lame reasons to buy this game, considering the CD only has 10 actual music tracks, and the other 10 tacks are just sound effects from the game. Yeah, did you ever want to have a quick sound of Mario going down a pipe or collecting a coin? Me either. The booklet looks nice and all, and serves as a kind of Mario timeline, but it’s missing a couple of major games. I was expecting more of a book instead of this dinky thing. Basically, you can get everything in this booklet from various Nintendo sites.

If you notice, I gave this game 5 stars for fun. The 3 stars is the overall rating, because it applies to this as a ‘limited edition’. You’re not getting anything that special. Keep your NES, SNES and GBA carts if you still have them, unless you’re a die-hard Nintendo fan and something being limited is that important to you. But if you haven’t played these games before and have the means, buy them from the Vitual Console instead.
I see everyone saying that this is just Super Mario All-Stars running on a Super NES emulator. If that is indeed the case, you should know before paying some inflated price that the SMAS versions of both Super Mario Bros. and SMB: Lost Levels are inferior to the NES originals.

Well, the graphics are better, that is true. But the physics are incorrect. In the originals, if Mario (in Super or Fiery form) jumps and hits a breakable block, he bounces off of it and starts dropping right away as it breaks. In the SMAS versions of both games, this does not happen; instead, Mario continues to rise after breaking the block.

This would not be a problem, except for situations where you’re running forward, and jump to break a block that is part of a row of blocks. In the original, you’ll bounce off and continue moving forward, but in the remakes, you’ll continue to rise, collide with the next block in the row, and then drop straight down… sometimes, into an enemy or pit. This makes certain portions of the games more difficult, extremely frustrating, or just plain not fun.

The versions of SMB2 and SMB3 are accurate as far as I can tell, but for anyone hoping to play the oldest of the games, this is a poor choice. Avoid it and either grab the Virtual Console versions, or dig out an NES.