GAME-BOY-ADVANCE Platformer Action 2001

Super Mario Advance

Reviewed by Marcus Webb & Elena Castillo · Updated June 2025

Nintendo's GBA launch title and Super Mario Bros. 2 remake — Super Mario Advance packages the enhanced Super Mario Bros. 2 USA with the arcade classic Mario Bros., adds voiced character exclamations, enlarged sprites for the GBA screen, and a Yoshi egg-based scoring system that extends the original's already substantial replay depth.

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💡 Super Mario Advance — Key Facts

→ Super Mario Advance was developed by Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo
→ Released in 2001 on GAME-BOY-ADVANCE
→ Genre: Platformer, Action
→ We rate it 8.6/10 — highly recommended
→ Nintendo's GBA launch title and Super Mario Bros. 2 remake — Super Mario Advance packages the enhanced Super Mario Bros. 2 USA with the arcade classic Mario Bros., adds voiced character exclamations, enlarged sprites for the GBA screen, and a Yoshi egg-based scoring system that extends the original's already substantial replay depth.

Overview

A GBA at launch in June 2001 came with Super Mario Advance as the showcase title. Nintendo’s choice was significant: not a new Mario, not SMB3, not Super Mario World — Super Mario Bros. 2 USA, the game that Western players got in 1988 when the Japanese SMB2 was deemed too difficult to export.

The game that nobody quite knew how to classify. The Mario that didn’t play like Mario.

The Vegetable Combat

No fire flowers. No stomping. The core mechanic of Super Mario Bros. 2 USA is pulling objects from the ground — turnips, mushroom blocks, Koopa shells, and enemies themselves — and throwing them at other enemies.

This originated in Doki Doki Panic, the Fuji TV promotional game that Nintendo reskinned into Super Mario Bros. 2 USA when the actual Japanese SMB2 (The Lost Levels) was considered too punishing for Western release. The reskin worked: Western players got a Mario game that was mechanically inventive and strange rather than punishingly difficult.

The GBA version enhanced what already worked. Yoshi eggs hidden in each stage gave players who remembered the original a new objective. Voice clips gave the four characters personality — ‘It’s-a me, Mario!’ wasn’t just a catchphrase; it was the game acknowledging itself.

The Four

Mario. Luigi. Peach. Toad.

Each character handles differently enough to matter. Luigi’s super jump reaches platforms Mario cannot. Peach’s float — holding the jump button to hover — accesses areas that require planning to exploit. Toad’s crop-pull speed is fastest; his jump is the weakest.

The four characters created replayability that single-character Mario games couldn’t match. The same stage with different character choice is a different routing puzzle. The game rewarded replaying stages with characters chosen for their traversal advantages rather than familiarity.

The GBA Launch

Super Mario Advance launched the GBA in North America in June 2001. It demonstrated that GBA was capable of SNES-quality Mario presentation — the sprites were larger than the NES original, the colors more vivid, the sound enhanced.

Nintendo would use the Super Mario Advance format for three more entries: SMW, Yoshi’s Island, and SMB3. Each GBA package included the enhanced Mario main game plus the bundled Mario Bros. classic. The series systematically delivered the complete SNES-era Mario library to GBA players who’d missed the 16-bit era.

Our Review

8.6

Excellent / 10

🎮

Gameplay

★★★★★

🎨

Graphics

★★★★★

🎵

Audio

★★★★★

🔄

Replay

★★★★★

Gameplay

Super Mario Advance is a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 USA (the reskinned Doki Doki Panic version, not the Japanese SMB2) for GBA launch. Four playable characters with distinct abilities: Mario (balanced), Luigi (highest jump, floaty), Princess Peach (floating hover), Toad (fastest speed, weakest jump). The vegetable-pulling combat — grabbing turnips, mushroom blocks, and enemies from the ground to throw at other enemies — is fundamentally different from the fire-flower mechanics of SMB1 and SMB3. Six worlds, 20 stages, Wart as final boss. Yoshi eggs hidden in each stage create a collectible objective. The bundled Mario Bros. classic supports two-player competitive play on a single cartridge.

Graphics

Super Mario Advance's GBA visuals enhance the original NES graphics with larger sprites sized for the GBA's smaller screen, more detailed backgrounds, and character portraits during play. The enhanced presentation served the GBA's launch context.

Audio

Character voice clips — 'Let's-a go!', 'Oh yeah!' — added personality to the GBA version absent from the NES original. The SNES-era musical arrangements translated to GBA hardware effectively.

Replayability

Yoshi egg collection across all stages, four character selection for different challenge approaches, completion scoring via coins and enemies, and the bundled Mario Bros. competitive mode extend play beyond a single linear run.

Historical Significance

Super Mario Advance launched with the GBA in June 2001 — it was Nintendo's showcase game for the new hardware. The Super Mario Advance series became the definitive GBA Mario strategy: each of the four entries ported a classic SNES or NES Mario game with enhancements. SMB2 USA was the overlooked Mario — the game Western players got instead of the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (which remained Japan-exclusive until All-Stars). The GBA port reintroduced SMB2 USA to a generation who knew Mario through SMB3 and SMW rather than the vegetable-combat anomaly.

✅ Pros

+ Four distinct characters with genuinely different play styles
+ GBA launch title — optimized for the hardware's debut
+ Yoshi egg collection adds objective across all stages
+ Mario Bros. classic bundled for two-player competitive play
+ SMB2 USA's vegetable-combat remains unique in the franchise

❌ Cons

- SMB2 USA considered lesser Mario by many players
- Six worlds shorter than SMB3 or SMW
- GBA screen's lack of backlight in original hardware
- Wart as final boss less iconic than Bowser

Also Known As

Super Mario Advance GBASMA1スーパーマリオアドバンス

Super Mario Advance FAQ

How does Super Mario Advance differ from Super Mario Bros. 2?

Super Mario Advance is an enhanced remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 USA (the Western SMB2 derived from the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic). The GBA version adds several features absent from the NES original. All four characters received unique voice clips — Mario's 'Let's-a go!', Peach's 'Oh yeah!', Toad's 'I'm the best!' — giving personality to characters who were silent in 1988. Each stage contains hidden Yoshi eggs that must be found and collected as a scoring bonus, adding a collectible objective to stages players may have previously treated as linear runs. The game's sprites were enlarged and enhanced for the GBA's smaller resolution. The Mario Bros. classic arcade game was bundled, playable solo or two-player competitive via link cable. The core game — vegetable combat, four-character selection, six worlds, 20 stages, Wart as final boss — remained faithful to the NES original.

What makes Super Mario Bros. 2 different from other Mario games?

Super Mario Bros. 2 USA is fundamentally unlike other 2D Mario games in its core mechanic. Instead of stomping enemies and using fire flowers, players pull vegetables and other objects from the ground to throw at enemies. No enemy can be stomped — the ground-pull and throw is the primary attack across all encounters. The four playable characters each handle differently: Luigi's super jump enables routes inaccessible to Mario; Peach's float-hover reaches platforms others cannot; Toad's running speed and crop-pull speed are highest but his jump lowest. Bosses require specific patterns rather than the Bowser axe-bridge approach. The game originated as Doki Doki Panic — a Fuji TV licensed game in Japan — reskinned with Mario characters for Western release after the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (later released as The Lost Levels) was deemed too difficult for Western markets.

What is the bundled Mario Bros. game in Super Mario Advance?

Super Mario Advance includes the Mario Bros. arcade classic alongside the main Super Mario Bros. 2 game. Mario Bros. is the 1983 arcade original where Mario and Luigi fight turtles (Shellcreepers), crabs, and other creatures in an underground pipe system by hitting the floor beneath them and then picking up the stunned enemies. The GBA version supports two-player simultaneous play via link cable — one player controls Mario, the other Luigi, playing either cooperatively or competitively across multiple rounds. The Mario Bros. inclusion became a series feature: each Super Mario Advance title bundled Mario Bros., providing a consistent multiplayer option across all four entries. The Mario Bros. game also serves as the series' continuity framing — SMB2, SMW (SMA2), Yoshi's Island (SMA3), and SMB3 (SMA4) all include it.

Is Super Mario Advance available on modern platforms?

Super Mario Advance is available through Nintendo Switch Online's Game Boy Advance library (Nintendo Switch, 2023 onwards), which includes the GBA library for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers. The GBA library on Switch Online allows playing Super Mario Advance on modern hardware. The physical GBA cartridge is widely available in retro game stores. Super Mario Bros. 2 USA (the underlying game) is available through Nintendo Switch Online's NES library as Super Mario Bros. 2, which is the NES version without the GBA enhancements. The Super Mario Advance series — SMA1 through SMA4 — represents Nintendo's complete GBA remasters of the classic Mario library.