This article is about the Game Boy Advance remake ofSuper Mario Bros. 2. For theSuper Mario Advance series as a whole, seeSuper Mario Advance (series). For the Choose Your Own Adventure book based on this game, seeSuper Mario Advance (book).

"SMA" redirects here. ForSuper Mario Adventures, the Nintendo Power comic, seeSuper Mario Adventures.

Super Mario Advance
North American box art For alternate box art, see therelated gallery.
Developer	Nintendo R&D2
Publisher	Nintendo
Platforms	Game Boy Advance Virtual Console (Wii U) Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Classics
Release dates	Game Boy Advance: March 21, 2001[1] June 11, 2001[2] June 22, 2001[3] June 22, 2001[?] June 8, 2004 (iQue)[4] Player's Choice: April 2, 2006[5] Virtual Console (Wii U): July 16, 2014[6] November 6, 2014[7] March 10, 2016[8] March 11, 2016[?] Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Classics: May 25, 2023[9] May 26, 2023[10] May 26, 2023[11] May 26, 2023[12] May 26, 2023[13]
Languages	English Japanese Chinese (Simplified)
Genre	2Dplatformer
Ratings	ESRB: - Everyone[14] CERO: - All ages[?] ELSPA: - Three years and older[?] USK: - All ages[?] ClassInd: - General audience[15] ACB: - General[16]
Mode	Single player
Format	Wii U: Digital download Nintendo Switch: Digital download Game Boy Advance: Game Pak
Input	Wii U: Wii U GamePad Wii Remote (horizontal) Classic Controller Wii U Pro Controller Nintendo Switch: Joy-Con Joy-Con (horizontal) Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Game Boy Advance: Gamepad
Serial codes	AGB-AMAJ-JPN AGB-AMAE-USA AGB-AMAP-EUR AGB-AMAP-EUR-1 (Later release) AGB-AMAP-AUS AGB-AMAC-CHN

Super Mario Advance is aremake ofSuper Mario Bros. 2 developed byNintendo Research & Development 2 as a launch title for theGame Boy Advance, released in Japan in March 2001 and in North America and Europe in June of the same year. It is based on theSuper Mario All-Stars remaster, and also contains aremake of the originalMario Bros. arcade game.Super Mario Advance includes many new features, gameplay mechanic changes, graphical and audio enhancements, and stylistic and aesthetic alterations from theAll-Stars edition, with the most significant changes being the addition of the enemyRobirdo, a roboticBirdo, replacingMouser as the boss of World 3; the addition of the "Yoshi Challenge," in which players may revisit stages to search forYoshi Eggs; a new point-scoring system; multiple hit combos; enlarged sprites; and digital voice acting.

The game was rereleased on theWii U'sVirtual Console in Japan on July 16, 2014; in North America on November 6 of the same year; and in Europe and Australia in March 2016. It was later rereleased on theNintendo Switch'sGame Boy Advance - Nintendo Classics library in May 2023.

Story[edit]

The story is the same as in the original release ofSuper Mario Bros. 2, written in the North American manual as follows:^[17]

One night, Mario had a mysterious dream. He dreamed he was climbing a long stairway that led up and up to a closed door. When he reached the top and opened the door, he found himself gazing out at a world he had never seen, stretching out to the horizon. Then he heard a voice say, “This is Subcon, the land of dreams. The evil toad, Wart, has used his magic to lay a curse upon the land. Please defeat Wart and free us from his spell. Oh - and remember that Wart hates vegetables. Hurry! We need your help!” And then a bolt of lightning suddenly split the sky, and Mario woke up to find himself on the floor. He had fallen out of bed!

A few days later, Mario and his friends hiked to some nearby mountains for a picnic. Upon reaching their picnic spot, they looked around and found a small cave. When they entered the cave, they were amazed to discover the land Mario had seen in his dream stretching out before them.

List of changes[edit]

Changes toSuper Mario Bros. 2 from the previous editions[edit]

Graphical and textual changes[edit]

• The developers brightened most of the original color palettes to combat the handheld's lack of a backlight.^[18] In the process,Subspace lost its dark blue tint seen inSuper Mario All-Stars, and is now only slightly darker thanSubcon.
• The title screen was entirely redesigned: the old curtain aesthetic is removed, replaced by a new menu with save files and other features. Because of this, the explanation of the story is confined to the manual. In the original game, it could be seen by waiting on the title screen.
• Pidgits have been recolored from black to purple, while theircarpets have been stretched and recolored from yellow to red.
• Hoopsters were recolored from red with black spots to yellow with red spots.
• Autobombs were recolored from black to gray.
• All redBeezos were recolored yellow.
• Bombs andBob-ombs now pulsate when they are about to explode; explosions also do so.
• Enemies now rotate when thrown and/or defeated.
• Birdo's eggs now rotate upon hitting a wall.
• Cherries andHearts rotate and shrink when collected; the former simply vanish, while the latter enlarge and float to the Health Meter afterwards if it is not full. Also, Hearts are bigger, and now pulsate as they float.
• Trouters enlarge as they reach the peak of their jumps and shrink while falling back down.
• The "1UP" sprite is recolored purple and appears in a new font, and also gets bigger before exploding into particles.
• Phantos use a larger sprite, which appears shrunk down to the original sprite's size in most cases; they appear in full size when they exit the screen upon the player's throwing the key or losing a life. The original Phanto graphic is used for the lifeless ones.
• Luigi's overalls, which were purple inAll-Stars, were recolored blue.
• Toad's vest, which was blue inAll-Stars, was recolored purple. In addition, his cap spots were redesigned to matchhis kind's modern appearance, though the sprite in the cast list was not updated.
• When characters enter or exit a door, they have dedicated animations for doing so, as in theAll-Stars version ofSuper Mario Bros. 3.
• When a character performs aPower Squat Jump without an item, they use a new backflipping animation, though if they do so while crouching with one, they retain their crouching animation. This is unlike previous versions, where both actions caused the regular jump animation.
• As with most otherSuper Mario games, a skidding animation was added when a character suddenly turns around while running.
• Character throwing sprites (which were only used in midair in theAll-Stars version) are used when standing on ground, as in the NES version.
• The whole screen exhibits a "static" visual effect when the player touches aSpark.
• Characters, items, and enemies fall in front of the water inWorld 4, as in the NES version.
• The character and item sprites on the bottom of theBonus Chance, Subspace Warp, and Game Over menus are now gold, like the border, and the black background now fades to blue on the bottom.
• The level intro screen is preceded by a new level chart (like that ofSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe's Challenge Mode) which shows what levels the player has cleared and how many total Ace Coins they have as a percentage (the Pause screen also has this total); when all five Ace Coins have been collected and the level is cleared, a star is added to the corresponding panel.
• The character select screen is changed to a circular screen similar to that used for theTag Barrels inDonkey Kong 64 and the mode selection screen in theGame Boy Colorreissue ofDonkey Kong Country. There is also a new panel at the bottom displaying character stats.
• The slots on the Bonus Chance screen are shaded to look more three-dimensional.
• The background does not flash during explosions, likely to avoid risk of epileptic seizures.
• The title for the character that was used the most by the end of the game was changed from "Contributor" to "MVP". Their name also appears in large text in the middle of the screen (instead of at the top) and afterWart is carried offscreen, and the windows in the background are shorter.
• If the player does not get any coins before clearing a level, "No Bonus" appears on the Bonus Chance screen alongside everything else without flashing.
• Fryguy andClawgrip have cutscenes before their fights showing their original forms (respectively, his mask and a normalSidestepper) being transformed by four giant bubbles into their boss forms.
• In levels, a full HUD is shown on the top of the screen (as in most other 2DSuper Mario games), displaying the player's current world and level, lives (with character symbols similar to those inSuper Mario Bros. 3),Ace Coins,Yoshi Eggs (in Yoshi Challenge mode only), and score, alongside theHealth Meter. Due to this, the current world and level and the player's extra lives are no longer shown on the Pause screen.
• Jar interiors are redesigned: they have new colorful backgrounds, with a black background outside the jar walls and floor.
• The sky in the background of the corked jar room now scrolls, and the row of stained glass near the top of the room is now centered.
• On the cast list screen, the black border is absent, and the view is widened.
• In the cast list,Robirdo is placed between Clawgrip andTryclyde, and, like Birdo's sprite, it lacks its bow.
• Princess Toadstool is now referred to as "Peach" (her original Japanese name and the current universal standard, as introduced to Western territories inYoshi's Safari and re-introduced and popularized bySuper Mario 64 onwards) as opposed to simply "Princess".
• Toad is now referred to as "Kinopio" in Japanese, his original name.
• The character selection screen now displays "Choose a Player" instead of "Please Select Player".
• On the pause and Game Over screens, the ampersands in "Save & Quit" and "Save & Continue" were changed to "and". The former screen also has a "PAUSE" header.
• TheOstro/Birdo mix-up is corrected in the cast list.
• Clawgrip is no longer spelled "Clawglip" in the English version, though is still named such in Japanese, likely because his name is pronounced that way in that language.
• The player's score is displayed on the level intro screen, and both it and the current level are displayed on the Game Over screen.
  • On the latter screen, the options from theAll-Stars version do not appear until or is pressed.
• "COURSE CLEAR!" (using the same font as in theAll-Stars version ofSuper Mario Bros. 3) is now displayed upon clearing a level.

Gameplay changes[edit]

• Mario,Luigi,Toad, andPeach now start the game and each life in theirSmall forms with only one hit point of the current maximum remaining, and their Small forms persist between levels (as in the other 2DSuper Mario titles), whereas in the original andAll-Stars remaster, they always start each life and level in their Super forms with full health regardless of whether they were in their Small or Super forms upon completion of the previous level.
• While climbing vines, chains, or ladders, can be used to drop off at any point.
• can be used as an additional run button, but not a grab/throw button, making it possible to start running while holding an item.
• and can be used to pan the camera vertically and horizontally, respectively, though the latter button can only be used in vertical sections.
• The boss order is slightly altered: a new boss namedRobirdo, a roboticBirdo, acts as the new boss of World 3; and the secondMouser battle is moved to World 6 to replaceTryclyde's second battle.
• Toad only runs faster if he's holding a normal-sizedPOW Block orMushroom Block.
• The game can be saved at any time. It saves the current level, like theSuper Mario All-Stars version ofSuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, as opposed to just the current world.
• An extra Mushroom was added to all levels except for 4-1, raising the maximum hit points per level to five.
• The placement of certain1-Up Mushrooms is changed, and there are also 1-Up Mushrooms sitting on the surface; these ones are usually contained withinbubbles, which the player can pop with three hits.
• In horizontal sections, the camera is usually panned ahead of the playable character, rather than centered.
• After the game is beaten, a new "Yoshi Challenge" mode is added; the player may revisit the levels to search for twoYoshi Eggs per stage, hidden inSubspace where they replace two of theMushrooms, and is allowed to select any level to play regardless of whether or not they played them before beating the final boss.
• An all-newscoring system is introduced, similar to that used in theBS Super Mario USA Power Challenge; players get more points for making one thrown object hit lots of enemies, and are awardedextra lives if they eliminate eight or more in a short time.
• This game features "giant" variants of vegetables, enemies, and POW Blocks, with enlarged sprites and larger areas of reach. The giant POW Blocks bounce around and shake enemies off the screen four times as opposed to just once.
• Red Shells are made larger and are now capable of bouncing off walls as well as hurting the player.
• Hearts are made larger, and now only require two consecutive enemies to be hit to spawn (from the second enemy), instead of floating from the bottom of the screen for every eighth enemy beaten. They can also be spawned or obtained in other ways, such as when giant enemies are thrown to the ground or beaten, when Red Shells defeat enemies, whenOstros are beaten, simply floating in midair (mainly in boss rooms), and as special radishes that can be pulled up from the ground.
• Pansers shoot fireballs at a slower pace.
• Two new objects are introduced: theHidden Item Container, which gives the player either a Heart, a bomb, or aStarman after being thrown; and theSpark Chaser, located inside jars, which clearsSparks on the walls, ground, and ceiling.
• Five redAce Coins are added to each level, which reward an extra life if all are collected in a single level playthrough.
• Elevator Platforms are added toWorlds 1-1 and1-3, which spring from under hills to catapult the player to higher places.
• The ribbons of red and greenBirdos are now removable.
• Bombs take longer to stop moving.
• When Wart is defeated, he can no longer damage the player.
• BothCobrat andSnifit bullets are slightly slower.
• Players can now bet more than one coin per spin in theBonus Chance game to earn more extra lives (the coin amount used times the normal amount of lives gained).
• Lining up three "7" symbols now gives five extra lives, rather than ten.
• New jars were added to levels; some incorporate Ferris wheel platforms withShyguys riding them, and one in World 5-2 has abouncing blade that expands and contracts. Some of these are jars that were previously inaccessible in prior versions, namely those inWorld 6-1.
  • A jar was added inWorld 2-2 to prevent players fromsoftlocking themselves after digging through all thesoft sand above them.
• Most glitches have been fixed, including theMagical Potion jump glitch. Thrown potions can no longer be jumped on in mid-air, preventing shortcuts such as the jump over the left wall at the start ofWorld 6-3.
• Generally, enemies do not respawn unless the player leaves and reenters the area, or their existence is necessary to prevent a softlock, like inSuper Mario Bros. 3 onward.
• RunningNinjis turn around slower.
• SwoopingBeezos charge above magic carpet-riding player characters, rather than at them.
• If the player gets rid of a key, they cannot be hurt by the Phanto, as it flies towards the screen.

Audio changes[edit]

• The entire soundtrack has its quality downgraded for the GBA's sound chip, and many of the tracks in the game have been altered or replaced to fit on the GBA.
• The originalSuper Mario Bros. 2 title/story screen music is replaced by a new jazz arrangement of the underwater theme fromSuper Mario Bros. andSuper Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels that is similar toSuper Mario Bros. 3's title screen music from theAll-Stars version.
• A new track has been added for the save file select menu.
• New instrumentation has been added to the overworld theme.
• The Subspace music now has same length as the NES version, therefore most of parts from theAll-Stars version and the originalSuper Mario Bros. are removed.
• Whenever the player enters a boss room, a new foreboding track plays, switching to the boss theme once the battle begins.
• The final levels of Worlds 2 through 5 use the boss theme for the rooms immediately preceding the bosses' arenas (as in the NES version).
• World 4-2 now plays the ground theme in its first room (as in the NES version), even though the underground background was not changed.
• Jar interiors have new music, instead of the underground theme.
• Digital voice acting is added for the four playable characters (who are given voice samples for such situations as being chosen, picking up items like Mushrooms orCrystal Balls, gaining an extra life, clearing a level, and losing a life) and the bosses, who are given lines of dialogue for when they begin their respective battles and when they are defeated. An announcer also shouts "Choose a player!" at the character select screen.
• Mouser's "bomb throw" sound, Tryclyde and Fryguy's "fireball spit" sound, and Clawgrip's "rock throw" sound are all changed to Birdo's "egg spit" sound.
• The "enemy hit" sound is replaced by itsSuper Mario World counterpart in most instances, and like that game, it increases in pitch during a point chain untilextra lives are earned, at which point theAll-Stars sound returns (though only for lives gained by shells). However, this does not occur for enemies defeated byinvincibility.
• The drumroll that starts when two of the same picture are lined up in the Bonus Chance minigame now loops until the third slot stops.
• A chime is added to make it more obvious when enough Cherries were collected to spawn aSuper Star.
• Phantos now make the same noises as the largerPhanto in the background of the key rooms as they move around.
• TheMask Gate inWorld 7-2 makes the same sounds as the Phantos in the key rooms when it turns around.

Mario Bros. remake[edit]

The game features aMario Bros. remake also present in the otherAdvance games, as well asMario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The remake features a "Classic Mode" based on the original game's co-op mode, and a "Battle Mode" similar to that used in theAll-Stars remake ofSuper Mario Bros. 3. Changes to the original game come in the form of enhanced graphics, the addition of music where it was originally absent, an extra POW Block in every stage, the addition of the Power Squat Jump, and the replacement ofShellcreepers withSpinies.

Staff[edit]

Main article:List of Super Mario Advance staff

The game includes director Toshiaki Suzuki, producer Masayuki Uemura, and assistant director Hiroaki Sakagami. The team was supervised byTakashi Tezuka,Toshihiko Nakago, andKensuke Tanabe, respectively the motion designer, lead programmer, and director of the original NES game.

Development[edit]

Super Mario Advance was developed due to the success ofSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe for theGame Boy Color in 1999,^[19] and had the tentative namesSuper Mario USA: Advance for the Japanese market andSuper Mario Bros. Deluxe 2 orSuper Mario Bros. 2 Deluxe for the international market.^[20] Despite the use of most graphical and audio assets from theAll-Stars remaster, the game was coded from scratch; new sprites and audio cues were created because their existing counterparts were "not good enough". The development team purposefully decided to add "large" versions of enemies and increase the number of enemies on-screen as a means of highlighting the Game Boy Advance's processing power.^[19] TheMario Bros. remake was initially a separate project designed to experiment with four players, but it was eventually decided to include it as an extra.^[19]

Pre-release and unused content[edit]

Main article:List of Super Mario Advance pre-release and unused content

Glitches[edit]

Main article:List of Super Mario Advance glitches

Floating Pokey[edit]

InWorld 6-1, if the player navigates thePokey off of the ledge, it will float in midair, with no change in behavior. The player can navigate the Pokey back onto the ledge.

Reception[edit]

Super Mario Advance received generally positive reviews, garnering an aggregate score of 84% onMetacritic.^[21] WhenGameSpot reviewed the game, it thought thatSuper Mario Bros. 3 orSuper Mario World would have been a better choice for a launch game considering their respective popularity;^[22] both titles were eventually also remade as part of theSuper Mario Advance series. Conversely,IGN praised the choice, calling it "one of the most polished and creative platformers of the era".^[23]

Gallery[edit]

For this subject's image gallery, seeGallery:Super Mario Advance.

• 

  Artwork ofMario as seen on the box

• 

  Prima Games official guide

• 

  International logo

• 

  Chinese logo

• 

  Japanese game cover

• 

  Player's Choice

• 

  Chinese boxart

• 

  The title screen for theMario Bros. remake, featuring Mario and Luigi with the enemies they encounter in-game

Multimedia[edit]

For the complete list of media files for this subject, seeMultimedia:Super Mario Advance.

Title Theme

File info 0:30

Overworld Theme

File info 0:30

Jar Theme

File info 0:30

Mario Bros. Title Theme

File info 0:30

Help:Media file •Having trouble playing?

References to other games[edit]

Mario Bros.

• Clawgrip is depicted as aSidestepper before being transformed.
• A remake of this game is included.

References in later media[edit]

The redoneSuper Mario Advance sprites as shown in the screen that appears when a title is being downloaded from Nintendo DSi Shop

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

• One of Birdo's lines, "This is as far as you go!", is used in her boss encounter in this game: "You may have defeated mydarling, but that's as far as you go!"

Nintendo DSi Shop

• The sprites of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad from this game serve as the basis for the ones used during the screen when downloading a title from the Nintendo DSi Shop.

WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase

• One of18-Volt'smicrogames is directly based onSuper Mario Advance.

Names in other languages[edit]

Notes[edit]

• In the intro of this game, a portion of the screen is light while the borders are darkened, which remains that way until the characters are positioned above the grass to pick them up, where the darkened parts are brightened. The resolution of the bright portion is the same resolution as the Game Boy, at 160 x 144 pixels.
• This game has several differences from the later games in theSuper Mario Advance series.
  • It is the only game to have an international logo that matches the Japanese logo. In international markets, the other three games reduceSuper Mario Advance [number] to a smaller-sized subtitle and incorporate the titles and logos of their respective originals.
  • It is the only game to not feature a prologue cutscene that depicts the story from the game's manual (or its original opening cutscene in the case ofSuper Mario Advance 3).
    • This distinction is shared with theGame Boy Advance remake ofDonkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
  • It is the only game to not feature the original game's opening when selecting the game.
  • It is the only game to, when selecting the main game, have the chorus (consisting of all playable characters) declare the title in full (in the second and fourth games, the chorus is truncated to just "Super Mario," preceded by Mario only saying "Here we go!", and inSuper Mario Advance 3, due to the main game beingSuper Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, it is replaced with a shout of "Yoshi!").
  • It is the only game to not have French, German, and Spanish translations, possibly due to not having any amount of screen text substantial enough to warrant such translations.
• Unlike the majority of Nintendo-published games of the era, the instruction booklet's copyright page does not have theOfficial Nintendo Seal of Quality in its normal certificate text box, even though the manual for the GBA system does use the seal's box in its design fromthe previous hardware generation. Instead, the seal is presented with small text below it, as it would be in a third-party game's manual. An updated design for the seal's text box was introduced withMario Kart: Super Circuit, the following first-party GBA title.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Super Mario Advance coverage on otherNIWA wikis:

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NintendoWiki

StrategyWiki

• Official Japanese website
• Official American English website(Internet Archive: Wayback Machine)
• Japanese instruction booklet

• Super Mario Advance
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Games
• Game Boy Advance games
• Nintendo Switch Online games
• Launch titles
• Remakes
• Platforming games
• 2001 games
• 2004 games
• Player's Choice

• Articles with unsourced dates
• Articles with unsourced ratings
• Pages with audio files