Mario Advance 4: Mario 3!!

[OB1]

Our suspisions were correct!

Nintendo saved Mario 3 for last because they wanted to do something extra special with it. Just look at these screens! (hint: I'm not talking about the graphics)

[Sacred Jellybean]

Super-cool! I'm going to buy this. Weren't those football player opponents first introduced in Super Mario World?

[A Black Falcon]

You mean Mario Bros. for the fourth time?

The only 'extra special' addition I know of is that the Nintendo Media site mentioned E-Reader support for new levels and stuff...

[OB1]

Did you not look at those screens?? Items from Mario 2 and World are in the game, and it looks like there will be many more additions like these ones. It's not going to be a straight port.

[A Black Falcon]

Oh, you mean the cape?

[WhiteFleck]

What about people who WANT a port of that game???

Maybe it has a "Classic" and "Modded" selector at the beginning of each session. I hope so...

[OB1]

Jesus, first you guys bitch and moan about these straight SNES-to-GBA ports and then you complain about it when they're not straight ports.

And look at the first screen, ABF. Notice anything out of place?

[A Black Falcon]

Giant turnip from SMB2?

[OB1]

Not only that, but Mario is holding it over his head. You could only do that in Mario 2, remember?

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, yeah... kind of cool. But there SHOULD be a classic mode... oh well. If nothing changes it too much its fine... and the improvements do sound nice.

Oh, and by 'I want changes' I meant extras like in SMBDX, not gameplay changes to the core game.

[Weltall]

I dunno about you guys, but I'm stoked. I don't care if it's not a straight port because honestly (and you guys will admit the same thing if you're honest) I've played through Mario 3 a hundred times and I'd MUCH prefer they make this game as much of a new experience as possible while still retaining the feel and atmosphere of the original. And I'm beyond happy that Nintendo is FINALLY stopping the 'straight port' philosophy, if only for this game, and really adding something special for us increasingly old farts who remember and love this game.

I haven't bought a GBA game in over a year, but I'll definitely be getting this.

[A Black Falcon]

I wanted bonus modes, new levels, minigames, new modes, etc... but the original game intact! Add extra stuff as some alternate game... but the classic should be straight from Allstars...

[Weltall]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
I wanted bonus modes, new levels, minigames, new modes, etc... but the original game intact! Add extra stuff as some alternate game... but the classic should be straight from Allstars...

Why? You didn't play through that enough already?

And remember the first SMA added things to SMB2.

[A Black Falcon]

Not major things...

And anyway I already said that if they're relatively minor and improve the game they are fine...

[OB1]

You don't understand Weltall, thse people will never be happy. They complained about all of the previous Mario Advance games because they were straight ports and now they're complaining that Mario 3 isn't. I'm not even going to try to count the number of times people here have said "if I wanted to play *insert game title* I'd play it on my SNES!".

[OB1]

Gah, this is so stupid.

May 13, 2003 - Nintendo sneakily announced that Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 will feature e-Reader support. Players will be able to collect cards with specific code on them that will upload brand new levels and challenges to the Game Boy Advance cartridge.
No details were released, but screenshots have shown situations that do not happen in the original Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario flying around with the Super Mario World cape, or plucking up a turnip from Super Mario Bros. 2, which indicate that these are two instances from the e-Reader support

. We'll poke around for more details regarding e-Reader support when the show begins tomorrow.

Aw jeez. So I have to buy a $40 e-reader and a bunch of expensive cards to unlock new levels in the game??

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo's current policy is to make unlocking things as hard as possible, so not many people will actually unlock most of the stuff in most games. Isn't it obvious?

[Weltall]

Gah! My interest in this game is... sharply... falling.

Fuck the E-Reader

[Sacred Jellybean]

That's crap. Ugh. Nintendo can take their E-Reader and shove it.

[N-Man]

E-reader notwithstanding, the game looks neat. It's like if they took all the cool things from the Mario games and put them in the best one.

It does cause some worry as to Nintendo's innovativeness however, methinks...

[A Black Falcon]

They haven't made a new 2d Mario game in a decade. I don't know if they'd remember how... :)

[lazyfatbum]

Fuck the E-Reader? A device that lets you buy a 5 dollar pack of cards and get new levels, abilities, power ups and characters? Yeah, fuck that. You guys make the dumbest responses sometimes. We already know that Nintendo is testing the market with the E-Reader and that their ultimate goal is to release game X for the home console and then release hundreds of cheaply made and inexpensive add-on E-Reader cards that infinitely alter the game. I can reach orgasm just thinking about it.

Imagine the possibility of never buying a sequel until there's suffiecent advancements in the software to warrant a sequel. A few years from now, we could be playing Metroid 2 and each of us have our own unique modded version of it. Through E-Reader, you could form your own planet or suit, or even game play modes like creating an obsticle course for your unique abilities or shooting range for your own unique weapons. And you look down on that ideal?? Because Nintendo sees it as a way to make 10 fold the money with nearly zero cost after enitial production of the main game! We'll be cleaning the stains from our pants when we explore a game that WE made to the point that the only thing that even resembles the original game is some of the most basic game play mechanics! AND YOU PAY 40 BUCKS FOR THE DEVICE AND 5 BUCKS FOR A PACK OF CARDS THAT YOU CAN TRADE AND YOU FUCKING COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. WOULD YOU RATHER GET A SEQUEL EVERY TEN YEARS AND PAY 50 BUCKS FOR IT??

SHMUCKS

[A Black Falcon]

Because its $40 and $5 for cards... quite a lot for just extra levels.

Also! You need either a GBPlayer or two GBA's for this since you must have the reader in one and the game in the other... expensive!

[Dark Jaguar]

This is indeed great news!

As has been said, our complaints aren't ACTUALLY contradictory. We want BOTH a full remake AND an unaltered original! As you know, the GBA can do NES and SNES emulation very nicely. We just want them to put the All-Stars version of SMB3 in there for us to select in case we want to play the unaltered original. A total remake with capes and turnips and maybe Yoshi is ALSO wanted, in a SEPERATE selection. Didn't you play SMBDX? That's what we want! You could either select to play the game completely unaltered, or take the challenges were the levels were filled with new things like yoshi eggs and red coins. That's what we want, both, and it's so easy to do that.

[OB1]

The E-Reader does not add new stuff to games, it merely unlocks things already existing in the carts! If you honestly think that the E-Reader will allow you to add tons of new stuff to the game that's not already in the cart then you better be prepared for a major dissapointment. Making new suits and levels? Where the hell did you get that information from? You must be thinking of some sort magical bizarro E-Reader from dimension X because the ones we have here can't do any of those things. It's just a super-expensive way to unlock things already in the carts.

[Weltall]

Originally posted by lazyfatbum
Fuck the E-Reader? A device that lets you buy a 5 dollar pack of cards and get new levels, abilities, power ups and characters? Yeah, fuck that. You guys make the dumbest responses sometimes. We already know that Nintendo is testing the market with the E-Reader and that their ultimate goal is to release game X for the home console and then release hundreds of cheaply made and inexpensive add-on E-Reader cards that infinitely alter the game. I can reach orgasm just thinking about it.

Imagine the possibility of never buying a sequel until there's suffiecent advancements in the software to warrant a sequel. A few years from now, we could be playing Metroid 2 and each of us have our own unique modded version of it. Through E-Reader, you could form your own planet or suit, or even game play modes like creating an obsticle course for your unique abilities or shooting range for your own unique weapons. And you look down on that ideal?? Because Nintendo sees it as a way to make 10 fold the money with nearly zero cost after enitial production of the main game! We'll be cleaning the stains from our pants when we explore a game that WE made to the point that the only thing that even resembles the original game is some of the most basic game play mechanics! AND YOU PAY 40 BUCKS FOR THE DEVICE AND 5 BUCKS FOR A PACK OF CARDS THAT YOU CAN TRADE AND YOU FUCKING COMPLAIN ABOUT IT. WOULD YOU RATHER GET A SEQUEL EVERY TEN YEARS AND PAY 50 BUCKS FOR IT??

SHMUCKS

Yeah, and when they actually start DOING any of those things with the E-Reader, perhaps I might feel it's worth the money. As it stands right now, to get the full experience for Mario 3 will cost me $75 at the very least. And I doubt the E-Reader, even though it is most probably capable of living up to your expectations, actually ever will.

And why do all that when you can so easily program them into the game!? You do realize that you're paying $30 for a GBA game because it comes on a 32MB cart, and you also realize that this port, even with the extras most likely aren't even consuming a tenth of that. Hell, with all that extra space, they could fit every Super Mario Advance game, PLUS full-featured level-editors for each, AND have enough remaining space to flashrom-save tons of those levels. All WITHOUT the need for an E-Reader.

Of course, my biggest fundamental problem with this whole thing is that I've already bought Super Mario Bros. 3 twice, once when I got the NES version, and again when I got it on All-Stars. How can you say it's right for them to expect me to buy this game a THIRD time, and then charge me even MORE for the new stuff!?

I'm sorry, this is bullshit and I don't like it.

[Dark Jaguar]

Actually OB1, the cards ARE in fact capable of storing the data for more levels, images for all the sprites for new suits, and the way the new powerups would work. The CARDS can very well do this, and thus so can the e-Reader! Here's the problem. The game. The GAME has to be able to support adding this information. Now then, by simply making a nice large area in the writable part of the cart for storing level data, it can very well be expecting extra levels. How many extra levels and such can it store at once though? That's the question. Remember, the e-Reader can save all the games that are read into it. The cards don't "unlock" the NES games in the e-Reader. Believe it or not, those NES games aren't stored in the e-Reader at ALL. It's ALL contained in the dot code. That's what makes the dot code very impressive, that it can store all that data.

In other words OB1, IF they design SMA4 with some save space in mind prepaired to store extra levels, suits, and so on, cards can easily add it to the game. Stuff can actually BE added to the cart that wasn't already there, until the saved data runs out of room, then you have to delete some levels or suits to make room for more.

I do share your opinion on the idea of using stuff like that, or system linking to the GCN, to just "unlock" data already in the game. That is PATHETIC, and has been ever since that Mario's Tennis link up for N64 was first done to "unlock" those characters that are actually already coded into the game. However, in this case they aren't doing that. They are adding the capability of storing extra levels that weren't made when the game came out.

[OB1]

They may be able to store small things like new suits or a level or two, but the space is extremely limited on the cards so you definitely wouldn't be able to do all of that crazy stuff that lazy was talking about. It's a complete waste of money to have to pay $40 for the E-Reader and $5 per card just to get a new level or suit for the game.

I was also under the impression that the extra stuff in Mario 3 would be simply unlocked by the E-Reader, much like how you unlock the Fusion Suit and Metroid 1 in Metroid Prime by connecting it to the GBA. You're not actually getting that stuff from the GBA.

[Dark Jaguar]

I don't think Nintendo would pull something like THAT here. I don't think it's just a key and lock system like Metroid was. It's sure a possiblity, but I'd think if it was a key thing they would have one of the new Mario games for GCN do the unlocking instead of cards. lazy kinda pushed it to an extreme, yes, but that's who he is! He knows as well as we do that we would end up buying whole decks to swipe if we were adding massive stuff constantly, and it would just be a bit too out of control with all the cards lying about. I'd love to have that infinite expansion thing going on too, but the better method is not the cards, but via downloading expansions off the net, maybe via a cell phone hookup. Eliminating the e-reader completely will likely happen when Nintendo embraces online capabilities.

Still, as I said, I suspect the cards actually will have added stuff, and not just be a key to unlock existing stuff. However, the key method is an evil possibility, considering that there are in fact a couple items in Animal Crossing one can only get using the e-reader, though the items actually are coded into animal Crossing itself.

[A Black Falcon]

If its 'key and lock' like Metroid Prime except requiring a second GBA and a e-reader instead of a GBA and Metroid Fusion, I'd be really annoyed... that was the stupidest way to unlock something ever. I', lucky I found someone on campus with a GBA so I could unlock Metroid...

And since GBA carts hold not too much information and don't have huge save areas I wouldn't bet on the thing holding many scannable levels... not permanatly anyway... its not like its got some memory card to save lots of data to...

[OB1]

Do you know how much data a single e-card can hold?

[Great Rumbler]

and $5 per card

It's $5 per PACK of cards.

Do you know how much data a single e-card can hold?

10-20 kilobytes of data, I think.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.planetgamecube.com/impression...ile&id=578

Cool! It doesn't have the NES version, but one mode is the plain All-Stars version... and another is the different one. :)

[OB1]

Well alright then. Happy?

[A Black Falcon]

More. But I want a NES graphics mode! I know, I know... it won't happen. But it'd still be nice. Not a huge problem or anything... but nice. :)

[OB1]

Would you want it instead of the Mario All-Stars mode?

[A Black Falcon]

I seem to recall saying 'both'...

[OB1]

That's not what I asked. Which one would you prefer?

[A Black Falcon]

I don't know... probably allstars... but that wasn't what I was saying...

[OB1]

I know what you were saying, but it really isn't necessary. We're getting two versions of the game!

[Dark Jaguar]

Cool! Exactly what I wanted! I never actually said I wanted the NES version instead of All-Stars, just that if it came down to just emulating the actual original, I wouldn't mind so long as the original was in there. This is totally unaltered original NES gameplay just with updated graphics, AND a new revamped awesome far above remake of the game. THIS is exactly what I wanted OB1, and yes, I'm happy! Now then, there was ONE thing the All-Stars version altered from the NES version of SMB3. When you beat the NES version, when you start a new game (without turning off or resetting the system mind you), you get a full item menu of p-wings. It was a fun bonus that allowed you to have all sorts of easy flying fun in a second run of the game. In the All-Stars version, you don't get that. It would be nice to give us that reward again. When beating the All-Stars original, unlock an option for whenever someone starts a new game, for "P-Wing Mode" or "Normal Mode". That would be nice.

Anyway, it's awesome that they are finally doing this. They SHOULD have done the same for Mario Bros. 2 (let us choose to play in original mode) instead of only giving us the altered mode, but at least they are doing it now.

I can't wait for this ultimate version of my favorite 2D Mario game! Please give us multiplayer (alternating without the multiplayer bonus levels is easy enough with just one Advance, alternating with bonus levels should be easy with two linked systems).

[OB1]

We're only getting the same stupid multiplayer mode found in all three Mario Advance games.

[Dark Jaguar]

Don't say that! It'll jinx us! It's fine they add in Mario Bros. (the only other option is not adding it, and why not have more?), but I'll likely never even touch it. The important thing is that unlike their other multiplayer Mario game GB remakes, they give us the multi mode here! Please!

[OB1]

According to Nintendo.com and various other sites, the Mario Bros. multiplayer mode that's been in every single Mario Advance game so far will be the only multiplayer mode in SMA4.

[Dark Jaguar]

"So far" eh? That leaves me room for deluding myself! Yeah!

[EdenMaster]

I feel like the only one here agreeing with lazy, but I see great promise in the E-Reader. Sure, Ninendo is infamous for short-lived gimmicks (Super Scope, Virtual Boy, R.O.B, the list goes on) but this, I believe will be different.

[Dark Jaguar]

I agree with lazy in part myself. I just don't see it lasting after Nintendo gets a system where people can download stuff.

Oh, and to note, the save space can be whatever size they want on a GBA cart, up to the max size of a GBA game. In the case of the E-reader itself, for instance, it can store whole NES games in the save area (you can actually save it so you don't have to reread the game until you delete it to add another game). I see the e-reader as being very nice for now.

[OB1]

You definitely won't be able to do all that incredible stuff lazy was talking about, such as modifying games and making your own levels, characters, etc.

[Dark Jaguar]

Not until the e-card printer is released anyway :D.

[OB1]

wha?