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132 of 160 found the following review helpful:
 It's more than a game, it's a bundle of Mario history Dec 02, 2010
By Robert G. Ernst
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.
25 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 Some of the best games ever, in a rushed mess of a port. Dec 15, 2010
By Armando N. Roman
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.
51 of 64 found the following review helpful:
 Flawed versions of SMB1 and Lost Levels... Dec 20, 2010
By yyr
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.
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Perfect for those who do not have the original SNES cartridge this is based on Dec 22, 2010
By BX Lounger
In 1993, Nintendo decided to re-release the original NES Super Mario Bros games PLUS the version of Super Mario Bros 2 that was only released in Japan all on one SNES cartridge and call it Super Mario All Stars. Then they took it up several notches by updating the graphics and sounds of each individual game as if they were played as 16-bit SNES titles. It sold like hotcakes and eventually when they made more of the cartridges to keep up with the demand, they added an additional title, Super Mario World. I was fortunate to get it at the time and it was great to play through them all in updated graphics and all.
Now, flash forward to the year 2010 and Nintendo announces they are releasing this on the Wii as a limited edition title. Renamed Super Mario All Stars Wii, this is the same exact version of the SNES title. That's right; you get four games (for reasons unknown, Super Mario World was omitted) as they were back in 1993. You also get an audio CD of the classic music tracks heard from various Mario games and an art book that discusses the history of Mario games. Having said all that, this begs me to ask:
1) Why didn't Nintendo update the graphics and sound effects of all these games as if they were titles similar looking to the excellent New Super Mario Bros DS/Wii games?
2) Why weren't there any extras included in the game disc? Why didn't they include additional classic Mario titles? There is still plenty of room left even after putting 4 games onto the same DVD. They could have added video interviews, retro commercials, etc.
3) Why say that there are 20 tracks on the CD when 10 of them are just sound effects from the various Mario games?Many people would prefer to just have the music on the CD.
4) The art book that comes with it is decent and all but doesn't really feature a lot of commentary from the creators of the games. All you get is a couple of lines and that's about it and it does not include all of the games Mario starred in.
Overall, Super Mario Bros All Stars Wii Limited Edition is not a very, solid approach to honoring Mario and since they are celebrating his 25th anniversary, you would think that they would go all out. Realistically, this release is for those who no longer own any of the original versions of the titles included, own a working NES and SNES and did not download the original versions via the Virtual Console service. For $30, this would be an excellent value for those people. If you're a collector, then it is worth purchasing to own for years to come.
I'm skipping on this for now because I own the SNES cart and have a working SNES so I can play this anytime I want. Maybe for the 30th, 40th or 50th anniversary Nintendo will wise up and put more effort into the tribute towards an international gaming icon.
21 of 27 found the following review helpful:
How to Celebrate 25 years... Dec 21, 2010
By goatdan
"goatdan"
I'm not really one for reviewing stuff, but every so often something makes me come on and post a review of something, and the 25th Anniversary Collection is the first thing in a while to make me do that.
First off, I *love* the Mario 2D platformers, New Super Mario Bros Wii is the reason that I bought a Wii, I have played through Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES when it was new, SNES when Super Mario All Stars came out, and Game Boy Advance, and each time I thought it was great and worth repurchasing. I have done the same thing with Super Mario Bros, owning the Game Boy Color remake which added a ton to the game but didn't take anything away from the original.
So, while I find these games to be just as much fun as before, the problem is Nintendo decided to do absolutely nothing different with this release. It's the Virtual Console on a disc, period. Heck, you can still see the SNES controller from the original game, they didn't even bother changing it to a WiiMote. Yes, you've got people just bashing it for bashing it's sake, but here's the bottom line -- there has been a better version of each of these games released for the Game Boy Advance between the release they obviously just put on the disc without doing anything, and now.
Had Nintendo done *any* work - putting those GBA games on the disc too, including Super Mario World, including maybe Super Mario Land from the GameBoy, heck, including the original Donkey Kong or Mario Bros arcade games... ANY of this would have done by me - the release would have been an instant purchase really worth the cost of admission. But to have just the older, worse versions of the games on the disc is nothing short of a rip-off. Nintendo said, 'Hey, we can make some money here and rip off our customers who will blindly buy anything.' and that is exactly what they did.
Yes, it's great that you can play the "16 bit" versions of these games on Wii now, but didn't Nintendo make all these bold claims about how big the Virtual Console was going to be years ago? Where are the thousands of games Nintendo promised us? Has it really gotten to the point that we are willing to shell out $30 for a game that is identical to a game they released 17 years ago?
I'm sorry, I guess that I forgot two things -- the art booklet, which again, if any work had been put into this it would have made it closer to worth the admission price, but instead it is a very short booklet without much of any insight into the series, and a music CD that I was expected to be great and is sort of passable at best.
On Amazon, for $40 right now is Donkey Kong Country Returns, an extremely more serviceable platformer updated to the modern day and that looks great. Yeah, it doesn't have the three earlier Donkey Kongs in it, but for $10 more it is a much, much better deal than this is.
Nintendo - I've bought every 2D Mario game that has come out almost immediately. This is the last time you'll fool me on something like this. I hope that you're glad that you got my $30 for it, but you've lost the instant-money-down customer that I used to be for Mario products with this one.
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