Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World
Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World (Game Boy Advance)
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Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World title screen

Release dates

Australia N/A
Europe April 12th, 2002
Japan December 14th, 2001
N.America February 9th, 2002

General information

Platform: Game Boy Advance
Developed by Nintendo
Published by Nintendo
Players: 1-2

After the crushing success that Super Mario Advance meant to Nintendo the fans wanted a Sequel, but which could it be? Super Mario Brothers 3? Mario's Time Machine? Well it was no other than Super Mario Bros. 4, Super Mario World!

Help Mario rescue the princess as he and his brother Luigi travel to the mystical dinosaur land, where they will face some common and well known foes as the goombas and paragoombas, some new modifications of old foes like the Banzai Bill never seen before, and flying koopas? Yes, there are super powers on dinosaur island, and Mario isn’t staying behind, leaving his tanooki transformation behind and changing that raccoon tail for a Super Cape!

Travel through 96 possible exits, a star road and a special area reserved for the hardcore players as you travel through the whole of Dinosaur Island on Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. This game also includes a Super Mario Bros. remake, exactly like its predecessor.

Super Mario Advance 2 SMW

 

Official Story from the games manual

After saving the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser and the rest of the Koopas in Super Mario 3, Mario and Luigi needed to recuperate from their adventures. Together they agreed that the best place to vacation was a magical place called Dinosaur Land.
Mario and Yoshi
But while Mario and Luigi reclined on the beach for a relaxing nap, Princess Toadstool disappeared, apparently seized by evil forces. After searching for hours for their missing friend, Mario and Luigi came upon an enormous egg in the forest.

Suddenly the egg hatched, and out popped a young dinosaur named Yoshi, who proceeded to tell Mario and Luigi a sad tale of how his dinosaur pals were sealed in similar eggs by a group of monstrous turtles.
"Monstrous turtles!," exclaimed Luigi. "Bowser and his bunch have returned!" Mario slowly nodded his head in agreement and, along with Luigi and Yoshi, set off across Dinosaur Land to find the Princess and to free Yoshi's friends. As they began their journey, Yoshi handed Mario a beautiful cape. "This may help you," Yoshi said. "Some say it has magical powers."

With a little luck (and help from a magic cape), our hearty crew can defeat the seven worlds of Bowser's Krazy Koopa Kritters. Many locations are well-hidden so explore everywhere and try everything. Not all locations have to be explored to rescue the dinosaurs and save Princess Toadstool, but there are many "starry" treasures to be found in far-reaching places. You'll need to search all areas to find what kinds of treasures are there… in Super Mario World.

Super Mario World - Dinosaur Land Map
A map of Dinosaur Land, the setting for Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World


Gameplay

The gameplay of Super Mario Advance 2 didn’t change much from its predecessor, you still jump with A, you Run and shoot bullets with B and when you are fast enough you can fly with the A button.

The Spin attack may be done with the R button, it includes flying up spinning and certain enemies and blocks may be destroyed and defeated when landing on them while you are spinning.

Aside from the constant talking of Mario and Luigi you may also switch between them pressing R before entering any level to use either of the brothers. Mario has more control but his jump is limited.

Luigi jumps way higher but he skids a bit. One of the most important changes on this game is that whenever you are hit by an enemy you revert to super form, keeping the reserve item whenever you are in super Mario or fire Mario form.  Also, you may not re-enter any of the fortresses or ghost houses until the game is completed, giving it a little bit more of replay value.

Changes from the original version

  • Aside from the constant talking of Mario and Luigi you may also switch between them pressing R before entering any level to use either of the brothers.
  • Mario has more control but his jump is limited.
  • Luigi jumps way higher but he skids a bit.
  • You can get up to 999 lives.
  • Bowser castles’ time limit is doubled from 400 to 800 and 600 if entered from the backdoor.
  • One of the most important changes on this game is that whenever you are hit by an enemy you revert to super form, keeping the reserve item whenever you are in super Mario or fire Mario form.
  • Also, you may not re-enter any of the fortresses or ghost houses until the game is completed, giving it a little bit more of replay value.
  • Once the colored yoshis are unlocked on star world new ‘? Blocks’ will have blue yoshis if any of the brothers is on caped form, red yoshis if he is on fire form and yellow yoshis if he is on super form. Green Yoshi becomes unavailable after this.
  • The famous Fall Event which changed the Koopa Troopas, Bullet Bills and Piranha Plants appearance after clearing the special world will only happen after clearing all 96 exits, now Piranha Plants, Galoombas and Pokeys have their appearance changed. Alongside with that, there are Dragon Coins on levels that wouldn’t have them before.
  • Once all 480 coins are collected this way the file will be seen will change to show the image of Princess Peach.

An official artwork of the Sunken Ghost Ship and the entrance to the Valley of Bowser.
An official artwork of the Sunken Ghost Ship and the entrance to the Valley of Bowser.

Version exclusive glitches

  • It is possible to get Y000 lives. Enter a level with 999 lives and a Yoshi, once you get the 1up mushroom grab it with yoshis’ tongue and press start to trigger the pause as the mushroom is swallowed by yoshi, you may exit the level and the marker will show Y000 lives until you enter another level.
  • In Outrageous you may get a silver Yoshi if you time your jumping perfectly on the bottomless pit before the last Bullet Bill stand, jump off the yoshi at the very last second and then get damage by a bullet bill. After beating the level you will be riding a Silver Yoshi that will act as a Yellow Yoshi, after you eat all the fruits on the level the egg will hatch to reveal a Beach Koopa.

Videos

Check out these Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World videos including TV Commercials, Trailers and the Intro.

TV Commercial

The alternate opening / intro after completing all star world and special levels. We knew this alternate looking world as Halloween World in my day!

The normal intro / opening video


Trivia & Facts

  • Most of the sprites on this game come from a version of Super Mario World featured on a multi cart called Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World.
  • This game was released for the IQUE advance, a Gameboy advance that was released back in the 00s in China.
  • There are some changes on the 96 exits cut scene between the international and Japanese release of the game.

Reception & Review Scores

The game was well received and received good reviews. IGN gave it a 9.3/10 saying “One of Nintendo’s finest 2D platformers makes a return to the scene on the Gameboy advance” while gamespot provided it with a good review saying “The game holds up fabulously.” The score was a 9.4/10 from their side. Meanwhile the aggregation sites Metacritic and GameRankings

 Bowser in Super Mario WorldBowser in SMA2: Super Mario World

Reference / Information


Media / Downloads

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