A fun and unique Mario romp.
For starters, the cartridge comes w/ basically two games. One of which is Super Mario Bros. 2 and the other of which is the original Mario Brothers Arcade game. The arcade game is a nice addition and is really a blast to play a few times but ultimately doesn't have much re-playability unless you have another copy of the game, another GBA and friend to play multiplayer with. Back in the day, that might not have been much of an issue but in these troubled times there's just really not that many people playing GBA anymore, what w/ it being two generations behind the curve and all. Eventually, Mario Bros. would go on to be included in all four Super Mario Advance games as well as Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, which is actually a point of annoyance for me since I don't really need five copies of this game no matter how good it is, but I can't really hold that against the first installment now can I? The real meat and potatoes is Super Mario Bros. 2 and, despite and sometimes because of the changes made, it really is a great and fun game to play.
It has always been sort of an oddball in the Mario series. Sure it's a platformer starring Mario but it is so different from the other games in the series in various details that it really feels like another kind of game entirely. (Of course, probably everyone reading this review knows it's actually a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic w/ Mario elements overlayed.) For starters, you are not in the Mushroom Kingdom or anything like it and there is an entirely new set of enemies from the first game. You can also play as Princess Peach or Toad in addition to Mario and Luigi and the extra characters have very different characteristics which have an obvious and immediately apparent effect on gameplay. You also have a life meter and collect hearts for life. In the NES original, you did not become big or small after eating a mushroom or taking damage but in this one you do get small if you have only one heart left in your life meter. On top of all this, the level structure is very different. This is not a "go right" sort of platformer. Many of the levels are quite long and some have multiple paths through, some involving some mild puzzle solving to figure out an optimal path. Everytime you go through a door or otherwise enter a new area, it serves as a checkpoint and you start again from there if you lose your life. Almost all the levels have some sort of end boss before you move on to the next level and each world has its own unique end boss rather than just a string of Koopas. This all amounts to a very unique Mario experience and, I think, one of the most interesting and fun for that reason.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is not a horribly difficult game. There are many tricky and frustrating passages, for sure, but ample opportunity to gain extra lives including some pretty obvious ways to earn up to 99 (the maximum allowed). In the NES original, you had to beat it all in one sitting but in this GBA original, you can save all you want w/ only a small penalty of having to return to the beginning of the level you are on when you resume. Furthermore, when you run out of lives, you remain on the level you are on and are given five more lives w/ no other penalty. While the difficulty level does ramp up as the game goes on and there are quite a few very satisfying challenges, the forgiveness it offers really helps to minimize frustration. I found I was able to get through it the first time in less than half a dozen hours--and that is w/ a good deal of screwing around trying to find secrets I hazily remembered from my childhood.
Once the game is initially beat, you are given an extra mode that challenges you to find hidden Yoshi's eggs on each level. This is pretty fun but I find most of the re-playability comes from the same thing it did when I was a kid: making my own challenges. It is fun, for example, to force yourself to use the same character for the whole game. Since their abilities vary so much, playing through w/ each is almost like a whole new game. If you pick Princess Peach, just to name one, she can't jump high but can hover and go quite far so that makes some platforming sections more challenging and some a lot easier. She also picks up objects more slowly which makes some of the final bosses much, much more difficult and so on. Additionally, you can do things like try to find all the powerups and secrets and just generally explore its cute little world. There is quite a lot to do here for those who are willing to put some effort in and experiment.
Overall, while Super Mario Advance is not exactly the same as Super Mario Bros. 2, it does offer a very close experience that is well adapted to Nintendo's more powerful (than the NES) handheld. I think both those in for the nostalgia and platforming fans in general will find little to complain about in this remake. It's fun and you play as Mario. It feels a bit different but the level design is great and the presentation is charming. Play it. You will have a good time.