This year, Nintendo decided to celebrate what they call an anniversary. They knew they could so something.
Back in 1981, they released a hit video game called Donkey Kong in arcade and has been an icon in video games since. The main characher of this game was called Mario who has been known to have appeared in his next game, Mario Bros. but this wasn't Mario's biggest hit.
In 1985, they released Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a pack-in launch title. After that, they knew Mario was becoming a hit as the sales for the NES was going up in millions and Super Mario Bros. later had sequels made in following years. In 1993, they remade all of the previous Mario games originally released on the NES, on the Super Nintendo. A brilliant idea? Well it was indeed so brilliant that for this "25th annerversary", they re released a 512KB Super Nes game and put it on a 4.7GB Optical disc. What bothers me about this idea is that when i has first found about it, i could barely fine a single bit of information on this whatsoever. I originally though it as going to be a big collection of 2-D Mario platformers including all of the NES games, Super Mario World, The Gameboy games and even more but...no...
We are treated to the same game released 17 years ago for a similar price, and the worst thing about it is that this isn't as definitive as the Super Mario Allstars incl. Super Mario World. We end up with the version with less content, which is almost insane, even by Nintendo Standards...
But what bugs me about this 25th anniversary is that they don't say Super Mario Bros. They just say Mario. Mario (the character) is at the moment, 29 years old which means possibly, Nintendo will be celebrating nest year. I'd be more enthusiastic about this event if they were at least being clear.
Worst of all is that this could have been released on Virtual console...right?
Well, not entirely. This pack includes a bonus CD which contains sound effects and music from the most memorable Mario games, but it's only a novelty item and not really a must have unless you are a collector.
This pack also includes a bonus booklet which contains unreleased content which is quite impressive and possibly the main selling point of this bundle.
In case you've haven't played this compilation, all i can say is that it's an excellent game which if you are a Mario fan, you'd need to play it, but what ruins it for me is that it covered in that "Money-making" feel which makes it slightly unbearable even though all of Nintendo's games are for profit but they're usually too good and a lot of effort get put in to them that is vibe is almost completely gone.
My last comment on this is that if you are new to Mario (I doubt anyone who own's a Nintendo Wii actually is) then this could be a good starting point and if you're a Nintendo collector, this is a somewhat must-have package but it's nothing to get to excited for.