Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario All-Stars is a 1993 platform game compilation developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It contains remakes of four Super Mario games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom Disk System: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels , Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3. As in the original games, players control the Italian plumber Mario and his brother Luigi through themed worlds, collecting power-ups, avoiding obstacles, and finding secrets. The remakes feature updated graphics—including the addition of parallax scrolling—and music, modified game physics, a save feature, and bug fixes.
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development developed the compilation after completing Super Mario Kart, at the suggestion of the Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. No longer restricted by the limitations of the 8-bit NES, Nintendo remade them for the 16-bit SNES. The developers based the updated designs on those from Super Mario World and strove to retain the feel of the original games. Nintendo released Super Mario All-Stars worldwide in late 1993 and rereleased it in 1994 with Super Mario World included. It was The Lost Levels first release outside Japan; it was not released on the NES in Western territories because Nintendo deemed it too difficult at the time.
Super Mario All-Stars is one of the best-selling Super Mario games, with 10.55 million copies sold by 2015. Critics considered it one of the best SNES games and praised the updated graphics and music, but criticized its lack of innovation. All-Stars served as a basis for later Super Mario rereleases and was described by Famitsu as a model for video game remakes. It was rereleased twice for the anniversary of Super Mario Bros.: in 2010 in a special package for the Wii, and in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch as part of the Nintendo Classics service. The Wii rerelease sold 2.24 million copies by 2011 but received mixed reviews, with criticism for its lack of new games and features.
Content
Super Mario All-Stars is a compilation of the first four games in the Super Mario series—Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3 —originally released for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and the Family Computer Disk System. Additionally, a two-player bonus game based on Mario Bros. can be accessed from Super Mario Bros.3. The games are faithful remakes featuring the original premises and level designs intact. They are 2D side-scrolling platformers where the player controls the Italian plumber Mario and his brother Luigi through themed worlds. They jump between platforms, avoid enemies and inanimate obstacles, find hidden secrets, and collect power-ups like the mushroom and the Invincibility Star.Super Mario Bros., The Lost Levels, and Super Mario Bros.3 follow Mario and Luigi as they attempt to rescue Princess Toadstool from the villainous Bowser, with the player stomping on enemies and breaking bricks as they progress. Super Mario Bros.2 features a different storyline and gameplay style: Mario, Luigi, the Princess, and Toad must defeat the evil King Wart, who has cursed the land of dreaming. In this game, the player picks up and throws objects such as vegetables at enemies. The player selects one of the four from an in-game menu and can exit at any time by pausing.
The games feature updates that take advantage of the 16-bit hardware of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, ranging from remastered soundtracks to revamped graphics and the addition of parallax scrolling. Game physics were slightly modified and some glitches, such as the Minus World in Super Mario Bros., were fixed. The difficulty level of The Lost Levels was slightly reduced: poison mushroom hazards, which can kill the player, are easier to distinguish, and there are more 1-ups and checkpoints. All-Stars includes the option to save player progress, which the original games lack. Players can resume the games from the start of any previously accessed world, or in The Lost Levels, any previously accessed level. Up to four individual save files can be stored for each game.
Development
Super Mario All-Stars was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development, a former game development division of Japanese publisher Nintendo. It had the working title Mario Extravaganza as, according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, "It was a single game cartridge packed full of the first ten years of Nintendo's rich history."The concept emerged after the completion of Super Mario Kart. The next major Mario game, Yoshi's Island, was still in production, creating a gap in Nintendo's release schedule. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto suggested developing a "value pack" containing all the Super Mario games. According to assistant director and designer Tadashi Sugiyama, Miyamoto's idea was to give players a chance to experience The Lost Levels. Nintendo had deemed The Lost Levels, released in Japan as Super Mario Bros.2 in 1986, too difficult for the North American market and instead released a retrofitted version of the game Doki Doki Panic. As such, it had not attracted a large audience. Rather than simply transfer the NES games to a SNES cartridge, Nintendo remade them for SNES.
One of the first tasks the developers accomplished was updating and reworking the graphics for the SNES. The more powerful hardware gave the developers more colors to use in Mario's world. Designer Naoki Mori recalled feeling intimidated, as it was only his third year at Nintendo and he had been tasked with updating its flagship series. The artists based their designs on those from the SNES game Super Mario World and added a black outline around Mario to make him stand out against the backgrounds. For black backgrounds like those in castles and bonus areas in Super Mario Bros., Mori and Sugiyama added details such as portraits of Bowser and Mario. The team strove to retain the feel of the original games by leaving level designs and Mario's movement unaltered. To preserve the gameplay, they added no new animations or actions.
Alterations were made by hand, and Sugiyama ran the original Super Mario Bros. while he worked on the remake so he could compare them side by side. Staff who worked on the original games were involved and consulted during development. The team preserved glitches they deemed helpful, such as a way to generate infinite lives in Super Mario Bros.; however, for that glitch, they limited how many lives the player could earn. Sugiyama recalled the team fixed glitches they thought would hinder players' progress, although this created some differences in the controls. To make the games easier, the team increased the number of lives they start with. They also added a save-game option, a feature made possible by the recent development of battery backup cartridges. Save points were added after each level in The Lost Levels to reduce its difficulty. While Mori helped with the other remakes, he avoided debugging The Lost Levels because it was so difficult.
Release
Nintendo released Super Mario All-Stars in Japan on July 14, 1993, in North America on August 11, 1993, and in Europe on December 16, 1993. In Japan, it was released as Super Mario Collection. The compilation marked the first time The Lost Levels was released outside Japan. Between September and October 1993, Nintendo Power held a contest in which players who reached a specific area in The Lost Levels would receive a Mario iron-on patch. The compilation became the SNES's pack-in game and sold 10.55 million copies by 2015, including 2.12 million in Japan, making it one of the bestselling Super Mario games. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling video game of September 1993.Nintendo re-released Super Mario All-Stars in December 1994 as Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, which adds Super Mario World. Super Mario World is largely identical to the original, but Luigi's sprites were updated to make him a distinct character and not just a palette swap of Mario. A version of Super Mario Collection was also released on Nintendo's Satellaview, a Japan-exclusive SNES add-on allowing users to receive games via satellite radio.
In 2010, for the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., Nintendo released Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition for the Wii in Japan on October 21, in Europe on December 3, and in North America on December 12. The 25th Anniversary Edition comes in special packaging containing the original Super Mario All-Stars ROM image on a Wii disc, a 32-page Super Mario History booklet containing concept art and interviews, and a soundtrack CD containing sound effects and 10 tracks from most Mario games up to Super Mario Galaxy 2. This version sold 2.24 million copies—920,000 in Japan and 1.32 million overseas—by March 2011. The compilation was again rereleased in 2020 on the Nintendo Switch for the original game's 35th anniversary, coming as part of the subscription-based Nintendo Classics service.
Reception
Original release
The compilation received critical acclaim. Reviewers thought it was a must-have that represented the SNES library at its finest, and would occupy players for hours, if not days. Nintendo Magazine System estimated it could entertain players for up to a year. A critic from Computer and Video Games described Super Mario All-Stars as the Super Mario director's cut, bringing fans updated graphics and audio in addition to a game few had experienced. A reviewer from Electronic Gaming Monthly, overwhelmed by the improvements, called it a "masterpiece from beginning to end".Critics praised the collection's games as excellent remakes, stating they aged well and appreciating the effort that went into retrofitting them for the SNES. For AllGame, retrospectively reviewing the version including Super Mario World, the compilation represented "the absolute pinnacle of the 2D platform genre". Critics said the games played just as they did on the NES and retained what made them great. EGM reviewers were satisfied the various secrets were left intact. Nintendo Power wrote the games got better with time, while EGM and CVG suggested players abandon the antiquated NES games for the SNES upgrade. Although one of the NMS reviewers admitted to preferring Super Mario World, citing the compilation's less instinctive controls and somewhat simplistic graphics, he said Super Mario All-Stars was still worth buying.
Reviewers liked the updates the games received in the transition to the SNES. Nintendo Power, for instance, praised the addition of a save feature, believing it would give players who never finished the games a chance to do so. The updated graphics were praised; NMSs reviewers admired the attention to detail, which they said made the compilation worth buying, and AllGame called the visuals colorful and cartoonish. CVG thought the backgrounds could have benefited from more detail, but GamePro thought they were detailed enough. Reviewers offered praise for the updated soundtracks as well. For EGM, the audio enhanced the experience, and GamePro noted the addition of echo and bass effects.
Criticism of Super Mario All-Stars generally focused on its lack of innovation. Aside from the 16-bit updates, save feature, and The Lost Levels, Nintendo Power wrote, the compilation did not present anything new, a sentiment CVG echoed. "f the best cart around is a compilation of old eight-bit games," wrote Edge, "it doesn't say much for the standard of new games, does it?" One reviewer in the Japanese magazine Weekly Famicom Tsūshin said that while the games were fun and nostalgic, he found it too expensive at a retail price of ¥9,800.
Reviewers also disagreed over which game in the compilation was best. One EGM reviewer argued Super Mario Bros.2 was, but another critic and Nintendo Power said that honor went to The Lost Levels. NMS, CVG, and Edge, however, criticized The Lost Levels for its difficulty, with Nintendo Magazine System viewing it as just an interesting bonus. Edge said the compilation was worth buying for Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.3, but not Super Mario Bros.2 because the reviewer found its gameplay lacking fluidity and the level design poor.