Super Mario Bros 2 - Christmas Edition Review by: ruesen - 9.5/10
SMB2: Christmas HackSuper Mario Brothers 2: Christmas Edition is a simple graphic remake of the original game. Keeping in mind that it is just a graphic remake, some scores will be based on the original game as their really is no difference in some categories.
Starting off with the
graphics, I give it a 10! Every level is influenced with Christmas cheer, whether it's just some snow in the background or ice on a door, to the little Santa hats on shy guys. Even the whole cast has a Christmas costume on for the game; Mario in a Santa hat, Luigi in a elf costume, Princess in a snow gown, and Toad... I think he is supposed to be some sort of snowman, but I cannot be sure. Also, Birdo gets replaced with a Snowman that spits snowballs instead of eggs, and even when you get to Wart, the bubble-belching toad is also wearing a Santa hat! Perhaps a little more work could have been put into the other bosses-Mouser could have easily had a Santa hat, for instance-but I think there is more than enough work gone into the graphics, I could not penalize it for such small details.
Now the
sound. If this were the original game, I would have given this a 7, but I feel that the people who remade this could have added in some Christmas tunes into the game, thus I penalized it and lowered it to a 6. The original tunes are pretty awesome being so catchy, but they also get monotonous enough that you wish something new might pop in. Only dramatic change in music comes when you face off with Wart, which is at the end of the game (the same as it is in the original game).
As for
addictiveness, I give the game a 7. With four different characters to choose from, you could find different combinations with them and different levels to play again. Maybe even do a challenge run of only one certain character, or perhaps ban using the Princess to make the game harder. Only reason I do not rate it any higher is because I do not think I would want to play the exact same game again right away. Maybe after some time passes, like a few weeks or so, but not right away. The graphic changes are very nice, but do not influence me to play it again right away.
The weakest part of Super Mario Brothers 2 was always
the story, and in this remake, it is no exception. For the original game, I usually give it a 3, but the remake artists put a small effort in adding a line in the introduction, so I boosted its score to a 4. The general story described in the introduction is Mario has a dream going up some stairs and opening a mysterious door. He hears a voice calling for help to break a spell. Mario then wakes up, goes to a cave for some reason, and sees the world he saw in his dream. After that, the in-game introduction would normally say "Push Start Button," but in this remake, the message is replaced with "Merry Christmas!"
The problem with this storyline is it does not explain Luigi, Toad, or the Princess's presence in this world. Did Mario call them for help? Did he happen to find out they, too, were asked for help and found themselves in this world? Did they simply wake up, find Mario missing from his bed, and track him down to this world? We do not know! We also do not know how the team knows where to go next. In the original Super Mario Brothers, at least we had a Toad telling us the Princess was in another castle, so Mario was just bumbling around in castles, trying to find the Princess. In this game, one of the four heroes just beats a Birdo (or in this particular game, Snowman) or some other boss, picks up a weird sphere, and walks into a falcon head's mouth to appear in another stage. Nintendo games are able to have a better storyline than this, which makes me judge this part of the game so harshly! I hear there was more story exposure in the remake or in the game manual, but it really should have been put in the game; THIS game!
Back to a more positive part of the game, I rate the
depth of this game a 6. It has 20 levels with varying difficulty, entertaining a player for quite a few hours. Expert players, or ones that know of the hidden warps, might be able to finish the game in much less time, but for the average player, there is a little more than enough to keep you entertained for a bit. It could have used a few more levels, perhaps the people who remade the graphics of the game could have added a pure Christmas level somewhere, but I do not think it was dire to be added.
Now the
difficulty of the game I gave a 5. The game can be easy or hard depending on what characters you use and how good of a platform player you are, thus why such a middle-of-the-road rating. The Princess is by far the easiest character to play as with her ability to float, while Toad is probably the harder character to play as with such a low jump. A few of the later levels can be a little difficult, such as balancing on jumping fish, trying to find a flying enemy to hitch a ride on, or dodging flying enemy patterns in the ice world, but with the right character, skill, and amount of lives, I believe most people could eventually beat this game without too much trouble.
Overall, this is a great graphic hack of the original Super Mario Brothers 2. I normally do not care for simply graphic hacks when I play games, but this was such a vibrant image overhaul that I just had to play it! I love the original Super Mario Brothers 2, and it was great reliving it in a Christmas theme. I rate it a
9.5 overall for its graphical enhancements. It is not a perfect hack as they could have added some new tunes to add to the Christmas theme, maybe could have added a new level or something, but it certainly has enough going for it that one could probably overlook that.
Graphics
10 Sound
6 Addictive
7 Depth
6 Story
4 Difficulty
5
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