Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

This is a pretty interesting port for the Gameboy Color that at first just looks like the original Super Mario Brothers. Little did I know the features and extra packed into it. Once you get a certain high score in the main game, new modes open up, including the majority of what Japan saw as Super Mario Brothers 2: Super Mario Brothers The Lost Levels.

There is also a challenge mode, a vs. mode, some mini games, and a mode where you race against the ghost for in re-imagined versions of levels.

And if you had the Gameboy Printer you can also unlock fun graphics to print out with your own messages.

All in it’s a pretty features packed version of the game I WOULD highly recommend if it weren’t for one thing, and it’s something that plagues many console-to-handheld ports. The screen size of the Gameboy is smaller than what the NES rendered, and since they didn’t change the graphics to make them smaller, that means you don’t see a lot of what is going on above or below you, causing you to many times take “leaps of faith”, hoping there will be a platform under you when you land.

They try to make up for this by letting you back track a little bit and control the camera up and down, which does help a little, but it doesn’t completely make up for it.

So if that sort of thing annoys you, that makes this port unplayable.