Back in September, Mario celebrated his 25th anniversary and Nintendo is really excited about it. To commemorate this special occasion, they brought back Super Mario All-Stars on the Wii! Nintendo’s still partying, how about you?
It really is a special occasion and if you’re a true Mario fan that really wants to celebrate the anniversary, I’m sure you’ve already gotten the 25th anniversary Wii and DS that were released on the actual anniversary date back in September (check here for more details) but Nintendo just released the last thing you need to finish the collection. Super Mario All-Stars is back but this time it’s on the Wii!
In addition to this classy game, Nintendo packed in several goodies for all you true fans. When you first open the box, it comes with what looks like two Wii games. When you pull them out, you find that one is a Wii game (which is All-Stars of course) and the other is a very commemorative looking cd and case.
The outside of the cd case has a nostalgic image of a classic NES along with several of your favorite Mario titles. Inside the case, you find a 20 track cd (tunes hand picked by the composer of the original series, Koji Kondo) which includes 10 of the melodies you will be able to pick out from every Mario title, dating from the present all the way back to the original Super Mario Bros. The other 10 tracks on the cd have memorable noises from the games such as the 1-up music or the dreaded Time Over melody.
Also packed along side the cd comes a small but insightful look into Mario and all of the games he has starred in since his creation. Complete with commentary on each game by Miyamoto and other producers of the series as well as concept art showing just how much detail and planning went into the games. Finally, the book also shows the evolution of Mario, detailing what has changed about his appearance over the years.
When you finally stop reminiscing and put the game into the Wii, you’ll be happy to find that it is an exact port of the original Super Mario All-Stars game from the SNES. It even still shows the directions for the buttons! I suppose an exact port wouldn’t be doing the game justice. The graphics and gameplay have been left alone but the music of the games seems to have been enhanced to sound sweeter on modern technology.
If you’re a Mario fan and this release some how eluded you, I suggest you hurry to the closest store and scream at a cashier until you get a copy. After all, this is a limited release and Nintendo won’t be making more any time soon. Hurry, it’s only $29.99! If you were smart enough to pre-order, good for you. Bask in your proper planning.
Once again,
Happy 25th Mario!
