I rarely say many bad things about Nintendo on this site, mainly because they rarely deserve it. But in this instance I am so ashamed to be a huge Nintendo fan. Marketed as Mario's big 25th anniversary birthday bash, a culmination of Mario magic, 25 years of koopa stomping fun and what do we get? A lousy port.
Now, I'm not naive, I knew what I was buying going into it. I knew before I left my house to go buy this that in my SNES was Super Mario All Stars, still hooked up, still ready to play. However, I kept saying the extras would be worth it, the swath of history I will soak up will be well worth the $30 purchase. Besides that, my classic controller is way better than my old gimpy SNES controllers anyway.
There was a sudden air of doubt that fell over me however, as I made the transaction at Best Buy. A feeling of doubt so heavy, that I considered the $30 in my hand before sending it on it's way. One more look at Mario's glistening eyes on the box though was all it took for me to continue my transaction.
I went home with a renewed vigor that I had not made a poor choice. It was just $30 after all...just $30... Rushing through my door I immediately hunted down and unearthed my CD player that I haven't used in ages. I wiped the dust off, and plugged the CD in and cranked up the volume. Quickly, the room had filled itself with Mario ambiance as I then brought out the only other extra packaged within this milestone title.
The other item is a book, a sort of history of Mario. Now I have read and viewed MANY articles about the history of Mario over the years, even pseudo wrote one myself, I had anticipated this version hoping to learn many new things since it's from the mouths of the men who created it directly, no middle man. While the Mario music played in the background, I dug in. Each page contained a picture of a Mario game in the main series, and there are 10 in all. Below the box art are quotes from Iwata, Miyamoto, and Kondo capsulizing one distinct memory from the game.
These quotes were very short, and one sentence long...No interesting stories were told, and no fun insights on the game. No tales of trial and tribulation while developing it, no team quarrels, nothing...I would say there is more detail given from Punxsutawney Phil every groundhogs day than what this book contained. Sure, there were ancient early drawings of the game by Miyamoto and apparently they wanted to give Mario a weapon and have up on the D-pad be jump which was interesting and it would have been nice to hear their thoughts on that more, but no we just have to interpret that they chose not to do those things because they knew it would suck.
The quotes probably annoy me most of all. Iwata has nothing very interesting to say as he was never really part of the team that helped create these games. Miyamoto's quotes usually brought up one interesting challenge he had making the game, or something new he wanted to showcase. That was nice, but it leaves you wanting to know more. Kondo has the worst quotes of all as he literally repeats some of what he says between games. His early quotes are just him being annoyed with the tech limitations and how he got around them, and then after that he's just happy that he can do percussion...We get it Kondo, percussion is a great addition to music in gaming.
As I flipped the last page, I sat back and let the music from the CD finish. A song had just ended and I awaited the next tune. I awaited the amazing amount of percussion to fill the room that Kondo went on and on about...but instead I was greeted with a single noise. A Mario sound effect. Then I was greeted with another, and other, then the game over tune, and another sound effect. 10 sound effects later and the CD had ended. It was under 30 minutes long in total. So not only did they only use a fraction I can't even calculate on the game disc for 1 SNES port, they didn't even bother filling up the CD with more music. They used ONE song for each of the 10 main games. Why? They could have gotten away with 2 per game and still had CD space to spare.
So in UNDER a half hour I had gone through what Nintendo considers 25 years worth of Mario history. The extras were pathetic, poor excuses, an absolute shame. It's clear Nintendo doesn't care about Mario in the same way its fans do. I was born alongside this character, grew up with him on my TV, and while I had no hand in his creation I imagine I could have drummed up better extras within 24 hours of planning than the projected 25 years Nintendo had to plan this anniversary collection if they wanted.
The game itself is even more a slap in the face. Again, it's just a port of the SNES game which contains 4 games Mario 1-3, and Lost Levels which is the real Super Mario Brothers 2 that Japan got, but we just got Doki Doki Panic with Mario characters (our Super Mario 2). The sad thing is, Nintendo had released Super Mario All Stars + at the end of the SNES life. The "+" is in reference to the additional game of Super Mario World that was added into the collection. Did we get that port? Nope...no Mario World on this disc.
The game could have been so much more. It could have had Mario World, it could have had his Game Boy adventures of Mario Land. It could have had Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine with Wii controls. That would have been a great 25th anniversary, that would do Mario justice. Sad to say that Sega has actually outdone Nintendo at something. For Sonic's anniversary we got something pretty special. The Sonic Ultimate Collection on the PS3 or Xbox 360 contains 40 Genesis games, and most notably all the Sonic games. 40 games, and it is $20. Nintendo on the other hand gives us 4 games, for $30. The very idea that Sega managed to do something right over Nintendo boggles my mind and I never thought I would even say it. It's sadly true.
Maybe I'll live to see Mario's 50th anniversary and they'll celebrate it by making a disc with Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 on one disc, with a CD that contains two songs total, and a booklet with pictures of space in it. Get on that Nintendo, you got 25 years to make it happen!
*gets CD and plays the "game over" tune*
PS: I know the box art pic is in French, but that was on purpose. I don't understand French and I really don't understand this decision by Nintendo.
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