Wow, the name of this game is convoluted! Anyway, SMA4:SMB3 (lol) is a port of SMB3 for the GBA. As far as I can tell it plays exactly like the original, so in that sense it's a pretty good port. Some hate Mario's voice lines but I thought they were funny.

Now, regarding the game itself... at some point in my life I absolutely loved SMB3. The creativity in level design and gimmicks plus the great controls made me really enjoy the game. However, on this last playthrough I didn't really like it as much. The thing with games that have a lot of different ideas is that not all of them will stick, and while replaying the game I grew to really dislike the more "puzzle" oriented levels like castles and ghost houses. I also had trouble enjoying the auto-scrollers this time, which meant I particularly hated the last world, which left a bad taste in my mouth.

SMA4:SMB3 isn't just a port of SMB3 though, as it comes with a selection of around 30 new levels, which include mechanics from other games like SMB2 and SMW. Although a lot of these levels are fun, they suffer from the same problems I had with the levels in regular SMB3, so I didn't enjoy them all that much.

Overall, it seems SMB3 is a classic I'd have rather left in my memory...

Reviewed on Nov 14, 2023


Comments