Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (known as just Super Mario Advance 4 in Japan) is the Game Boy Advance remake of Super Mario Bros. 3, and is the fourth and final entry in the Super Mario Advance series of games on the GBA. It boasts similar graphics and sound to the Super Mario All-Stars version, and made use of the e-Reader.

A few e-cards came included with new copies of the game, while two sets (referred to as series) of cards were released and sold alongside the game. By scanning special cards into the e-Reader, players were able to upload items, videos, and most importantly, new levels into the game. One notable item was the Cape Feather from Super Mario World, which allowed Mario to transform into Cape Mario. There were also two Switch cards that the player could activate (and deactivate) the effects of by scanning them; the Orange Switch and the Blue Green Switch. Scanning these switches triggered small functions in the game. The e-Reader feature is still available in the European version, but disabled by default and inaccessible. It is fully translated, possibly because the e-Reader was planned to be released in Europe. It can be "unlocked" by having a corrupted save file.

The game was re-released on the Wii U's Virtual Console service in Japan on December 29, 2015, and later in North America on January 21, 2016, in Europe on March 10, 2016, and in Australia on March 11, 2016. This release also includes all of the e-Reader levels, including the PAL version and levels previously only released in Japan.

Story
The story, from the instruction booklet:

"The Mushroom Kingdom has remained a peaceful place, thanks to the brave deeds of Mario and Luigi. However, the Mushroom Kingdom forms an entrance to the Mushroom World, a place where all is not well. Bowser sent his seven children to make mischief in this normally peaceful land. As their first order of business, they stole the royal magic wands from each country in the Mushroom World and used them to turn the kings into animals. Mario and Luigi must recover the royal magic wands from Bowser's seven kids to return the kings to their true forms. As Mario and Luigi set off on their journey deep into the Mushroom World, Princess Peach and Toad have but one thing to say: “Good-bye, and good luck!”"

List of changes
There are many changes between the original Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Advance 4.


 * Like Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, after booting up the game, a cutscene telling the story leading up to the game was added.
 * If the player warps to World 8, Bowser's letter will appear on screen as if the player completed World 7.
 * If the player defeats Bowser before defeating all of the Koopalings and enters a skipped world's castle, a cutscene will play that will show the respective Koopaling breaking into the castle, stealing the King's scepter, transforming the King, and leaving just as Mario arrives at the castle, similar to the intro.
 * When first entering part 2 of the World 8 map, Princess Peach is shown above the second pipe. She yells "Mario!" (if the player is Mario) or simply screams (if the player is Luigi) before disappearing.

Gameplay changes

 * Upside-down Spiny shells can be safely touched, stomped or kicked from above without taking damage; in previous versions, even an immobile, upside-down Spiny shell would hurt Mario if he landed on top of it.
 * Giant Blocks in normal courses can be hit with a tail swipe as Raccoon or Tanooki Mario (Giant ? Blocks in bonus rooms are still immune to tail whips.).
 * Spade Panels change suits if won, which gives the player the chance to earn more lives. The order is: Spade> Heart (offering up to a 7-Up)> Club (up to a 10-Up)> Diamond (guaranteed win), before looping back.
 * Mario can have up to 999 lives.
 * The controls were slightly changed:
 * On the map screen, is used to open the inventory window, rather than, which swaps lives in 2-Player Mode instead, as in Super Mario World.
 * Due to the removal of the current world and the player's lives from the inventory window, it can hold eight more items, increasing the allowed amount from 28 to 36.
 * After beating the game, can also be used to select a world (as in Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3), although in 2-Player Mode, both brothers must be in different places for it to work.
 * can be used as an additional run/attack button during levels, while on the map screen, it brings up the e-Reader menu.
 * On the map screen, opens a new replay menu, which can be used to watch or save a replay of the most recent level playthrough (provided the player did not pause).
 * Several changes are inspired by Super Mario World:
 * Each enemy defeated by Invincible Mario will be worth double the points of the last, eventually leading to extra lives.
 * Getting a Fire Flower or Super Leaf as Small Mario will change him to the respective form instead of changing him to only Super Mario.
 * The player can carry items (like shells and Ice Blocks) through pipes to new areas.
 * Shelled enemies (like Koopa Troopas and Buzzy Beetles) can now be stomped underwater.
 * Holding an item underwater lets Mario swim faster and float to the surface.
 * Like Cape Mario, Raccoon or Tanooki Mario can now tail swipe mushrooms away from him.
 * Tail swiping a Muncher won't turn it into a Used Block.
 * All Lakitus are one block lower then they were in previous versions.
 * Kicked shells and ice blocks can collect coins. Coins collected this way are worth double.
 * Jelectros bob up and down in-place, rather than being completely still.
 * The Hammer Bros' hammer-throwing frequency is lowered; the only exception is while they are jumping.
 * A new game over screen appears before the Continue/Quit menu, and it is impossible to save after a game over.
 * The Power Meter doesn't run out if Mario keeps running, and in Raccoon or Tanooki form, it can be replenished by landing and taking off again.

Level design changes

 * Entire structures in some levels are altered to fit on a smaller screen, such as lower ceilings, higher lava pits, and slightly different stairs.
 * The map pipe tunnels were also edited to fit on the screen.
 * The game is generally easier than previous versions:
 * In Ice Land, the path to the second Mushroom House was changed so that clearing 6-5 is not required to access it.
 * Several platforms were made longer.
 * Blocks, coins, power-ups, and 1-Ups were added.
 * Several enemies, obstacles, and pits were changed to be less threatening or removed.
 * The end of is now at the other side of the pyramid.
 * In Sky Land, the Brick Blocks directly attached to Warp Pipes and Bill Blasters now contain coins.
 * As this is Super Mario Advance 4, one of the two "3's" made of blue coins in 5-1 was changed to a "4".
 * Before facing Boom-Boom, the entrance is closed.

Graphical changes

 * A few sprites were slightly changed:
 * As in the other games in Super Mario All-Stars, Mario and Luigi now wear their white gloves, instead of being bare-handed (The coloring in the NES version was due to color limitations; the All-Stars version didn't fix this for unknown reasons.). Mario's lighter tail stripes are also thinner.
 * Unless he's holding an item, Luigi now scuttles when he jumps, regardless of whether the Yellow Switch e-Card is active or not.
 * Princess Peach received new sprites for this version, matching her official artwork.
 * Pile Driver Micro-Goombas are colored differently and don't shine like actual Brick Blocks (as in the NES version).
 * In World 4, the map icon for the Sledge Bro now looks like an actual Sledge Brother. Before, their map icon was merely a green Hammer Brother.
 * The floating Bill Blaster in World 8-1 is flipped and now looks attached to the block it's on.
 * Sprites have a slightly brighter color, but it's not as noticeable as in the other Super Mario Advance games.
 * The invincibility palettes are even brighter, making Mario/Luigi colored like they were in Super Mario Advance. This can be reverted by using a Warp Pipe, taking damage, powering-up, or exiting/clearing the course.
 * Some effects were added:
 * Coins sparkle when collected.
 * Shooting a fireball at Bowser or Boom Boom causes him to flash for an instant.
 * Using a Warp Whistle causes the screen to blur out, like it does when warping in the remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * After a Switch Block is activated, it disappears in a puff of smoke after one game second.
 * When an extra life is earned, the "1UP" icon grows bigger before it disappears.
 * The world maps have been edited, mostly due to the lack of borders on the map screen. Most maps scroll vertically, due to the GBA's resolution.
 * In part 2 of World 5, the map of the ground seen from the sky was fixed, now matching the actual ground part of the world's map. Also, moving clouds replace the stationary ones.
 * After is cleared, the spotlight briefly expands when the lock is removed.
 * Bowser's Castle was redesigned again, as it was during the NES-to-All-Stars transition. Also, a "Help!" word balloon comes from the castle before beating the game.
 * The border from the All-Stars version returns on the new World Select screen.
 * After beating the game, the castles' word balloons change to "!" if all the stages in the world haven't been cleared, "OK" if they have, and "CLEAR!" if the game is fully completed.
 * Spade Panels and N-Mark Spade Panels got a major design change, now having a zoomed-out view of the original area, a more detailed background, and a door which Mario enters to play the minigame.
 * Many levels are given more fitting backgrounds, like the All-Stars version. However, most level backgrounds (except for underground levels, airships, and fortresses) lack horizontal parallax scrolling, although this did appear in a pre-release trailer shown at E3 (Vertical parallax scrolling can still be seen as Mario flies upward.).
 * Thus, in World 3-7's background, the clouds are all in front of the hills.
 * In World 3, all block backgrounds are replaced by waterfall backgrounds.
 * As in the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros., underwater level backgrounds now have a distorted wavy effect.
 * The steel background of World 5-1's secret area, as well as the block background of World 5-7's secret area, was changed to a sky background.
 * The sky in World 6's athletic background is white, rather than purple.
 * Brick Blocks that contain something don't turn into a "fake" coin after a Switch Block is activated.
 * Brick Blocks and Coins remain animated while a Switch Block is active.
 * The status bar is only one "block" tall (only showing the current world, and the player's lives, coins, score, and cards) and is front of the map on the map screen, but it's replaced by a normal HUD in courses (The Power Meter and cards stay on the bottom; the cards are shown briefly at the start of each stage, and reappear near the goal.).
 * The item inventory shows all four rows at once, rather than one row at a time.
 * Letters look slightly different:
 * Peach's letters are smaller and have a cyan background.
 * Bowser's letter is written on different paper with a gray background, instead of looking the same as Peach's letters.

Textual changes

 * The dialogue in the Kings' castles are changed:
 * In Toad's initial pleas, "King" is in lowercase.
 * If the player visits the castle after failing in an airship stage, "Little Koopa." in Toad's message is replaced by "the Koopalings!".
 * Kings start their thanks with "Oh, splendid! Splendid!" opposed to "Oh, thank heavens!"; "I'm" was changed to "I am"; and the word "Princess" no longer has improper capitalization.
 * In the Kings' message to Tanooki Mario, a comma was added after "Please".
 * The "?!" in the Kings' message to Hammer Mario was reversed.
 * The post-world letters are slightly changed:
 * Peach's second and third letters are swapped, though the attachments remained the same. Also, as in the revised NES version, "Kuribo" is changed to "Goomba".
 * In her fourth letter, "Sand Dunes" is now fully lowercase.
 * The space between the first and second sentences of her fifth letter is removed.
 * The sixth letter adds "goal of the first" in-between "Third" and "world", and "Third" is in lowercase.
 * Bowser's letter changes "Ha ha ha" to "Gwa ha ha ha", and "Koopa" to "Koopas".
 * Peach's speech from the ending has been reverted to the one found in the Japanese versions, instead of the joke featured in the previous localized versions.
 * If the player finishes all the levels, staff credits are shown at the end along with the cutscenes and world names, along with the alternate ending music mentioned below.
 * World 8's name was changed from "Castle of Kuppa" (or "Castle of Koopa") to "Bowser's Castle".
 * If the player managed to defeat a Koopaling after beating Bowser, the King's speech will omit any reference to Princess Peach sending him a letter addressed to the Mario Bros.
 * World 9's welcome message is now "World 9 Warp Zone!", rather than "Welcome to Warp Zone".

Audio changes

 * Mario and Luigi have their trademark voice acting, as performed by Charles Martinet.
 * Other added voice clips include Peach's cries for help, cackling Boos, and Toad's yelp in the intro and castle cutscenes.
 * Luigi's jumps are joined with a new sound effect for his scuttling, similar to Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2.
 * As in the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros., Bonus Areas feature new upbeat music, rather than the underground theme.
 * As in Super Mario Advance 2, a sliding sound effect was added.
 * In the Spade Panel minigame, a drumroll starts when two-thirds of a picture are lined up, and new victory music plays if a picture is lined up.
 * The Power Meter beeps in a lower pitch if the player isn't in Raccoon or Tanooki form.
 * The short tune heard after defeating Bowser was changed from the same one heard after saving a Mushroom King to the tune heard after defeating him in Super Mario Bros..
 * An alternate ending song, which features the Super Mario Bros. ending theme remixed, is played when the player finishes all the game's levels. The original ending song is only heard if the player beats Bowser without finishing all the levels.

e-Cards
For a complete listing of the cards themselves, see here. The list of features added to Super Mario Advance 4 by the cards is as follows:

Exclusive features

 * See-saw platforms
 * Grey Brick Blocks (Can only be destroyed by Hammer Mario or Statue Mario)
 * ! Switches
 * Rotating Blocks
 * Sideways Venus Fire Traps
 * Advance Coins
 * e-Coins
 * Vanishing Blocks (only visible when Mario is Statue Mario)
 * ? Block with Goomba's Shoe
 * Grey spike Donut Lifts
 * Blue Boomerangs

Features and enemies from past titles

 * Super Mario Bros.
 * Lifts
 * Fire Bars
 * Balance platforms
 * Flagpoles
 * Bowser Impostor
 * Axe


 * Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
 * Poison Mushrooms


 * Super Mario Bros. 2
 * Vegetables
 * Sand, which can be dug through
 * POW Blocks
 * Locked doors
 * Hoopsters
 * Flurries
 * Porcupos


 * Super Mario World
 * Cape Feather/Cape Mario
 * Stretch Blocks
 * Triangular Blocks
 * Snake Blocks
 * Trampolines
 * Roulette Blocks
 * 3-Up Moon
 * Keys
 * Spike Tops
 * Cross-shot Bullet Bills
 * Lil' Sparkies
 * Hotheads
 * Bony Beetles
 * Thwimps
 * Magikoopas
 * Amazing Flyin' Hammer Brothers
 * Rip Van Fishes
 * Jumping Piranha Plants
 * Monty Moles
 * Wigglers
 * Galoombas
 * Para-Goombas
 * Gray Bowser Statues
 * Gold Bowser Statues
 * Falling Spikes
 * Big Boos
 * Big Boo
 * Chargin' Chucks
 * ? Blocks with Control Coins


 * Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
 * One-way gates
 * Bumpties


 * Super Mario Advance
 * Giant Vegetables
 * Items trapped in bubbles

Staff
Super Mario Advance 4 was developed by Nintendo EAD, with Hiroyuki Kimura as its director and Takashi Tezuka as the producer. The new graphics were designed by Emi Tomita, and the new music tracks were composed by Taiju Suzuki. Very few of the original game's staff were involved in the production of this remake; even Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto goes uncredited here, when he had previously produced Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 with Tezuka as his supervisor.

Pre-release and unused content
The game's logo looked different than it did in the E3 trailer. Grey Switches were also found in the game's data and also includes pressed versions of these switches. Compressed Super Mario World graphics were found in game data, these include an animation frame for the Koopa Clown Car, three frames of a Koopa Troopa walking, and two frames of a Galoomba walking.

Glitches
It is possible to get Mario or Luigi to run backwards in the game. To get this to happen the player needs to hold and  at the same time.

Reception
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 has received very positive reviews, and has been considered one of the best Game Boy Advance games ever made. It is the third highest-rated GBA game on Metacritic, with an aggregate score of 94 based on 25 reviews, and also that site's third highest-rated game in the Mario series, behind only Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. The game was also commercially successful in North America, with sales in excess of 2.88 million copies. By the end of 2006, it had sold more copies in that region than any other Game Boy Advance game. Super Mario Advance 4 won IGN's 2003 award for best Game Boy Advance platform game, and GameSpot nominated it for best platform game of the year.

Both Pocket Gamer and Play Magazine gave the game perfect scores. The former called the game "Mario hop-'n'-bop action at its finest", while the latter lauded the challenge in the gameplay, the quick save feature, and the e-Reader functionality. Meanwhile, Electronic Gaming Monthly praised SMA4 for its controls, stages, and visuals, stating that it looked good for an "old, trippy 2D game", and Yahoo! Games stated that the game surpassed both the original NES/Famicom version and the Super Mario All-Stars release.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario franchise release in North America to carry Nintendo's current-era universal seal, which covers all products and merchandise licensed by the company. Previously, Nintendo had two seals—the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, which covered hardware, games, and accessories; and a secondary seal saying "Official Nintendo Licensed Product", which only covered licensed merchandise.
 * The Ghost House graphics in the e-reader levels look quite similar to the ones made for Super Mario Maker, yet the music is the same as the one heard in Super Mario World, whereas Super Mario Maker had a new tune for the Ghost House levels.
 * Similarly, all the enemies taken from other games (Wigglers, Hoopsters, Monty Moles) uses the same sprites from their original games, whereas in Super Mario Maker all non-SMB3 enemies where given new sprites that closely follow the game's style.
 * Many of this game's mechanics (like obtaining an extra life if a Goal Pole's top is reached) became the standard in the series since New Super Mario Bros.