The Super Mario Advance Series

I remember my 2nd grade teacher lent me a copy of super mario advance while I was on Christmas break, and the memories playing on the break I truly cherish.

Greatest named game of all time: Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros 3. Has the same ring as New Nintendo 2DS XL

I can definitely attest that younger kids had no idea that these were rereleases. I remember in elementary school seeing kids playing the first Mario Advance on the bus or playground and thinking what a cool and unique new take on Mario it was. It wasn't until my older cousin sold me their old Super Nintendo and their copies of Super Mario All-Star and Super Mario World that I realized that these actually rereleases of older games, and even then the little changes here and there still threw me for a loop.

As a kid who had no idea what an N64 was, I can confirm I had no idea 64DS was a port of an older game.

Scott’s Stash is a fairly uncompromised version of Scott The Woz

I like how in Super Mario Advance, the intro starts off in the original Gameboy screen aspect ratio before zooming out into the GBA aspect ratio. It’s a cool detail.

Super Mario World and 3 were my first ever Mario's games on my Gameboy SP. I was 5, now I'm 23. Those two games will always be my top favorite Mario games of all time.

The reason that some people don't like Yoshi's Island on GBA is because for a while, during the 3DS/Wii U generation, the GBA version was the only way to play Yoshi's Island on modern consoles, both with the 3DS ambassador program and the Wii U Virtual console, where the SNES version was not available but the GBA version was. The actual SNES version was never rereleased until the SNES classic in 2017.

One of my most cherished gaming memories came from being absolutely dumbfounded as a kid when my older cousin showed me how to find a warp whistle in Super Mario Advance 4 at cookout. Of course, I didn’t know Super Mario Bros 3 was actually 15 years old at the time, so I had no idea she was just remembering a well-known secret in a game she had played as a kid, I thought she was just a wizard or something.

Shout out to Super Mario Bros 3 Super Mario Advance 4 on WiiU for including everything from the E-Reader levels. Truly is still the best way to play the game

As someone who was born in 1989 and grew up with Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo, it is extremely cool to me that Scott, born in 1997, almost ten years after me, also grew up with Super Mario World, but on the Game Boy Advance. As a long-time gamer, it is very encouraging to me to know that the games I grew up with could also inspire a whole other generation.

The GBA being small, portable, and can be used for hours was why my parents never got me one. They thought that I would bring it to school and get distracted. Bought one myself later and turns out they were right.

Regarding the storage space for the SMA4 e-Reader levels, there’s enough room to store everything released in America. Japan though, you’d need to delete and rescan to cycle through everything.

I had World and 3 growing up and they were a blast. So glad now to have them on GBA NSO so I can replay them for the nostalgia as well as have a go on 2 and Yoshi’s Island. Not to mention, the e-reader levels of 4. GBA IMO is the best version of Mario 2.

As someone who was a small kid that grew up with Mario 64 DS, yes, I had no idea it was an old game!

I think the Yoshi’s Island GBA hate comes from Nintendo not releasing the original for the longest time and only offering the GBA version. I think that hate has been passed down over time.

Similarly to Scott, I grew up with Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island on the GBA. At first I didn’t realize that they were rereleases, but eventually I figured it out. My grandmother had a Super Nintendo (back in the day, she loved playing NES, and later got the SNES as a way to continue playing franchises she loved). I went over to her house and she had Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island…but the original versions! It honestly gave us something to bond over. I have such fond memories of both of those games.

Super Mario Advance 2 is my preferred way to play World simply because of those added voice effects. I played that version as a kid and when I replayed it on Switch Online I was like “where are the sounds?”

I find it so very interesting how nostalgia works in cycles. Hey, I'm a 80s kid so I've basically played the OG releases when they came out first. Still was amazed at the GBA ports in the early 2000s (playing the whole series on the go :O I mean we can probably all agree that if you like Mario games, they become infinitely replayable so that was fantastic). I'm now in my late 30s and I get kind of this crossover nostalgia. On the one hand, I nostalgia hard about 80s/90s and 8/16bit. On the other hand I never stopped playing Nintendo handhelds in the 2000s. So when I hear about how people who were still kids have had similiar experiences and think back the same way about GBA as I do about OG GB (hey, I sneaked up late night under the cover gaming as well thanks to a light add-on :D)... it sometimes gives me a rush of shared childhood nostalgia for things which released during my 20s (GBA/Wii/DS basically). Truth be told, even with adult responisibilies and a more or less functional day to day life, I sometimes still go under the blanket at half past 12 to get in "just another level or two" today. Since I didn't buy it originally at launch, I got myself Mario 64 DS just 2 years ago to kind of reexperience that feeling. That was during lockdown though, so maybe I wanted to have a feeling of security and familiarity. Which it provided. Great version, even without the N64 analogue controls. Though sorry not sorry Yoshi's Island on GBA is a solid 8/10 while the OG is 10/10 :P But I appreciate both versions, I really just find the GBA version to be difficult to play because of the compromises in screen size. It has the extra stages and some QOL changes, I'll give it that (and it was my first time playing it on GBA since I missed out the SNES version). Love this sub series of your Youtube stuff, literally brightens my day when it pops up!

Outside of kids growing up with these as their first impression of these games, there were also a bunch of 90s Sega Genesis kids who experienced these for the first time on the GBA. Great feature of some classics!