I grew up playing Nintendo's flagship titles on the NES and SNES systems in the 1980s and '90s. My early memories of gaming are fond ones, as I adventured with Mario, Link and Samus during the carefree days of my youth. While my palette is generally more evolved now (Oh yeah, what's a palette?), I still enjoy a romp with Nintendo's old-school titles every once in a while. Luckily, I've got their latest GameBoy Advance title, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 to play around with. Essentially a direct port of the SNES game Super Mario World, SMA2 brings back all the classic platforming action of the original game, and injects a few new surprises for GBA owners.

Graphically, the game is identical to its SNES big brother, with one major exception: resolution. The screen resolution of the GBA is lower than that of the SNES, so the viewing area in SMA2 is a little smaller than it used to be. This isn't much of a problem, though it's hard to see some platforms and objects that were clearly visible in the SNES version. Luckily, you can scroll the screen in any direction with the L button, so you can still see where you're going. The visuals themselves are identical, right down to the Mode 7 effects used in boss battles. The game looks crisp and clean, with vibrant colors and solid animation. While SMA2 isn't pushing any graphical boundaries on the GBA, it was quite the impressive title back in its time, and stands up fairly well today.

More than the graphical conversion, the gameplay has been ported fully intact. SMW is spread across 7 areas on Dinosaur Island, each land filled with courses, secret exits, Ghost Houses and Koopa castles. Many courses contain multiple exits, and finding them is usually a challenge. There are 96 exits in all to find, so you haven't really finished the game until you find each and every one. This may sound like it would get repetitive, but that isn't the case, as exits usually require a variety of different strategies and techniques to find. And just because you locate an exit doesn't mean it's accessible, as there are colored blocks that must be activated by Switch Houses before you can walk on them. As you progress you'll open up the challenging Star World courses, and clearing those will unlock the super-hard Special courses. Simply put, there is a lot to see and do, and all of it is a great deal of fun.

Mario has more moves than ever before in SMW, including the ability to fly. Old favorites like the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower return to help Mario out, but the item to grab is the Feather, which lets Mario soar like an eagle. You can even store an extra item for emergency use, which comes in handy when you take an unexpected hit. The biggest addition to the Mario series is the lovable Yoshi, a koopa-gobbling dinosaur that Mario can ride. Yoshi can eat enemies and spit them out, walk across harmful terrain and boost Mario to unreachable heights, and the differently colored Yoshis each have special abilities like flight. The boss battles are unfortunately easy, even the final battle against the cool-looking Bowser, so the game can be anti-climactic at times. But there is plenty of challenge in the courses themselves, and clearing them provides a great sense of accomplishment.

Additions to SMA2 game are minor, but are very welcome. First, Nintendo has been kind enough to include a status screen that tracks the exits you've found and the courses for which you've collected all of the Yoshi Coins. Collecting all the Yoshi Coins turns them into Peach Coins, which looks nice but are functionally identical. Unlike the original, you can play as Luigi in SMA2, and he plays slightly differently from Mario. Luigi controls much like he does in Super Mario Bros. 2, in that he can jump very high but feels loose and "floaty". Once you've cleared all the levels with Mario, you can go back and try them with Luigi for an extra challenge. One of the nicest features of SMA2 is that the game saves your extra lives and item states when saving, unlike the SNES game. The additional features make the game more appealing and user-friendly, especially for a handheld game.

Overall you can't go wrong with Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, as Super Mario World is the definitive side-scrolling platform game, and it's a lot of fun to revisit the game all these years later. Every GBA owner should pick up this cart and relive some of the best platforming gameplay that's ever been conceived. If you've never played Super Mario World (all nine of you), then you can make up for lost time by discovering this fine game. It might be a rehash, but it's a rehash of one of the best games you can get. So go get it.