Super Mario All-Stars

[WeirdRaptor]

I'm a big fan of this compilation of remasters of the original five main Mario titles. It was the first SNES game I ever owned. I had the "Super Mario Bros All-Stars Plus Super Mario World" edition. This was basically my definitive experience with the old Mario games of the time, and aside from a handful of titles since then, not much has topped this in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, the Mario series is full of great titles, this is just my personal bias talking.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

A Great Compilation. The Lost Levels or SMB2 in Japan is perhaps the hardest Mario Game of all time. I played the collection a lot on my SNES, I preferred SMB3, it being my favorite of the NES titles.

[Flathead770]

Yeah I owned the All Stars version without World in it (though I also had World at the time so that wasn't too big of a deal). As a huge fan of Mario 3 I really liked the updated look for that game. Lost Levels was a nice inclusion as well (including the ability to continue on each individual level after a game over haha. Made it possible to actually play through all 13 worlds)

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Anyone bust out the flute secret on SMB3? Awesome truck.

[StardustSoldier]

Awwww yeah. An awesome set of games right here. This was my jam growing up. Many happy memories playing this in the basement of my parents' old house. (Like with Flathead, I had the version without Super Mario World in it, but I also owned that game separately.)

I was largely more familiar with the All-Stars versions as a kid than the original NES versions. Even though I did play those later on, All-Stars is in my opinion the ideal way to play the games. The inclusion of a save feature, making it much easier to unlock the bonus worlds in Lost Levels, and the gorgeous graphical enhancements. Super Mario All-Stars is definitely something I'll come back to revisit time and time again.

Anyone bust out the flute secret on SMB3? Awesome truck.

I've done it, certainly, although I seldom ever use it because I prefer to play through the full game.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

What is amazing about SMBII (USA) is it made Luigi playable for the first player, Peach and Toad were playable. Toad hasn’t been a playable character outside a spinoff series like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Sports Games. Even the Toad game on Switch is a spinoff. SMBII us Shy Guy, who is really from another game, but one of my favorite characters after Yoshi and Dry Bones. 

[OwlsCantRead]

The Mario All-Stars compilation is rather close to me, it was how I was introduced to classic Mario games as a kid even if I'm bad at them. The fidelity upgrade (esp. for SMB1 & Lost Levels) is really stellar.

[Flathead770]

Anyone bust out the flute secret on SMB3? Awesome truck.

Yeah I've done the double warp to world 8 quite a few times before.

What is amazing about SMBII (USA) is it made Luigi playable for the first player, Peach and Toad were playable. Toad hasn’t been a playable character outside a spinoff series like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Sports Games. Even the Toad game on Switch is a spinoff. SMBII us Shy Guy, who is really from another game, but one of my favorite characters after Yoshi and Dry Bones. 

SMB2 for both the US and Japan both had Luigi as a playable character, both with the attributes of high jumps but less traction. In general I prefer Luigi, especially in the Lost Levels due to how precise you would have to be normally as Mario for some jumps.

Toad was also playable in Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U along with Peach, with both of them retaining their characteristics in SMB2 US

[Gentle Sharptooth]

I stand corrected. Who is your favorite to play as? Mario, Luigi, Toad or Peach?

[Flathead770]

Generally I like playing as Luigi. There can be some issues with him in the final secret levels of 3D Land and 3D World as the jumps were made for Mario so they were easier to time as you just had to full hop. For Luigi you had to do a strange mid-press of the jump button to not overshoot your jumps. Peaches hover can be useful on occasion but I don't like how slow she is, and toad's speed doesn't make up for his shorter jump imo. 3D World also had Rosalina unlockable once you beat the game. She moved like Peach but instead of the hover she had the spin attack from Galaxy, which delayed your fall in the air for a bit. She was really fun to play because of this as the spin attack didn't break her long jump momentum, allowing for some pretty far and fast jumps.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

I prefer Mario myself, Luigi has the hover jump and kick that makes him slide when he lands on a plateform and fall into the abyss. I agree about Toad, his speed doesn’t compensate the short jump. Peach’s hover was always neat if a bit similiar to a witch on a broomstick. That is epic you unlocked Rosalina, she is The Mushroom Kingdom’s Rainbowface.

[WeirdRaptor]

What is amazing about SMBII (USA) is it made Luigi playable for the first player, Peach and Toad were playable. Toad hasn’t been a playable character outside a spinoff series like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Sports Games. Even the Toad game on Switch is a spinoff. SMBII us Shy Guy, who is really from another game, but one of my favorite characters after Yoshi and Dry Bones. 

I really kind of wished they'd continue the trend of Peach and Toad being playable for mainline games more often, because Toad's speed and Peach's float ability were both pretty nifty.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

What is amazing about SMBII (USA) is it made Luigi playable for the first player, Peach and Toad were playable. Toad hasn’t been a playable character outside a spinoff series like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Sports Games. Even the Toad game on Switch is a spinoff. SMBII us Shy Guy, who is really from another game, but one of my favorite characters after Yoshi and Dry Bones. 

I really kind of wished they'd continue the trend of Peach and Toad being playable for mainline games more often, because Toad's speed and Peach's float ability were both pretty nifty.

Agreed. I’d also like to see a Yoshi as playable oppose to a mere horse for Mario and Luigi.