Mario Bros. (Game Boy Advance)

Mario Bros.
A title screen for the minigame in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Appears in	Super Mario Advance Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario Bros. is a Game Boy Advance remake of the arcade game of the same name included in every Super Mario Advance game, as well as in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, although not in its 3DS remake. There are very minor differences between each release.

Gameplay

Mario Bros. enhances the graphics to take advantage of the Game Boy Advance's 32-bit capabilities, including adding backgrounds to the stages. Music is added where it was originally absent. Jumping onto floors has been made easier; midair turning is allowed, unlike in the original where Mario or Luigi had to stay in one direction during jumping. The Power Squat Jump from Super Mario Bros. 2 has been added. The entire stage no longer fits on a single screen, so scrolling has been implemented. There are also two POW Blocks in each stage (except in 2 player Battle mode), and they can be picked up much like in Super Mario Bros. 2. Players can also pick each other up and throw them, though a grabbed player can escape another's grasp.

All of the Super Mario Advance games and the original Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga game can connect to each other to play the Classic or Battle mode with up to four players. The remake also uses the Game Boy Advance's Single-Pak multiplayer feature. It can connect and play with other Game Boy Advance systems without the game, although the Battle mode is the only multiplayer mode that can be played in this way.

Classic

4 player Classic mode

The Classic mode is based on the co-op mode from the original and uses the Japanese arcade phase system. Voice clips are added in the single-player mode. The Bonus Stages are now noticeably easier than they were originally and award an extra life to each player upon completion. In multiplayer mode, each player starts off with three lives, but the three credits are shared so any player that gets a Game Over can use them to continue. Up to five stars show up above the Mario Bros. logo in the game select screen based on how many points have been accrued in the Classic mode. One star appears for every 180,000 points earned, with five stars at 900,000 points being the maximum. The highest possible score is 999,990.

Battle

2 player Battle mode

4 player Battle mode

The Battle mode is based on the Battle Game from Super Mario All-Stars in which players start off as Super Marios and compete against each other to collect five coins first after defeating enemies or being the last one standing. The Battle mode has three difficulty options that decide what enemies will appear and what type of floors there will be. The Easy difficulty does not have any slippery floors, while the Hard difficulty is predominantly slippery. There is also the option to turn off fireballs and to give players handicaps by adjusting the number of coins they start off with. There are four different stages that cycle through until one player manages to win five times, after which it resets to the first stage. If there are only two players in the Battle mode, there will be a garbage can at the bottom, replacing the lower POW Block. Players can be thrown in the garbage can. A player in the garbage can is stuck there for several seconds, putting them at a disadvantage, but they will come out with an item that may help them fight their rival.

Characters

Playable

Image	Name	Description
	Mario	The main protagonist. The red one is Player 1, the green one is Player 2 (resembling Luigi), the yellow one is Player 3, and the blue one is Player 4. Prior to the initial release, Player 3 was purple with yellow overalls and Player 4 was orange with red overalls, with the latter resembling Fire Mario and Fire Luigi's appearance from the original NES version of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Enemies

In the Classic mode, target enemies must be defeated to clear the phase, while other enemies should be defeated by the player's discretion. Each phase consists of one or two types of targets with a maximum of six targets. Spinys and Crabs appear together only in Phase 6. The last target enemy will always move at its fastest pace unless said enemy is a Fighter Fly.

Image	Name	Debut	Information and abilities
	Spiny	Phase 1	The first type of enemy in the game, replacing Shellcreepers.
	Crab	Phase 5	Crabs are trickier to defeat and have appeared in various games. The first time the player hits Crabs, they gain an angry expression and walk faster. The player thus needs to hit them twice before kicking them off. They are the most common target enemy in the game.
	Fighter Fly	Phase 7	A fly that jumps up and down and is the hardest to defeat. The player can hit Fighter Flies only while they are on the ground. After the second bonus stage, all subsequent non-bonus phases have one or two of them.

Other enemies

Image	Name	Debut	Information and abilities
	Fireball	Phase 1	A gigantic ball of fire that comes in two varieties. Red fireballs bounce diagonally around the stage, while green ones travel horizontally. They can be defeated by hitting them from underneath, just as they hit the ground. The player can also use a POW Block to defeat them. They can be turned off in Battle mode.
	Freezy	Phase 10 (Classic only)	An ice creature that possesses the ability to "self-destruct" and cover the floor it is on with ice. Ice-covered floors give the Marios less traction.
	Icicle	Phase 17 (Classic only)	An object that at first appears as a water droplet, before forming into a sharp icicle. The icicle eventually falls, defeating any Marios underneath.
	Bowser	Round 4 (Battle only)	Bowser appears in every fourth round in the Battle mode and possesses the ability to breathe fire on enemies. He patrols the central floor and cannot be defeated but can be stunned by bumping him from below.

Battle mode enemies

In Battle mode, there is no limit to the number of enemies. The top pipes respawn them whenever they are defeated.

Enemy appearances by difficulty

	Easy	Normal	Hard
Round 1	Spinys	Crabs	Spinys Fighter Flies
Round 2	Spinys Crabs	Crabs Fighter Flies	Crabs Fighter Flies
Round 3	Crabs	Fighter Flies	Spinys Crabs Fighter Flies
Round 4	Bowser Spinys	Bowser Crabs	Bowser Fighter Flies

Items and objects

Image	Name	Description
	Coin	A coin appears each time an enemy is defeated, with the exception of the last one defeated. Coins also make an appearance every five stages in a "Test Your Skill" event. If the player collects all of these coins, they will receive a point bonus. They can also hatch from eggs in the 2 player Battle mode. In Battle mode, being the first to collect five coins is one of the ways to win a round.
	POW Block	POW Blocks always appear in the center of the level and at the very top, except in the 2 player Battle, which replaces the bottom block with a garbage can. It knocks over all enemies onscreen when a brother hits one of the blocks. They can be used only three times; after the third time, the block disappears and does not reappear until later phases in the Classic mode. In the Battle mode, they are respawned for every round, and in the 2 player version, they can be found in the garbage can. They can be picked up and thrown, but they disappear after a single use. POW Blocks in the Classic mode are blue, and those in the Battle mode are red.

2 player Battle mode exclusives

Image	Name	Description
	Egg	Eggs are found in the garbage can. Throwing it reveals either a Coin, Heart, or Starman.
	Fish Skeleton	Fish Skeletons are useless joke items found in the garbage can.
	Garbage can	Players can jump into the garbage can or be thrown into it when the lid is open. While inside, players can receive a POW Block, Koopa Shell, Fish Skeleton or egg, but will be temporarily unable to move. To exit the garbage can, players must jump when the lid opens again. If another player is standing on top of it, a Crouching High Jump is needed to knock them off and escape.
	Heart	Hearts are items found in eggs that turn Small Mario back into Super Mario.
	Koopa Shell	Koopa Shells are random weapons that can be picked from the garbage can or spawned from the top pipes. They damage players and instantly defeat any enemy except for Bowser.
	Starman	The Starman is another egg item that grants temporary invincibility.

Gallery

Logos

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  In-game logo (Super Mario Advance series)

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  Chinese in-game logo (Super Mario Advance series)

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  In-game logo (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga)

Screenshots

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  English title screen (Super Mario Advance)

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  Japanese title screen (Super Mario Advance)

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  Chinese title screen (Super Mario Advance)

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  English title screen (Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 and Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3)

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  English title screen (Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3)

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  Mario in the Classic mode

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  Game Over with one credit left

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  Game Over with no credits left

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  Total screen for four Marios in the Battle mode

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Italian	Mario Bros.[?]	-

Trivia

• Despite the appearance of a Shellcreeper and Luigi on this remake's title screen, Shellcreepers and Luigi are replaced by Spinys and other Marios. This is because the title screen was originally used for another remake of Mario Bros. included as a sample in the Mario Factory software for Nintendo's Game Processor.

External links

• Japanese website