Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Playthrough of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo’s enhanced Game Boy Advance version of the classic platformer, published in 2003. Rather than being a straightforward port of the 1988 Famicom/NES original, it is primarily based on the upgraded Super Mario All-Stars version while adding new graphics, voices, gameplay tweaks, a revised save system and a surprisingly large amount of optional content. The result is one of the most complete versions of one of Nintendo’s greatest 2D platformers.
Rating: 9.5/10
The foundation remains almost unchanged. Mario travels through eight themed worlds on his way to confront Bowser, moving between individual stages on overworld maps. These maps provide branching routes, Toad Houses, Hammer Bros. encounters, fortresses, airships and optional areas that keep the adventure from ever becoming a simple succession of levels. Even decades later, the pacing is remarkably strong, constantly introducing new enemies, hazards and environmental ideas before moving on to something different.
Super Mario Bros. 3's greatest strength is still its level design. Individual stages are usually short, but almost every one contains some memorable gimmick, enemy arrangement or secret. Giant Land enlarges familiar enemies and scenery, Sky Land gradually takes the adventure into the clouds, while later worlds introduce increasingly elaborate fortresses, naval stages and dangerous autoscrolling sections. Hidden blocks, Warp Whistles and obscure shortcuts also reward experimentation and give repeat playthroughs plenty of appeal.
The power-up system remains one of the best in the series. Alongside the standard Super Mushroom and Fire Flower are the Super Leaf, Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit and Hammer Suit. Raccoon Mario can attack with his tail and build enough momentum to fly, the Frog Suit greatly improves underwater movement, while the rare Hammer Suit turns Mario into an unusually powerful ranged attacker. Items can also be stored and selected from the world map, adding a small but meaningful strategic element before entering difficult stages.
Visually, the GBA release builds on the colorful Super Mario All-Stars graphics, adding further animation and presentation changes. It still looks excellent, although the handheld's smaller display means the camera occasionally shows less of the surrounding level than the console versions. The audio is less successful. The music remains instantly recognizable, but the GBA hardware gives it a thinner quality, and the frequent Mario and Luigi voice clips may become repetitive for players accustomed to the quieter NES and SNES releases.
The revised save system is a major convenience compared with the NES original. Progress can be permanently recorded after important stages such as fortresses and airships, while Save & Quit provides a temporary save point during normal progression. Once the game has been completed, saving becomes even more flexible. It makes Super Mario Bros. 3 far better suited to portable play without completely changing its structure.
The most substantial addition is World-e, originally designed around Nintendo's e-Reader accessory. Scanning physical cards could unlock entirely new stages, power-ups and other bonuses, but doing so on original hardware required an e-Reader, cards and access to another Game Boy Advance. The bonus stages are particularly interesting because they freely combine ideas from across the Mario series, including Super Mario Bros. 2-style vegetable throwing and elements inspired by Super Mario World.
Accessing all of this content was impractical when the game was new, and many stages were never distributed outside Japan. Later Wii U Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online releases solve that problem by including all 38 World-e stages without requiring the original e-Reader setup, greatly increasing the value of those versions.
Also included is the familiar Mario Bros. arcade-style bonus game found throughout the Super Mario Advance series. Luigi is playable as well, although his noticeably floatier jumping physics are chiefly associated with World-e or the appropriate e-Reader enhancement rather than being a universal change to the main game.
Super Mario Advance 4 does not reinvent Super Mario Bros. 3, but it hardly needed to. The exceptionally precise controls, enormous variety, memorable power-ups and constant stream of clever level ideas remain as enjoyable as ever. The compressed audio and occasional overuse of voice clips prevent the GBA presentation from being universally preferable to the NES or SNES versions, but the improved saving and extensive World-e content make this arguably the most feature-rich edition of the game. For anyone wanting Super Mario Bros. 3 with the greatest amount of official content, Super Mario Advance 4 is very difficult to beat.
Playthrough of Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo’s enhanced Game Boy Advance version of the classic platformer, published in 2003. Rather than being a straightforward port of the 1988 Famicom/NES original, it is primarily based on the upgraded Super Mario All-Stars version while adding new graphics, voices, gameplay tweaks, a revised save system and a surprisingly large amount of optional content. The result is one of the most complete versions of one of Nintendo’s greatest 2D platformers.
Rating: 9.5/10
The foundation remains almost unchanged. Mario travels through eight themed worlds on his way to confront Bowser, moving between individual stages on overworld maps. These maps provide branching routes, Toad Houses, Hammer Bros. encounters, fortresses, airships and optional areas that keep the adventure from ever becoming a simple succession of levels. Even decades later, the pacing is remarkably strong, constantly introducing new enemies, hazards and environmental ideas before moving on to something different.
Super Mario Bros. 3's greatest strength is still its level design. Individual stages are usually short, but almost every one contains some memorable gimmick, enemy arrangement or secret. Giant Land enlarges familiar enemies and scenery, Sky Land gradually takes the adventure into the clouds, while later worlds introduce increasingly elaborate fortresses, naval stages and dangerous autoscrolling sections. Hidden blocks, Warp Whistles and obscure shortcuts also reward experimentation and give repeat playthroughs plenty of appeal.
The power-up system remains one of the best in the series. Alongside the standard Super Mushroom and Fire Flower are the Super Leaf, Frog Suit, Tanooki Suit and Hammer Suit. Raccoon Mario can attack with his tail and build enough momentum to fly, the Frog Suit greatly improves underwater movement, while the rare Hammer Suit turns Mario into an unusually powerful ranged attacker. Items can also be stored and selected from the world map, adding a small but meaningful strategic element before entering difficult stages.
Visually, the GBA release builds on the colorful Super Mario All-Stars graphics, adding further animation and presentation changes. It still looks excellent, although the handheld's smaller display means the camera occasionally shows less of the surrounding level than the console versions. The audio is less successful. The music remains instantly recognizable, but the GBA hardware gives it a thinner quality, and the frequent Mario and Luigi voice clips may become repetitive for players accustomed to the quieter NES and SNES releases.
The revised save system is a major convenience compared with the NES original. Progress can be permanently recorded after important stages such as fortresses and airships, while Save & Quit provides a temporary save point during normal progression. Once the game has been completed, saving becomes even more flexible. It makes Super Mario Bros. 3 far better suited to portable play without completely changing its structure.
The most substantial addition is World-e, originally designed around Nintendo's e-Reader accessory. Scanning physical cards could unlock entirely new stages, power-ups and other bonuses, but doing so on original hardware required an e-Reader, cards and access to another Game Boy Advance. The bonus stages are particularly interesting because they freely combine ideas from across the Mario series, including Super Mario Bros. 2-style vegetable throwing and elements inspired by Super Mario World.
Accessing all of this content was impractical when the game was new, and many stages were never distributed outside Japan. Later Wii U Virtual Console and Nintendo Switch Online releases solve that problem by including all 38 World-e stages without requiring the original e-Reader setup, greatly increasing the value of those versions.
Also included is the familiar Mario Bros. arcade-style bonus game found throughout the Super Mario Advance series. Luigi is playable as well, although his noticeably floatier jumping physics are chiefly associated with World-e or the appropriate e-Reader enhancement rather than being a universal change to the main game.
Super Mario Advance 4 does not reinvent Super Mario Bros. 3, but it hardly needed to. The exceptionally precise controls, enormous variety, memorable power-ups and constant stream of clever level ideas remain as enjoyable as ever. The compressed audio and occasional overuse of voice clips prevent the GBA presentation from being universally preferable to the NES or SNES versions, but the improved saving and extensive World-e content make this arguably the most feature-rich edition of the game. For anyone wanting Super Mario Bros. 3 with the greatest amount of official content, Super Mario Advance 4 is very difficult to beat.
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