Mario Ports Poll (VOTE!)

What are good Mario ports?

  • Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

    Votes: 4 18.2%
  • Super Mario Advance

    Votes: 6 27.3%
  • Super Mario Advance 2

    Votes: 5 22.7%
  • Super Mario Advance 3

    Votes: 4 18.2%
  • Super Mario Advance 4

    Votes: 7 31.8%
  • Super Mario All Stars (Wii)

    Votes: 5 22.7%
  • Super Mario Maker For Nintendo 3DS

    Votes: 1 4.5%
  • Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World

    Votes: 2 9.1%
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

    Votes: 13 59.1%
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch)

    Votes: 4 18.2%
  • Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (3DS)

    Votes: 1 4.5%
  • New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

    Votes: 3 13.6%

  • Total voters
    22

Parakoopa144

a delicious beverage
Hey there! I'm trying to collect information for my Shroom' article on ports, so I created a poll. You have 3 votes, so vote for your 3 favourite Mario ports!
It ends in 5 days, and also if you wanna leave any comments on this thread about them, I'll include them in the article.

Cheers.
 
Out of them, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is my favorite. Not only it added a really fun 5 minute Battle Mode, the Switch is just as moddable as the Wii U, so I had so much hours of fun out whaling on Cutie, Wally <3, and Stupid Music.

I love Super Mario Advance and Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario Advance being my favorite of the Advance titles, mostly because I can play as Toad and I love throwing vegetables.

I also voted for Treasure Tracker for Switch, even though I don't own it. My Wii U's disc drive is busted and the game is worth for a double dip especially for its multiplayer.
 
I voted for SMB Deluxe, Mario Advance 3, and Captain Toad Switch. I would also vote Mario Advance 4, but only the VC version makes the top 3 because that's the only way you can access all the extra levels.
 
A good port adds extra content in addition to being a properly functioning version of the game, and the ones that do that best out of these are Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, and Super Mario Advance 4 (or any of the Advance games really, but 4 added the most new content from what I can tell). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe included the original's DLC while also adding a new and improved battle mode and new characters. SMB Deluxe didn't play as well as the original, but it included tons of extra content such as most of Lost Levels, new modes including a multiplayer versus before SMM2 made it cool, and lots of collectibles and bonuses. Super Mario Advance 4 added several new levels and extra content through the e-reader, though I admit that the use of the e-reader makes this content be worth less if you're playing the original. However, the Wii U Virtual Console version unlocks all that stuff automatically, so it's a good deal!

As for bad ports, I'd say Super Mario Maker on 3DS and the Wii version of Super Mario All-Stars fit the bill. SMM 3DS removed browsing online levels, which was a huge part of the original game, and you know a port is bad when it removes content and doesn't even add any to make up for it. Super Mario All-Stars on SNES was great, but the Wii port is literally the same exact game with no additions (except the booklet and music CD, but I'm talking in-game additions). You'd think they could do something better for Mario's 25th anniversary than re-release an 18-year-old game SNES game with no changes (especially seeing what they did with Kirby's anniversary around the same time), but apparently not.
 
While it's not an option in the poll, and this is about good ports and remakes, I'd like to shine some light on a rarely talked port of highly talked about racing game, Diddy Kong Racing DS.

This game showcases everything wrong with a majority of DS games, forced touch controls for the sake of having them in the game. To get a starting boost you need to use the touch screen, swiping down when in the kart and drawing circles with the plane, however getting the start boost with either of these vehicles can only be done comfortably if you're one of the 10% that are left handed, and the circles must be done clockwise which my playthrough of Bomberman Land Touch has proven I can not do. The hovercraft requires you to blow into the mic, so anyone can do that but it still feels very forced.

The Silver Coins challenge is gone, now replaced with the touch screen based Balloon Touch challenge. Outdated method of moving the screen via touch aside, they're rather easy and they're isn't much to say about them other then Silver Coin's were better.

All of the balloons in the hub are now locked behind unresponsive touch based challenges, or Taj's intrusive and annoying challenges. The original tutorials return alongside two new challenges, one based around blowing torches using the microphone, which is unresponsive, and another that sends you on a wild goose chase across the island to pick up ten randomly appearing tokens before Taj does, which is tedious. The token challenge is also annoying because the game attempts to direct you with an arrow, but the arrow doesn't help as it's on the bottom screen meaning it doesn't show height, and the minimap isn't big enough to show whether or not the token is near the wall or behind it until it's too late.

Wish Track's are a cool idea, but are terrible in execution. You create four of them in adventure, with the last one being the one where you can draw whatever you want, and there isn't much potential for creating good tracks. You draw a rather bland minimap of a track, specify how much you want the track to go up and down, specify a starting point, and just hope for the best. All of the tracks feel the same with no walls or offroad, just the line that you drew. There's not much room in terms of what you can draw with that line either, the track can't go over another part of the track, the road can't go anyway near a previous piece of road, and the amount of ink is rather limited. Again, a cool idea, just horribly executed. I'll stick with TrackMania for track creation.

The wishes menu is actually kind of cool. You can change the colour of your kart, but this only changes the amount of red green and blue in the original palette, so there's not much room for customisation beyond making the car entirely red, blue or green. The kart customisation goes one step further and actually allows you to customise the look and stats of the vehicle, it's poorly designed with the upgrade that is required to use the other upgrades being better then half of the upgrades, and the cosmetic changes and stat differences can't be seen before being bought, but at least there's the option for customisation. Player icons and track side advertisements can be drawn by the player, I have no artistic talent but it's a nice addition for anyone who does. Finally there's the option to record sound effects, it's fun because I get to hear a bit crunched Jack Black say "Octago-" whenever I use an item. The problem is that the game is stingier then CTR:NF with how it hands out coins. The coins come at the cost of the bananas from the original, now adding to a total across all modes rather then just one race, however the amount of coins on a track are rather still rather low, meaning you have to grind a lot just to get them. The kart customisation and player icons don't have have to be brought, but everything else still does. The wish menu also has new tracks and gameplay modes to be bought. The silver coin challenges can be played this way, and the player can create and save their own wish track with this. All of these options still suffer from the problem of being too expensive.

Overall the remake adds features that while cool on paper, are poorly executed, and changes a lot things that didn't need to be changed.
 
I voted for:

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Mario Kart 8 is already a great game, and the Deluxe version is even better because the battle mode is obviously better and they added a few new characters. Also, the addition of auto-acceleration and smart steering has made it possible for me to play with three controllers at once. In the Wii U version, I could only play with two controllers at once.

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe: NSMBU is my favorite 2D Mario game, so I was very glad that it was ported to the Switch. I do like the inclusion of Toadette, but I don't like how she makes the game easier. For example, I completely avoided using her in the Super Luigi U levels because she adds more time to the clock.

Super Mario All-Stars: I love the improvements that they made to each game. The graphics are better and the levels have nicer looking backgrounds, the music sounds better, and the game saves after you beat each world which means that you don't have to beat the whole game in one sitting (The Lost Levels saves after every level, due to its difficulty). Speaking of The Lost Levels, I'm glad that you only need to beat the game once to access Worlds A through D, and not 8 times like in the original.
 
Diddy Kong Racing DS is also extremely poorly balanced. The only customizations that actually matter are the speed boost ones and those are the ones that'll help you win races; the others don't. One important thing to mention: acceleration boosts for airplanes are actually completely useless because all planes have the same rate of acceleration. And the basic upgrades are all useless too, because they're all outclassed by the racer upgrade. The little bananas on the stats screen before you select a character? They lie.


The balloon touch challenges are stupid and boring and I hated doing them all the time.

Did I forget to mention how dreadul the game's voices are? I'll mention how dreadful the game's voices are because it's true.
 
To be honest, it would be hard to screw up the Wii U ports to Switch. I thought all the Mario advance games were solid enough. I actually prefer Mario advance 1 to SMB2 on NES and SNES. Super Mario All Stars on SNES was a nice remake, although I can understand why some would prefer the NES versions. All Stars on Wii was a slapped together port. (They could have at least included more games like Super Mario 64, Mario Land 1 and 2, Super Mario World, and Yoshi's Island).
 
One of the most interesting Mario ports in my opinion is the Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country. There are many attempts in both the past and the present to port games to inferior hardware, some of which are extremely similar to the original game, such as the 3DS version of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, some like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe add new content while keeping the old content, while others, such as Sonic the Hedgehog on the Game Gear and Master System do something a bit different: in that game's case, their are new levels such as the Jungle Zone, while others were not included, and you could even consider that version of the game entirely new. Other games are given new titles and are technically brand new games, but are extremely similar to a console counterpart. One case is Donkey Kong Land 2, which has two new levels which replace old ones and old levels with new layouts, as well as merging two worlds to form one, but is still very similar to Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Double Trouble. Finally, some ports have to remove content from the original game and change other content, such as the NES version of Wario's Woods. Donkey Kong Country on the Game Boy Color is, surprisingly, a port like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Let's talk about why.


Donkey Kong Country GBC tilte screen.jpeg
(Image from http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=140.)

The game's new content starts with the title screen. After choosing which language you prefer, you are greeted with one of three title screens. Once you go to the menu, which is now reminiscent of Donkey Kong 64, you have several options. The main game, labeled "adventure", is the bread and butter of the game, "bonus" is where you can view your items, your hi-scores, and play the game's two new minigames. Regarding the two minigames, they are ok. Crosshair Cranky involves slow shooting, and Funky Fishing involves slow fishing. "Link-Up" is where you can play multiplayer (which I couldn't test), "print" is where you can use the Game Boy Printer, (again, couldn't test), and options is where you can view the well, options, including the ability to disable DK or even Star Barrels.

The main game is faithfully brung back. The levels are still fun, the gameplay is still great. There even is new and expanded content, like the brand new level Necky Nutmare and the level Winky's Walkway being much larger, or there being a new collectable in the form of Sticker Pads. However, downgrades had to be made for the hardware. Some of these, like both Kongs not being visible at the same time, or different music, don't really affect my experience of the game. However, there is one main thing that pulls away from the game, and it is its sprites and their visibility. Note that this may vary on wether or not you are playing on a console with a backlight: however, on the original GBA model, which is where I played the game, some of the sprites tend to blend into the background, even when playing in a well-lit room. An example is the Neckies blending in with the level Necky Nutmare. Screen crunch is not actually a big deal, but it doesn't help. I would have preferred the sprites to be drastically different in terms of colors if it meant that enemies stood out more. Note that this is not a game-wide problem. Some levels have background that make the enemies stand out, and some enemies naturally stand out regardless, like Zingers. On major improvement, though, is that the game automatically saves after each level. This is great as it means even through game overs you can focus on beating the level you're stuck at, instead of repeating the same levels you already proved you can beat. Candy's Save Point is replaced by Candy's Challenge (which was in turn replaced by Candy's Dance Studio in the Game Boy Advance remake), which is essentially a series of extra bonus rooms.

So in the end, even with all of the improvements this port brings, the downgrades impact the game and its levels so much that I still think that the original is better. But I don't think anyone was expecting that this game would be better than the SNES original, given the inferior hardware. For what its worth it is a decent and unique way to play a great game, with some new content to boot. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in Donkey Kong Land where right, the game is just plain fun, even without fancy graphics. However, sometimes fancy graphics and better hardware can still help make the game a bit better.
 
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This is some GOOD STUFF LADS. I'lll stop taking poll results and thread responses on the 13th, by the way.
 
Super Mario Advance 2 was my first Mario game and why Super Mario World is the most nostalgic of the classic 2D Mario games to me. Funnily enough, it actually got me so used to hearing voice clips in Super Mario World (and things like Luigi's flutter animation) that I was initially thrown off playing the original. But overall I think it's a good port with a neat added intro cutscene and a lot of small but worthwhile additions such as again, the voice clips. While I haven't played the other Super Mario Advance games, based on videos I've seen of them, I can say they too are good ports of the Mario classics onto the GBA. Of course they included a port of Mario Bros. as well, which was also included in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Super Mario Advance 4, if I remember correctly, had bonus levels tied to the e-Reader functionality which made use of elements from Super Mario World, never before seen in Mario 3. That's a great example of porting a game and expanding it at the same time.

In terms of more recent ports, I feel Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Luigi's Mansion, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are all perfectly competent rereleases on the Switch and 3DS (even admitting I'm not fond of NSMBU being ported and getting so much attention at the expense of the M&L remake that released the same day and was a lot more ambitious, on its own it's still a good port). The ports of Captain Toad make me wish 3D World got the same treatment, not only would it be very welcome on the Switch but a 3DS port to close out the system for good would make such a perfect bookend as the final Mario game on the system, mirroring 3D Land back when the system was new. Alas, I think they're pretty much done with the system now anyway but that would've been an amazing final game.

On the subject of 3DS ports, one I'm not so fond of is Super Mario Maker. The original is one of my favorite games, I daresay it's probably my favorite Wii U game, even if the sequel now makes it completely obsolete. But the 3DS port not having such a crucial feature as uploading your levels, or even searching by code, effectively limiting your access to the server to whatever it randomly gives you, that's a nope from me chief. The new official courses were good though, I would say they'd have been better off saved for SMM2, but then I realized it's been nearly 3 years and SMM2 may in fact have not even been started yet, leaving me to wonder where on earth that time went. But overall I'm still not a fan of Super Mario Maker for 3DS.
 
Super Mario Advance series, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which I like to call Mario Kart 8 Second Edition or Mario Kart 8 SE kinda like Windows 98 SE), and NSMBU Deluxe (even though I hate the thought of this port existing and wanted NSMB Switch with Peach and Daisy playable). Peachette is the closest thing to a playable Peach in NSMBU Deluxe due to not conflicting with plot. Peachette is a dumb stupid idea anyway. I like Toadette better.
 
While I don't have any as in-depth opinions on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe due to that game's popularity there is not much to explain, I will say that it is a really good port: in fact, it is a great example of how to do a good port. I adds great new content, such as a much, much, much better Battle Mode and new characters, and the content from the original Wii U game returns, being just as good, so even if you don't like the game's new content the old content is still there. The DLC is also included, which another nice touch. Its not exactly enough to warrant double-dipping though, but for people who never bought the original game Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a great deal.
 
There are two games on here that are Yoshi games. And both are good ports of their games. But I only voted for the more recent one. As for my other two votes, they went to Super Mario Advance 4 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for 3DS. The later was chosen because both versions are good ports and I wanted to show some love to the 3DS version because otherwise it wouldn't have and that is the version that I own. For SMA4, it was chosen due to it also being a port. And there are some additional features in it that I didn't play due to not having the e-cards. Yeah, it was the on the GBA. Anyways. SMA is a good port too. Super Mario All Stars is a game of four games and they all look good and considered voting for it, but ultimately decided against it for SMA4. But I like that they showed the four original games of Super Mario. However, SMA series covers SMB2 USA and SMB3 and SMA series versions are better than the SMAS version. But I do have to give credit for SMAS for having 4 games on it while the SMA series has 2 per cartridge due to the Mario Bros. port on all four SMA games and the GBA version of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. I didn't chose any Switch games due to not having a Switch and it won't be fair for me to judge them without playing them. But they seem like good ports. I have not played Super Mario Bros. Deluxe nor SMA2 so I didn't vote for them either. As for SMMFN3DS, it is the only game that is good... if you don't have a Wii U or Switch but have a 3DS family console and want to play SMM. However, there is one key feature of SMM that isn't in SMMFN3DS. Online. And that is online searching for courses and online sharing. I am really the only one that is going to play the levels I created on that game. But at least I am still using it to create levels despite not being able to share.
 
I voted for Super Mario Bros Deluxe, Super Mario Advance and Super Mario Advance 4.

If I could vote for more every single Super Mario Advance game gets my vote. Although the sound quality isn't one of the Game Boy Advance's best qualities, the voice acting really added a lot to those games. In fact, it would be my primary reason to pick them. The presentation changes done to the old games are also great, especially the first Super Mario Advance where it felt like a different Super Mario Bros. 2 since they just changed the base game so much. Advance 2 also changed Super Mario World in major ways but I prioritise Advance 4 due to the extra levels that it has, and they're really well-designed and uses elements in past games.

Special mention goes to Deluxe because it has a lot of nice little things there like the Boo race and the nice artwork used there.

I need to comment on the most-voted game here: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe felt like a proof-of-concept for the Switch but it ended up giving second life to an old title, and I do like the Battle Mode additions and the extra characters and vehicle parts. I just wish that there is a program that makes the game cheaper for those who supported the base version, such as maybe offering any potential DLC this game has for free if they previously purchased the original's DLC.

Thank you for reading.
 
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