Dark Arena - GBA Game (Retro Fam)

I'm so glad they reissued this game on Gameboy Advance. I've owned this game in many formats, origonally on Nintendo. Then it was on the compilation of Super Mario called "Super Mario All Stars" on SNES. Now we have this on Gameboy Advance. Pretty much everybody has said all the great things about this game. It's still fun to play. Mario's super powers are awesome (racoon tail, frog suit, fire flower, etc.). Some of the levels are still difficult for me to beat, but it's always been like that for me.There are a few things I didn't like. Ever since Nintendo as well as Mario have evolved, he's becomming a little more involved in the game. Now they have him talking in this game. That's not necessarly a bad thing, but if you had this game on Nintendo or even Super Nintendo, you would remember he didn't say a word. Here, he talks, like for example: when he dies, he say "Oh! Mama mia!" Or when you enter into a level, he says "Letsago!". I for one wish they didn't add that in this game.Also this game comes with the arcade Super Mario game. Thats the game where you have two players, and those enemies come out of pipes and you have to hit the blocks under them to flip them over and kick them off the screen. It's kind of fun, although they modified it a little bit. Both games are fun to play, and I highly recommend this game to any gamer out there. This is one of the classic Nintendo games ever created.

Work excellent.

I got my first Gameboy at age 25. I've always wanted one, and now I have one (yay, me!). I wanted a Mario game for it, and this one had a 9.5 rating on IGN, so I bought it. I'm really bad at it, but I have lots of fun playing. It's great fun, and I think that anyone looking for some old school fun should definitely get this game. It has all the nostalgic charm of Mario, and it's a lot cheaper than buying $60 games for a console. Plus, it's portable! The only thing I really will say is that the Gameboy Advance is not back-lit, so I think that some of the graphical fun of this game is wasted due to that. However, it is still a lot of fun and has some classic elements like the flying Mario suit.Here's the info on IGN:

Do I even need to give this game an introduction? When Super Mario Bros. 3 came out, it blew everyone away. The first two Mario games were great, but Mario 3 did everything those games did, and took it to another level. World maps, bonus stages, hidden areas, the ability to fly(!), and much more. I remember being a little kid when it came out and wondering how any game could top it. All these years later, I got this GBA version for my daughter, who's already into the Mario games at just 3 years old. What's funny is that, eventhough I got to replay the game on the SNES with Super Mario All-Stars, and played it until I sold my SNES a few years ago, playing this version really took me back to the good ol' days of the early 90s. I won't be biased in this review- I try to be fair on everything, and point out flaws when they're there. But really, Super Mario Bros. 3 barely has anything wrong with it, and this GBA port just might be the best iteration of the game so far.Basic Mario premise- you play as Mario (or Luigi) and save the princess from Bowser, traveling through a wide range of worlds in the process. You'll run, jump, fireball and tail smack your way through the stages while collecting coins and taking out the bad guys. Located on the world map are mushroom houses that let you take a quick break from the action and get a random power up. Where the first Super Mario Bros. only had the mushroom, fire flower and star, you get much more here. Those original 3 are back, as well.

Awesome