Day 46 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Super Mario All Stars

Super Mario All Stars is possibly one of the greatest bundles in gaming history. Super Mario All Stars included four of the greatest Mario games of all time, plus they were all remastered from 8 bit to 16 bit quality, AND best of all it was bundled with the console! Let's take a closer look at the games bundled with Super Mario All Stars.

Super Mario Bros - What's your favourite Super Mario Bros memory? It may have been discovering that you could run in front of the scoreboard in world 1-2 and warp to later levels. It may be when you finally defeated Bowser and saved the Princess. Or perhaps uttering your first profanity when you get killed by those &#%$@£! Hammer Bros.

Whatever your memory, Super Mario Bros established Nintendo as a gaming industry juggernaut that has dominated the market in some form or another for decades. Super Mario Bros not only set the standard for Nintendo, but for every platform game since we first set foot in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels- The NES version of The Lost Levels was never released in the West, so we were getting something we'd never played before, which sealed the deal for most people buying Super Mario All-Stars.

It looked just like Super Mario Bros, which was the reason it was never released in the West in the first place, but beneath its deceptive exterior lay a game so gruesomely evil it reduced grown men to tears.

I finished The Lost Levels for the first time when I was 8 years old, my Dad even promised me £10 if I could finish it. After about 2 weeks of playing I thought I had finally completed The Lost Levels when I beat World 8-4...only for the game to go on to World A-1, so technically I didn't finish it and therefore I couldn't have the £10 prize. The Lost Levels = Pure Evil!    

Super Mario Bros 2/ USA- This was released in the West instead of The Lost Levels, and it was either a love it or hate it experience. I personally couldn't stand it as a kid as it wasn't like your traditional Mario game, and it seemed to be lacking in comparison to the other games in the bundle.

Instead of jumping on enemies to defeat them you had to pick them up and throw them into other enemies, which I found interesting for about 5 minutes, but then it became really frustrating when enemies couldn't be killed as there wasn't another one nearby. I only got around to finishing Super Mario Bros 2 for the first time recently and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it, but when compared to other Mario games, I'd rather play the others.  

Super Mario Bros 3- The biggest game in the whole bundle. Super Mario Bros 3 improved on every aspect of the Super Mario Bros series with 8 massive worlds to conquer, a whole new host of power-ups and competitive/co-op multiplayer so you could annoy all of your friends! The Mario Bros Arcade game was even included so you could annoy your friends even more.

This was another game I didn't finish until recently as I kept getting stuck in World 8. I had no feathers, frog suits or fire flowers, and I just kept getting killed over and over again. After leaving the game for a few...years, I finally defeated King Bowser and his Koopa Kids. Truly a happy gaming day!