Super Mario All-Stars review

When you consider the entire package, $30 is more than fair. But the Super Mario All-Stars game itself? Not necessarily worth that much. The Wii version is a straight-up port of the SNES game, right down to the "Copyright Nintendo 1993" text along the bottom of the screen. Honestly it comes off as a bit lazy - you couldn't do anything to these games for a 25th anniversary?

Furthermore, why only four games on the disc when you could fit every 2D Mario game (or you know, every NES/SNES game period) on one DVD? I get that the anniversary is for Super Mario Bros and the NES, but Nintendo actually produced a version of All-Stars that included Super Mario World as well - would it have killed 'em to toss that in as well?

Above: C'mon guys, it's only like 8 extra megs of information

However, none of these nitpicks change the quality of the included games, or the intended purpose of the entire collection. You're still getting inarguable classics that defined not just platformers, but also the '80s games industry and millions of childhoods around the world. Think about that - you, me, everyone reading this article, thousands more on Xbox Live right now... we've all played these games to death, and that's forever a common ground among us all. Truthfully, the majority of games journalists arewriting todaybecause of these games, and you could even argue they're the reason the games industry is here at all. That's up for debate, but the point is these games are immortal, even if they're kinda-sorta not as fun as they once were.

Above: The All-Stars versions feature enhanced graphics, upgraded sound and the ability to save your progress... but we actually prefer the old versions because we're old mummies who hate new things

Above: But for the most part, the games are just like their 8-bit counterparts

The SNES version isn't available on the Virtual Console, but if it were, it would technically only cost 800 points (eight bucks). Or you could buy the individual games on the collection, which would still only total to $21, so if you're looking at this as $30 for four NES games, you're going to feel ripped off. But when you consider the whole package, what it means and the history it represents, this is definitely worth the cash. Plus it's a LIMITED EDITION (ITION...ITION...ITION) so you should get on it before Nintendo yanks it away.