Bowser's kids have turned the rulers of the seven different worlds in the Mushroom Kingdom into animals, and have taken over all of their domains.

Though Super Mario Bros. 2 was wildly different from the original SMB, with Mario and company battling Wart in the dream world, SMB3 takes it back home to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Bowser's kids have turned the rulers of the seven different worlds in the Mushroom Kingdom into animals and have taken over all of their domains. It's up to Mario to kick the Koopa Kids out of their airships, restore the rulers of the different worlds, and ultimately go head-to-head with Bowser himself.

The gameplay in SMB3 is functionally the same as it was in the original Super Mario Bros.--with Mario simply trying to get from one end of a level to the other with his hide intact--though it's on a much larger scope. The Mushroom Kingdom is split up into a series of uniquely themed worlds, each of which is represented with a large overworld map. Aside from using this map to go from level to level, you can visit Toad houses, where you can earn power-ups for later use, visit spade houses for chances to earn extra lives, and inevitably encounter roving gangs of hammer brothers.

While Mario could previously only throw fireballs, SMB3 introduced the suit system, where Mario could grab special power-ups to give him special abilities. The fire flower still works as it did in SMB. The super leaf, inexplicably, gives Mario a raccoon tail, which he can use to take out enemies and, even more confusingly, fly. The frog suit makes Mario much more nimble underwater, but it reduces his mobility on dry land significantly. The tanooki suit works much like the super leaf, except that it has the added bonuses of being able to turn Mario into an invincible, but immobile, statue, and it makes him incredibly adorable. The hammer suit, the rarest of the power-ups, lets Mario toss hammers just like those horribly annoying turtle guys. All these power-ups, plus a few others that you'll use on the overworld maps, are not only useful, but bring an incredibly distinct flavor to the game, and the robust suit system remains unique to SMB3 out of all the Mario games.

The robust suit system remains unique to SMB3.

Super Mario Bros. 3 could be challenging at points, but it also provided plenty of opportunities to earn loads of extra lives, which you did by collecting coins, picking up special mushrooms, playing the slot-machine-style minigames scattered across the Mushroom Kingdom, or simply by finishing three levels. Super Mario Advance 4 makes things even easier by including a Super Mario World-style save system, which means that you no longer have to play through the game in a single sitting. Veteran players might also notice that some subtle but noticeable changes have been made to certain levels. Extra blocks are added in areas where it would have previously been easier to fall to your death, and coins seem to be spread out more liberally. Truly, these are incredibly minute alterations, though they're peculiar ones nonetheless.

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As adventure games go, Back to Stone doesn't do much to bust out of the "fight monsters, fetch items" formula. The game's lone gimmick is that you play as a man who can transform monsters into stone blocks. Those stone blocks, in turn, can be pushed around and used as platforms or to activate floor switches. Basically, the developer has come up with an interesting way to enable the same block-pushing mechanic we've seen in countless similar games. However, while that's nice and all, it doesn't make the act of pushing blocks more enjoyable, and it sure doesn't change the fact that Back to Stone is a bland dungeon crawl with some serious shortcomings.

Unlike other adventure games that gradually give you new weapons and abilities to use, Back to Stone doles out its entire limited arsenal within the first couple of missions. Your character has a single punch attack, which turns most enemies into stone. You can also unleash a powerful energy blast, although you don't often get the chance to do so because you need to collect crystals to recharge it. Your character turns into a full-on demon when he's low on health, but that's barely reflected in the gameplay. When you're a demon, your attacks become stronger and certain non-player characters won't talk to you. Each dungeon has its own diverse menagerie of monsters. While they all look disturbing, only a few actually make an effort to chase you or assail you with magical attacks. Most just crawl around within a small territory and dish out damage if you somehow run into them. The larger "boss" monsters located at the end of certain dungeons do have intricate attack patterns, however. Those battles are an exciting change of pace from the otherwise mundane act of turning tiny monsters into stones and then pushing those stones around to make the platforms or activate the switches that will get you through an area.

Being able to turn monsters into stone blocks is a cute gimmick, but it doesn't inject any new energy into the block-pushing mechanic that has been done to death in so many similar games through the years. Stones can be used to safely traverse electrified floors or change the orientation of rotating platforms, or placed into preordained spots to produce crystals or unlock doors. Some stones are unbreakable. Some explode and clear away any nearby monsters. Ramps and arrows in the environment let you launch stones over bottomless gaps. Back to Stone definitely delivers some clever puzzles involving the pushing of stone blocks. Regardless, pushing blocks around gets boring after a while. Instead of giving you a periodic break like other games would, Back to Stone will just keep taxing you with one block-focused puzzle after another. The game is a long one compared to other adventure games, taking roughly 10 hours to complete. Most of that time, though, is spent moving stone blocks around.

In terms of presentation, Back to Stone is inconsistent. Every good aspect seems to be tempered with a negative. For instance, while the music is haunting and intricate, there aren't many sound effects other than some punches and the demonic roar that happens when your character runs low on health. As for the visuals, the variety of enemies and environments is great, and the character animation is more fluid here than in a lot of other GBA games. Unfortunately, each enemy has only one or two different movements, and the graphics are heavily stretched. It's as if the game was initially being developed for a system with a smaller screen and then transitioned to the GBA midway through the development cycle.

There's some combat and platform-jumping, but the main focus of the game is on using stone blocks to solve puzzles.

The isometric view also causes problems at times. Since the environments are tilted to fake a three-dimensional sense of depth, it can be difficult to line up jumps and to position blocks properly. Too much of the game's trial and error is a result of the perspective, causing you to misjudge open air for solid ground. Thankfully, such mishaps usually aren't fatal. If you fall off a ledge, for instance, your character will reappear on solid ground with only a touch of health deducted. Or if you place a stone in the wrong spot, it'll eventually dissolve and you can go transform another monster into a useful statue. Password markers are scattered liberally throughout each dungeon, which is both good and bad. On the one hand, you can always take a break and return to your game whenever you need to. On the other hand, you have to stop and jot down a 10-character password every minute or so if you want to keep tabs on your progress.

It's nice to see that developers are still producing original games for the Game Boy Advance. Unfortunately, Back to Stone is a bland, sloppy adventure game that doesn't bring anything original to the formula apart from a novel twist on the same block pushing we've been doing for years.

Size ± 36 MB : Download here

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