Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

The worst-named game of all time? This is certainly a contender. To untangle it all yet again, this was the fourth game in a series of re-releases of classic side-scrolling Mario games for the GBA. The first was, of course, Super Mario Bros. 2, the second Super Mario World, the third Yoshi’s Island, so naturally the fourth would be Super Mario Bros. 3. Someone was in charge of these naming decisions.

And of course this wasn’t the original NES Super Mario Bros. 3, but rather the remake that was released with Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES. Keeping up? Well, don’t forget that Super Mario Bros. 3 is of course included in the NES selection of games in Nintendo Switch Online, and Super Mario All-Stars is included in the SNES collection. So, er, why this version in the launch collection for the GBA? The answer to this, and everything else, is: Nintendo.

It’s worth noting that the port here is superbly lovely, with such deep, rich colors, which often appear washed out elsewhere. Mario and Luigi are positively rosy-cheeked. The GBA version fills more of the Switch’s screen, thanks to the wider frame of the GBA compared to the SNES’s 4:3 television square. It’s definitely a slightly prettier version of a game that’s already included at least twice in the free version of Nintendo Switch Online.