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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/22/02 6:43 pm)
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Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
I'm abit bored, so I'm gonna go through and give all you out there who either can't buy the game or might buy the game, the "low down" as it where as to what's up with this port.
And not much has changed. There are several parts during the cutscenes where they had a chance to make some graphics smoother using the GBA hardware (for instance, the incredibly low-ish color sunrise backdrop in the intro).
The titlescreen seems to rotate at a higher framerate than it did on the SNES -- but one of the greatest changes is to the sound. Everything feels very "softened", almost every sound effect in the game has been replaced with something new, and despite the game having the same music as the last game, instruments too have been replaced.
The end result is, too me, the game feels much "slower" and "dream-like". The whole game is given a "musicbox" feeling, and to me, that's a bad thing. It totally ruins the "feeling" the game once had -- and Yoshi's squeaky cutsey voice only quadruples this tooth-rottening feeling, like I'm playing a game designed for preschoolers. While Koji Kondo's great compositions still remain, these new instruments shed a completely different light upon them, one that I think was for the worse.
And perhaps the worst of all -- the GBA, a console supposedly as powerful as a SNES, with not one, nae, but TWO Super FX chips running side by side -- experiences SLOW DOWN. Most noticably when you hit a [?] cloud, and stars come flying out -- if you happen to grab them too fast, the game temporarily begins to chug -- and during Yoshi's Morphs, this is when it's most noticable. The game CHOKES AND SPUTTERS, attempting to keep up with the visual effects required to morph Yoshi from Dinosaur to Vehicle -- and unlike the previous, it doesn't last a split second, no, it lasts a good 3 seconds, during the entire transformation sequence. The music stutters and gags, the animations slow way, way down... I know Yoshi's Island was one of the last SNES games and used a host of amazing effects, but it only used ONE Super FX chip! ONE! The GBA should be able to PLOW through ANYTHING this game can throw at it. But does it? Almost, but not quite...
And perhaps worst of all, they included a completely USELESS feature -- No, it's not The Super Mario Brothers extra, a "Sleep" Mode. What's Sleep Mode? Same thing your PC does if you leave it on too long -- the GBA enters a "Dormant" state, one that enables you to leave your GBA on, but saves power. Question is, what is it's use? So you can stop playing a level right in the middle of it, to resume right where you left off? What does it matter? Does Nintendo think we're nothing but a gaggle of morons with the attention span of aluminum foil? That we're so ADHD that we can't focus long enough to complete a single stage of Yoshi's Island?
If you can ignore those, then I suppose this game is okay. But personally? I'm going to keep playing the SNES version, because most of these changes kick the game well out of the realm of re-purchase, for me. (That is, if I had a GBA)
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Perfect Dream Leo 
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MOOGLE CAVERN ZONE.
(9/22/02 7:40 pm)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
Um, so you're basing this observation off an emulated version then? O_o Um... yeah... maybe you should play it on a GBA before you judge slowdown.
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/22/02 7:49 pm)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
Leo. 1.30ghz. Emulation speed remains locked at 100%. Trust me, it ain't my computer.
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Bartman3010
The Only Savior of Ash Ketchum!
And he's making him look good!
(9/22/02 9:44 pm)
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Mine stay's at 99%. And I'm on an Athlon PC.
I think that it's just the emulator. Lets not all forget the faithful time DBZ Legacy of Goku messed up on the graphics.
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H Hog 
Hot Rod MC Mod
Odd volcanic fire guy
And I like swords too
(9/23/02 4:18 am)
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Re: .
There was also a sleep mode in Golden Sun.
Turning it on made my emulation speed rise somewhere in the 300%, almost unabling me to turn it back off. XD
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BlueJoshi 
Tastes like chicken
(9/23/02 5:23 am)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
Sleep mode in YI made my emu go in the thousands. :E
And I think some of the slowdown might be your emu, Blaze. You say getting stars too quickly can slow it down? Well, the only slowdown that I got while playing was during the transformations like you said, and when I touched a fuzzy and got drugged.
The audio differences just.. suck. The Yoshi's Island sound effects fit so perfectly; why'd they have to replace most of the with Yoshi's Story sound effects. They fit a little, but not nearly as well as the originals.
Some of the graphical changes were just stupid. I used to be able to pic out all the red coins 'cause their lighting effects gave them a red sheen. Now the effect is reversed (The normal coins have a red sheen, and the red ones don't).
Moh, these are just a few of the things I noticed. I've, like memorised the entirety of the original, so any difference stands out big time. I'm still gonna buy this game, if only 'cause it's a portable version of my all-time favorite game.
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/23/02 11:50 am)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
*shakes his head* It's not the emulator, It doesn't always do slowdown when stars scatter like that, only certain times.
Also, in Burt the Bashful's fort, with the big red lava creature, I got abit of slowdown there, too.
There was one other really annoying change, but I can't remember what it was, now, I ran into it last night...
And yeah, that "Red Sheen = Red Coin" thing, I miss that, too.
Sleep Mode in SMA3 sends VBA into the 3000% range :P -- and it gets stuck there. I tried pressing L + R + Start + Select and it wouldn't come out of sleep mode - I closed and loaded another ROM (didn't close VBA, but I stopped emulation) and it was STILL locked in "sleep".
*fiddles around with a Beta of "Croucing Tiger, Hidden Dragon" GBA*
Edit: Another problem -- if you pause the game, you can't check how many Red Coins/Whatever you're missing! It's that retarded "CONTINUE/SLEEP" menu!
Edit 2: On the plus side (or minus side), Bonuses are easier to unlock -- you don't have to have 100's on all stages. However, this adds to my suspicion that Nintendo tried to SEVERELY dumb down this game for the kids who are used to Yoshi's Story. I had 23 lives by the time I had downed World 1-6, because of all the 1ups I was given from the "COLLECTIVE WORLD SCORE" screen. (1up, 3up, 5up)
Sonic Xtreme Information DatabaseEdited by: BlazeHedgehog at: 9/23/02 12:12:43 pm
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Kulock 
...So... much writing...
(9/23/02 12:57 pm)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
SMA1 also gave you an arseload more hearts than you ever got in SMUSA, so your assumption is probably right, Blaze.
I can't believe that they were so lazy that they couldn't even program in the morphing/sprite stretching effects without slowdown on a console with HARDWARE scaling and stretching. That's mainly what the Super FX chip in YI helped with.
I know it's supposed to be for the gamers who never got to play them before, but this should've been released as one gaming pack, not four or five games at full price. The Mario Advance series is just useless, the games aren't getting any more special focus by being seperated out than they would in a collection pack, hell, the Super Mario All-Stars versions got much more work done to them in comparison to the porting from All-Stars to GBA, and that included four games (and later five when SMW was also included, complete with a re-sprited Luigi) all for the price of one cart. I'm sorry, I know I've said that before, but it's so blatantly true. Nintendo's charging full price for games they're not paying a quarter of the attention they should be paying to.
Super Mario Bros. 3 GBA better kick absolutely all arse. That game doesn't deserve the shoddy port jobs they're giving the rest in the series. It needs extra levels, secrets out the arse, darn it, people have hacked entirely new games starring characters that were never even playable in it like Peach and Daisy with totally new levels using only tools fans have made, Nintendo better do at LEAST that level of work. There is no excuse for anything less. Of course, with Nintendo's trend lately, they won't care if there's an excuse or not, they'll just do it.
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BlueJoshi
Tastes like chicken
(9/23/02 2:09 pm)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
"Edit: Another problem -- if you pause the game, you can't check how many Red Coins/Whatever you're missing! It's that retarded "CONTINUE/SLEEP" menu!"
The normal pause screen can be opened with select. Oddy enough, it shows the number of stars you have twice.
"I had 23 lives by the time I had downed World 1-6, because of all the 1ups I was given from the "COLLECTIVE WORLD SCORE" screen. (1up, 3up, 5up)"
Only 23? :E Obviously you haven't noticed how many extra coins and/or one-ups they added to the levels. I had at least ten more lives than you by that point, and I died quite a bit while getting used to the control scheme.
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Blues the squirel
Of Wood Zone
(9/23/02 5:27 pm)
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Re: Super Mario Advance 3, Yoshi's Island
Dont yell at Blaze for evaluating the game on an emulator. He is right about the slowdown, I send the rom to my flash card and played it on my GBA, there is a slow down at those parts he mentioned.
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Bartman3010
The Only Savior of Ash Ketchum!
And he's making him look good!
(9/23/02 10:16 pm)
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Oh well, so what? It's a cool game and the slowdown shouldnt affect you unless you really suck.
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Kulock
...So... much writing...
(9/23/02 11:10 pm)
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Re: .
More slowdown isn't an advantage, it's sloppy, on a port where the existing slowdown could have and should have been fixed, and obviously wasn't because of lack of effort.
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SkahottKun
Warning: 50%
(Warning Level 2.0)
(9/25/02 9:56 am)
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Re:
You gotta love Bartman's logic.
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/25/02 3:27 pm)
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Re: Re:
He's right, though, Skahott. While these are just lazy port nitpicks, they are JUST nitpicks, and the game is playable reguardless.
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Bartman3010
The Only Savior of Ash Ketchum!
And he's making him look good!
(9/25/02 10:49 pm)
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.
www.classicgaming.com/tmk..._pre15.gif
Why is this picture important? Lesse, 8 levels a world. One extra level, one bonus level....hmm...cant quite figure out what the OTHER star is for hmm? =B
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/29/02 10:29 am)
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Re: .
Massive, never ending slowdown:
World 3, stage 3. Turn into the Helicopter and drag it through the mud. ;)
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BlueJoshi
Tastes like chicken
(9/29/02 10:46 am)
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Re: .
Doing that even caused slowdown in the original, both on emu and SNES for me. Plus, it wasn't "massive, never ending" for me.
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/29/02 10:58 am)
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Re: .
I say neverending because you can do it as much as you wish ;p
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Edweirdo
Warning: 25%
(Warning Level 1.0)
(9/29/02 11:53 am)
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Re: .
Hahaha, this is probably the best port now. (New GBA Levels?)
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BlazeHedgehog
As Anti-PS2 as they come
(9/30/02 5:26 am)
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Re: .
I had 103 lives, so I figured -- hey, I've got Savestates. Why not bet a large chunk of them? I plonked 95 lives down, and after spinning the roulette wheel like 8 times I finally hit the X and 2, giving me 190 lives back. I would've tried for x3, but that'd be just nuts. (I didn't let it finish counting up when I took this screenshot, either -- it stopped at 199 lives)
edit:
:E
Sonic Xtreme Information DatabaseEdited by: BlazeHedgehog at: 9/30/02 4:14:50 pm
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Bartman3010
The Only Savior of Ash Ketchum!
And he's making him look good!
(9/30/02 9:45 pm)
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Re: .
Just more graphics for me to rip for my massive Mario lib. Heheheh...
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