More Mario is on the way. Nintendo announced last night that the first three games in the Super Mario Advance series, a line of Mario remakes released for the Game Boy Advance in the early ’00s, will be coming to their Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service on May 25. Like with other Game Boy Advance games, they will only be available to members who have purchased the Expansion Pack, which requires an additional payment on top of the base Nintendo Switch Online membership fee.
The three games are all remakes of NES and SNES-era Mario platformers with enhanced graphics and some light gameplay changes. They are remakes of Super Mario Bros. 2 (the US version), Super Mario World, and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, respectively, and are joining Super Mario Advance 4, a remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 which was already added to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in February. Additionally, all four games include a remade version of the arcade game Mario Bros., with the Nintendo Switch Online versions of these games adding online multiplayer to the mode.
While differences between these versions and their original releases are largely minor, there are a few noteworthy ones. Super Mario Advance adds very light (and very bitcrushed) voice acting to some of its boss and miniboss encounters, Super Mario Advance 2 adds the ability to play any level as Luigi, with altered physics to boot, and Super Mario Advance 3 adds a small selection of brand-new “secret stages.”