Obviously, as a remake, this is very similar to the first version. The graphics are incredibly alike the older version, the only difference being that the lines are finer on the small screen. The map screen, down to little things like a fish jumping up as you cross the bridge in Donut Plains, the second area.

Starting the game you will see Mario taking his first steps into Dinosaur Land as before but he is joined by his younger brother Luigi. That’s right, Luigi is playable in the single player mode. Using the R button on the map screen toggles the two plumbers and you can choose which one to play through the level with. Luigi does control differently and can jump further and stay in the air for longer than Mario. He is a bit more difficult to control though. Think SMB 2 for the different attributes.

The levels are almost identical but differences include the placement of the five Yoshi coins. Most of these are no longer in the same place and can be trickier to pick up. Having played the SNES version countless times I whizzed through the levels.

The characters appear to jump higher and run a little faster than before although that is likely to be an effect of the additional horizontal space. The L shoulder button can scroll the screen backwards and R is now used to spin jump.

I didn’t have headphones with me but the music for the levels appears to be the same. One nice addition is that instead of the little tune that plays when you die, Mario and Luigi call “Oh no, mama mia!”.