For the longest time I thought All Stars + World was just a romhack or bootleg. I never realized it was actually an officially released cartridge.
So did I! It's a massive amount of value in a single cartridge – definitely a must-buy if you were a latecomer to the SNES. You'd be getting hours and hours and hours of the best platform games ever made up to that point with the push of a button! The title screen being a simple edit of the original game's doesn't exactly scream "Nintendo Seal of Quality", either, but, well, it was still dandy at the time. THAT SAID:
What's wrong with the All Stars version of those?
The All-Stars versions of SMB1 and LL have
an infamous bug that impacts the way your character bounces after hitting a block. Essentially:
Instead of
bouncing down and pushing forward off a brick (as in the originals), Mario gets
pulled up, then drops down, eliminating accrued momentum. This completely changes the rhythm of both games, making them much more challenging (and unfair) than the originals, especially in later worlds. Several different patches exist to correct this issue, but on original hardware it'll always be there.
Also, the All-Stars version of SMBLL significantly changes the original's "completion" condition, gives you more lives to start with, removes checkpoints in certain levels, and
a whole bunch of other stuff. It's essentially a simplified ROM hack of the original, and, as such, you're getting a lesser experience by playing it.
I actually prefer the nes version of SMB2. It feels trippier. I don't like the way they made it look so similar to the other games in All Stars.
Fair enough! I actually really like the redone graphics, but it's pretty much dealer's choice with 2USA – no changes were made to the game, and both versions are the same in terms of bugginess. (Nothing was fixed from the original.) Just don't go with the GBA version – it's nostalgic to me, but there's screen crunch, an awful colour palette, and waaaaay too many new hearts added in, making the game far too easy to be all that fun.