Video: See the Super Mario e-Reader Levels You Never Played in Super Mario Advance 4

I wish we had this pallet/sprite set available in Super Mario Maker.

Do the "e" coins do anything specific?

Actually, back when the e-cards were released, someone was able to created an e-card printer app that included these levels. You had to use premium paper with a decent printer. So I've played them.

hoo hoo! just what I needed!

Better still why not download the GBA version on WiiU eshop and play them for real? They're great fun. I'm enjoying them but some are insanely difficult

I managed to inject the custom save file to my GBA cart and I completed all 32 levels(missing only the classic and no time to dawdle) with all Advance and e coins. Some good stuff. Playing it on the SP was nice.

As a little note, the Wii U VC version is modded because instead of the levels being stored on the save file (max of 32), Nintendo moved the levels into the main game file. That's why they were able to add the classic levels and No Time To Dawdle.
Makes me wish there was a way to edit the game... this game is the mario game with more stuff available out of the box.

There are tons of examples of exclusive content being very rare like this. Hopefully Nintendo continues this and releases VC titles with the exclusive content.

I guess you could that these levels were puts on sunglasses just what we needed.

@FierceRagnar Considering you needed two gbas, the game, the card reader, and the cards, I can imagine why it failed

@Pink_Floyd Not really. They just serve as a collectible achievement which you can appreciate on the castle.

Is this the first game on Virtual Console to include previously eReader exclusive content?

Do you have to beat the main game to play these levels? These totally seem like something I'd like to try.

The levels remind me of some of the mean things people do in Super Mario Maker.

@WillTheLion Nope.

On the save file select screen, just go to the last option where it says 'Level Card' and you will enter world e with access to all the levels.

And worry not, these are quality levels. It's like an official attempt to make a mod of the game, as it feels like a ROMhack/mod with good level design.

@artofmana If i remember correctly, SMA4 was one of very few games to do anything with the e-reader at all, so don't expect many more games with e-reader content...

There were also pokémon cards (The cardgame) back then that had an e-reader strip around the edges that unlocked some mini-games, but those made "Snake" on your ancient Nokia look like "Game of the year"-material so the world wisely forgot about them, and now i reminded them again! >_<

@MysticX F-ZERO GP Legend (Japan version) had the e-Reader support. It had cards which allowed:

** Unlock machines (4 had to be unlocked using the Cards)
** Time Trial Ghosts (you can even watch the replay)
** New courses (save up to five).

Like SMA4, the cards store the data to make up the courses. They are not stored in the rom. It is possible to play these courses on the US / EU version, if you use a save with the tracks on and a cheat device to access them.

Shame Nintendo did bugger all when they released it on the Wii U Virtual Console. Heck, the Japanese WIi U VC version couldn't even unlock the 4 racers, despite the fact all they had to do was use a modified save.

So it was kind of a surprise when Nintendo announced they would release SMA4 with some of the e-Reader levels in. Shame they gave F-ZERO no love...

@FierceRagnar I don't see what's the problem there. Due to the nature of this thing back then, they just really needed to leave in the base game the exclusive items and enemies.

Since the game advertises itself as a SMB3 port, there's no place in-game to use the special items. (One might as well call some items and enemies unused since no level card implemented them)

The level cards are just an assortment of level data which tells the game how to draw the terrain using the already coded game objects, so the levels itself are not 'disc' locked.

@RadioShadow Wow, that sucks to hear.

Though I doubt they would have provided a modded save files, but I don't see why they didn't bother to implement the e reader content into the core game, like they did here.

In practice, GBA games are one of the easiest to mod and expand the ROM.

@FierceRagnar Actually, turns out the items would been able to be used in the main game by scanning the power up cards and the switch cards, but surprise surprise, the e reader failed before such cards were released, so yeah...

But I don't see the problem on being disc locked because at this time, there was no way to patch a game in order to add new content (But I agree it would have been nice to unlock them) and this is no scenario like what capcom or EA has done

I did not realize that they forced in an annoying Mario voice that chimes in with every power-up in that version.

@Gridatttack Thank you for the replay I appreciate it.

There's more innovation in those 30-something levels than a decade's worth of ''New'' Super Mario Bros...

My e-reader stopped working like 2-3 weeks after importing XD I still have the cards but I lost the device itself while moving to a different place.
It wasn't as robust and hassle free as amiibo (cards) are now But it felt really futuristic n_n I loved scanning in my Pokemon-e cards ....but scanning 5 different cards to just play NES Donkey Kong was a bit too much haha

I'm a sucker for peripherals and gimmicks

BTW was the E-reader Japan exclusive? I thought mine was American? I had English/US e-cards.

@AyeHaley Nope, definitely not exclusive to Japan. I still have mine (in the US). I had no idea it was never released in the UK. So I was confused by how he said "individuals of the importing nature" - and also how he said it was wildly unpopular. I knew it wasn't a big hit, but it wasn't like the Virtual Boy or anything (which I also still have, and love to play).

The video is also posted on this site (and YouTube), separately from this article as "The Super Mario Game You Never Played - Super Mario..." and the title gets cut off there because it's so long. Since I saw that before this article, I was expecting to see a video with something I actually hadn't played - like Super Mario's Wacky Worlds for Sony's Philips CD-i. An excellent game that was never finished, but another great Mario game (despite what some people say), Hotel Mario, was released for that system in 1994.