There is a new turtle who wears a football helmet and cannot be destroyed. The piranha flowers now jump out of the pipes. Other characters have evolved into new creatures. The mushrooms increase Mario's size, the flowers give him firepower, the stars make him invincible for a short time and the power block converts bricks to coins. Many of the characters and items from the earlier SMB games are back for an encore in SMB 4.
This being the SUPER Famicom, one would expect to see some amazing things being done in the game and that is putting it mildly! Remember Bullet Bill from the previous games? He has grown up and is now huge, about one-third the height of the screen! In other levels gigantic cylinder shaped rocks, as tall as the screen, drop down from the ceiling without warning. After finding out who their enemies are, Luigi and Mario go on a quest to defeat them and save the princess. They come across a giant egg in the forest that hatches and gives birth to Yoshi. The plot follows the two brothers in their vacation on Dinosaur Land, but in this time Pricess Toadstool disappears and Luigi and Mario go to save her. Yoshi, a dinosaur companion that featured in the following releases as well was first introduced in this version. However, the player can’t control the characters in the same time and they will have to take turns in this multiplayer option. In this release the multiplayer option is available too, allowing two players to cooperate in the game. Each stage has its own boss that needs to be defeated in order for the player to progress.
The player has to complete stages to progress through the overworld map. There are in total two game screens: an overworld map, which displays an overhead presentation of the current world, and a level playfield. In this game the player can also float with the help of special items and also execute jumps such as the spin jump. The player controls Mario or Luigi from a third-person perspective and shares the same gameplay as in the previous Mario games, although this version has new elements.
Later on the game was re-released three times, with Super Mario All-Stars for SNES in 1994, Super Mario Advance for Game Boy Advance and for Wii’s Virtual Console in 2007.