Against what I thought would be impossible odds (I never did preorder), I was able to secure a copy of Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition, and at Wal-Mart of all places. This was a game I originally intended to get at GameStop but I figured I'd try my luck elsewhere first.I absolutely LOVE the packaging of this collection. The red box with the 8-bit Mario at the top just looks so cool to me. Simple but very effective. The Super Mario History Booklet comes with art (some unpublished) and notes from Shigeru Miyamato, Koji Kondo and Takashi Tezuka. You'll breeze through it in a couple of minutes, but it's still nice to look through, nonetheless. The Super Mario History Sound Track CD unfortunately isn't really anything to get excited about. There are only 20 tracks and half of those tracks are jingles and sound effects. Compared to the soundtrack that was released for the 20th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. five years ago, this is a huge let down.
Some fans are viewing this collection as a total rip off. I mean, one could easily download the NES versions on the Virtual Console for a combined total of $21, where as this limited edition compilation costs $30. Of course you do get some decent extras and these are updated versions of classic platformers. Yeah, I already own them on the SNES cart, but the collector in me just couldn't pass this up. This is hardly the first time I've dropped down money for games I already own on a different system and it won't be the last. All told, I'm very satisfied with my purchase.
Screen from IGN and Super Mario Wiki.