You know that feeling when you open an old box and find a toy from your childhood? Well, that's exactly what happened to me the other day when I played Super Mario Crossover again.
That blessed Flash game that blew our minds at the time and, honestly, I don't know how Nintendo didn't immediately try to kill us for it. Spoiler alert: I played it again in 2025 and it's still an absolute gem.
For those who don't know it (really?), Super Mario Crossover was basically Super Mario Bros. but with surprise guests: Link, Samus, Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Bill from Contra. Yes, pure 8-bit icons smuggled into the worlds of Mario. The idea sounds crazy... but it worked like a charm.
The first thing that happened when I replayed it was that I couldn't help but start with Link. And that's when nostalgia hit me like a brick: that little jump, the sword that barely reaches the Goombas, the sound of the 8-bit sword... ugh. Suddenly,
World 1-1 felt harder, weirder, but fresh. Then I tried Samus, shooting in all directions, breaking blocks like it was nothing.
Then Simon, who is clumsy but has a whip that makes you feel like the master of the screen. Each character completely changes the pace of the game, and that's where the magic lies: it's the same old Mario, but at the same time it's a different game.
The best thing is that it's been carefully crafted. It's not just a simple “Mario skin dressed up as Mega Man.”
No, here each character has their own physics, speed, and limitations. Bill from Contra goes crazy shooting as if he were in the middle of a war, and Ryu can climb walls like a real ninja.
It's so faithful that it seems like they really took different NES cartridges and stuck them into the same code.
And mind you, replaying it also reminded me that this game could be chaotic. Because, of course, not all characters fit equally well into a classic Mario game.
Trying to jump platforms with Simon Belmont is suicide, because the guy falls like a sack of cement. And using Link in the water levels... well, get ready to suffer.
But that's precisely the charm: discovering how each character adapts (or doesn't) to the Mario universe.
Another thing that blew my mind again is that you could change the graphic style. Want to play the levels in NES mode? Done. Prefer a Super Mario All-Stars look? Go for it. Feel like doing everything in white and green Game Boy style? You got it.
At the time, that option seemed like a nice little detail, but now that I've replayed it, I feel like it's pure gold for those of us who love retro games. It's like having a crossover emulator in your browser.
And yes, I know that over the years the game lost visibility because Flash died and Nintendo surely set its sights on it. But bless Flashpoint Archive, because thanks to them we can still rescue it from oblivion.
Honestly, reopening it after so long reminded me why Flash games were crazy: because they were projects made with love and zero fear of lawsuits.
Is it perfect? Hell no. Sometimes the controls are clunky, there are bugs that make you laugh because they're so absurd, and the difficulty skyrockets depending on the character you use. But you know what? I don't give a damn.
Because when you're going through the castle in World 4 with Mega Man shooting the Koopas as if they were Dr. Wily's robots, nothing else matters. It's pure fun, the kind that needs no justification.
What stays with me most after replaying it is the feeling that this game was a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. Today, with companies guarding their licenses like diamonds,
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, SEE YOU
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