New Super Mario Bros. Game by Nintendo Reviewed by Philip Wesley Save: battery/3 Save Slots Released: 2006 Works with: Nintendo DS/DSi/3DS ESRB Rated: E Quick Opinion: Own **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Well, it appears that Bowser, and Bowser Jr. have kidnapped Princess Peach (Toadstool) once again. Thus the super pair of powered plumbers: Mario & Luigi are back in action! Okay. I guess I should skip the fancy paragraphs and jump right into the review. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Description: New Super Mario Bros. is a "modern" take on the original Super Mario Bros. style of game play. You go from left to right in a side scrolling level that may contain pits, water, enemies, coins, power up items, and a boss character that you need to jump on. Pretty simple to understand, right? You get to the end of each level and hit a flagpole which gives you points determined by how high you hit it. There are always a few interesting play quirks and variations of play style in every Super Mario Bros. game. The interesting thing about this game is that it is the first "traditional 2D" Super Mario. Bros game in a long time. The last Super Mario Bros. game to live up to that tradition would be Super Mario Land 2 on the Game Boy or Super Mario World (Super Mario Bros. 4) on the Super Nintendo. So, after so many 3D adventures and various spin offs, what does this "New" Super Mario Bros. bring to the equation? Here is the break down of features in New Super Mario Bros. Mario (Or Luigi with a specific "code") has the following moves. 1. Running with Momentum, which allows Mario or Luigi to duck and "slide" under some things. This also allows you to jump higher when you have more momentum behind you. 2. Ground Pounding. This allows Mario or Luigi to destroy blocks below them when they are anything other than "small." It is also the only way to do damage when "tiny." 3. Three new power-ups for Mario or Luigi to use. A Giant Mushroom which lets you be invincible and huge for a short period of time. When you run into enemies or blocks as Giant Mario, you fill up a damage gauge on the top of the screen that translates to prizes when the Giant Mushroom wears off. A Tiny Mushroom which shrinks you down to fit into tiny pipes and other areas. A Blue Speed Shell which allows you to move at high speeds. The Blue Speed Shell activates by running and then "sliding" to go faster. 4. The game uses a Super Mario Bros 3 style world map with 8 worlds, about 8 worlds each, secret exits, ghost houses, and mushroom houses. 5. You can cling to walls to wall jump, this is a pretty new skill for Mario that has translated over from the 3D titles. 6. There are multiple styles of coins to collect in the game. Each level has three large Star Coins which can be used to open up new areas or paths on the World Map. There are Blue Coins that only appear when you hit a P Switch and Red Coins that appear when you go through a Red Ring. If you collect 8 Red Rings, you get a prize. The levels are pretty straightforward, you explore the stage to find a flagpole or boss at the end of it. There are mid level flagpoles that allow you to continue from that point if you die. Pretty basic Mario gameplay when compared to previous entries in the series. The new items and skills are an interesting addition. There is also a two player "battle" style game that is worth checking out. Liked: The new power-ups allow some pretty unique gameplay experiences. The Tiny Mushroom is an amazing item and adds a great deal of challenge to the game. Hated: The game has a bit of a problem with difficulty otherwise. When you get hit as Fire Mario or Shell Mario, you get kicked back to Super Mario instead of becoming Small Mario like some previous games in the series. This makes the game a little easier than it should be at point. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: The game takes place from a side scrolling perspective and uses CGI-Rendered Artwork instead of sprites. While I am not a fan of this particular art style, it is still a great looking game, the backgrounds look good, the enemies look good, and the whole game has a "3D feel" to it through the graphics. I really like the animation of the enemies that tend to correspond with the music in each level. This is pretty slick and makes for a fun title visually. Liked: The "3D" feel to the game and the dancing enemies. Hated: Well, the CGI graphics feel a bit like Donkey Kong Country; but I feel they do not work as well in New Super Mario Bros. as they do in Donkey Kong Country. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: There are a few weird remixes of previous Super Mario Bros. music and a bevy of new tunes with a bouncy, light feel to them. The music is rather good, there are no real "stand out" tunes in the game but nothing annoying either. The sound effects are pretty excellent too and everything sounds solid. Liked: It works well and everything sounds good. Some of the songs are catchy. Hated: At no point did I feel the need to just stand still and listen to the music. There was nothing that really stood out, sadly. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: What makes or breaks a platform game is the physics of it. New Super Mario Bros. has great physics, the characters have "weight" to them. Tiny Mario lands slower than Normal Mario or Giant Mario due to the size difference between the two. The speed of descent is actually the same, but he covers less distance as he falls. This means you have better control over how you land. The speed of movement is based on momentum which is excellent. There are all sorts of things you can do to play around with the game engine. It is a bit of a shame that there are no speed run challenges or coin collection challenges as the game tends to lend itself to that style of play. The game design adds a few new power-ups to an already refined game engine. The game is a little on the easy side for platform veterans though and I feel that it may over too quickly for those of us who have cut our teeth on games like the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (Lost Levels) or the various mods of the original title. Liked: Tiny Mario is the best power-up ever. I mean, you can run on water and one hit kills you. You have to ground pound bosses to hurt them and it adds to the challenge immensely! The bottom screen of the DS is used to store game data and a second power-up in the same way you could store items in Super Mario World. This allows for strategic play. Nothing is more fun that decimating a boss with Giant Mario. or adding the the challenge of a level by holding onto a Tiny Mushroom. Hated: A little on the easy side. **************************************************************************** Improve: Maybe they should add Yoshi to the mix as well as adding more power-up items. Also, some sort of score attack challenges. RIYL: The Super Mario Bros. franchise. **************************************************************************** Final Words: Is New Super Mario Bros. a worthy successor to the last "real" Super Mario Bros. title: "Super Mario World" on the Super Nintendo? No. Is New Super Mario Bros. a worthy entry into the Super Mario Bros. series of games? Yes. Is this an immensely fun game that offers a lot of value and replayability for a lot of game players? Absolutely. Should you buy it if you are a fan of Super Mario Bros. games? It is required by law that you purchase this game. I enjoyed every moment of this game and -aside from the low difficulty at points- I found a lot of great platforming to complete. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: *** Sound/Music: *** Play Control/Game Design: ***** Value: ***** Star Total: 63% Personal Opinion Merit: 20% Final Score: 83% Letter Grade: A ****************************************************************************