New Super Mario Bros. – Review

Every gamer knows—and likely has fond memories—of Mario; the little heroic Italian plumber has appeared across various gaming formats for over two decades, and he’s now leaping onto the Nintendo DS for his latest adventure. Unlike Super Mario 64 DS, New Super Mario Bros. remains true to its retro roots. When you begin the game you’re thrown right in at the deep end; this is what true gaming is all about, there’s no fancy convoluted story, no mission briefing, just a short intro serves as all the explanation that’s required.

Gameplay consists of all those things that Mario gamers have come to love; it’s a side-scrolling 2D platform adventure, with a little parallax scrolling thrown in for good measure. Where this game differs from its retro history, is that the characters are now beautifully animated in 3D, which is certainly a nice touch. Of course, there’s still plenty of running along while hitting blocks, collecting coins, and jumping on enemies, to be enjoyed—just as in previous Mario Bros. titles. It was fun back then and it’s still fun now. The game’s power-ups consist of the usual super mushroom that makes Mario larger or smaller, and also the fire flower that allows Mario to hurl fireballs; whereas new power-ups include a large mushroom that makes Mario grow to gargantuan proportions as ‘Mega Mario’, which enables him to pound his way through a level, and there’s also a mini-mushroom that shrinks Mario, enabling him to reach small areas and even run on water (Jesus jokes aside). One of the cutest power-up additions has to be the ‘Shell Mario’, which is a blue shell that Mario can hide in tortoise-style while trundling along with it on his back like Koopa and causing mayhem.

Movement is simple, the directional pad is used to run, and there’s a jump/swim button, and dash button. You can also perform super jumps and then press down on the directional pad to execute a butt stomp atop of destructible blocks waiting below. In the main, all the controls feel fairly tight and precise, which is reassuring. At the beginning of the game everything from gameplay to control mechanics seems eerily familiar but, as you progress, there are fresh elements galore that really breathe new life into this wonderful retro outing.

To put is succinctly, the graphics in New Super Mario Bros. are gorgeous. The main action takes place on the top DS screen—as expected—with the bottom screen acting as an information area that shows how far through a level you are, your score, as well as being, of course, where the touch screen is utilised to tap handy power-ups that fall from the sky on top of Mario. The clever use of parallax 2D backgrounds and full 3D character models really brings the game to life; it’s luscious, colorful, and well animated, and the environments are also gorgeous and thoroughly well detailed.

As with the game’s visuals performance, sound in New Super Mario Bros. can’t really be faulted; it somehow manages to gel the welcoming old retro sounds and music with an updated and funky vibe. Although many of the tunes are familiar, they’ve been given a little polish and it’s great to have the resultant familiarity running hand in hand with the updated sound. New tunes and effects are also superb and tap into an overall feeling of funk. It all sounds excellent and you can’t help but smile when Mario says “Let’s a go!” or you hear the familiar ‘ching’ of coins. Deaf and hard-of-hearing gamers will have no problems playing New Super Mario Bros., as this is simply arcade fun at its finest without the need for convoluted plot lines and layered narrative. The only thing they may miss out on is a sweet little touch that arrives in the form of enemies getting down to the musical beat on certain levels—cute.

New Super Mario Bros. not only features a superb single-player experience, it also packs in a little multiplayer fun as well. In Mario vs. Luigi players are pitted against one another in a race to grab as many randomly placed stars as possible. This can be played in both multi-card or single card play; meaning that if a friend doesn’t yet have a copy of New Super Mario Bros. you can download the mini-games straight to their waiting DS and get chasing those stars. Still not sated? Well, that’s no problem, as there are also multiplayer mini-games to be enjoyed too. There are two types of mini-game on offer: vs. Battle and 1 Player. These can be played by 1 to 4 players in multi and single card mode, and they’re essentially reworked versions of those seen in Super Mario 64 DS, which is a bit of a shame, but they still provide a lot of extra fun.

Sorry female gamers, but of course this is a Mario Bros. game, and therefore you play as Mario throughout. There’s no option to play as Princess Peach, and she is, of course, the prerequisite damsel in distress who’s whisked away by big bad Bowser at the game’s beginning. Given that New Super Mario Bros. is essentially an old retro classic updated with shiny graphics and sound, this is fairly forgivable; after all, we’ve had Princess Peach starring in her own DS title recently, and although Nintendo screwed up big time with its pervy masturbation DS advert a while back, it’s since managed to release adverts that are either genderless (Tetris DS) or feature girl gamers (Animal Crossing). At least it appears Nintendo are now truly trying to involve both genders into gaming, and that not everything game related is automatically thought of as merely ‘for the boys’.

Overall, if you own a DS then you really should add New Super Mario Bros. to your games collection. If you don’t yet own a DS then why not go out and treat yourself to one and purchase New Super Mario Bros. at the same time (you can even snap up the new sexier DS Lite). The Nintendo DS is an astounding little games machine and it has been responsible—in just a short period of time—for some of the most innovative and fun titles ever seen on a gaming handheld. New Super Mario Bros. successfully proves itself as yet another class addition to an already outstanding library, and also manages to bring new flare to an old favorite. The downside—what little there is—is a two prong affair: experienced gamers may well fly through the action in a matter of hours, while those with less experience may find certain levels to be highly frustrating (some of it really can be). Either way there’s still plenty to do in terms of going back and collecting every possible thing and also playing through the multiplayer games, it’s just a shame they’re the same as those first seen on Super Mario 64 DS. However, little gripes aside, if you are a fan of the ‘Marioverse’, you won’t be disappointed with New Super Mario Bros., and if you’re not a fan, then prepare to be converted.

Review by Angela

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