New Super Mario Bros.

"The new old-school"

I often herald Super Mario All-Stars as my absolute favorite game ever made. Granted, Mario All-Stars is just a compilation of all previous Super Mario games, but that little SNES cartridge encapsulates the peak of creativity and fun. No video game before or since even comes close. Not even Mario's jump into 3D has found that same level of joy. So New Super Mario Bros. is actually a very important release. It marks Mario's first original 2D adventure since Super Mario World ten years ago. That's a long time without a Mario...

Graphics:
On the DS, our plumber friend looks much different than he did before. All previous Mario games were drawn in sprites. While most of the backgrounds, bricks, and pipes retain the same look, Mario and friends have turned into full 3D models. As such, there is a certain amount of charm which is lost, but this new rendering allows Mario to be more expressive and animated. Don't be fooled by the screenshots, either. This game looks really slick in motion. Besides, halfway through the game, the new 3D becomes very comfortable.

The DS hardware also lends to interesting uses of old 2D gameplay by being able to easily bend and warp parts of the level in real-time. The developers really got a kick out of messing around with the mushroom platforms, making them expand, shrink, tilt, and rotate in ways sprites wouldn't have been able to pull off nearly as well. However, the DS's second screen isn't put to much use. It features a line and a picture of Mario's head to show where the player is in any given level. It may seem like a nice asset to gauge how close you are to the exit, but I always enjoyed not knowing how much of the level was left.

Sound:
Alongside the graphics, Mario's aural quality also received a makeover. The composer of every prior Mario game, Koji Kondo, isn't credited for scoring New Super Mario Bros. The game still features a lot of recognizable tunes from past Mario games, but there's plenty of new music... most of which isn't very exciting. You won't find anything comparable to those darn catchy melodies from Super Mario Bros. 3, but the new overworld theme definitely fits the Mario universe perfectly. Mario himself still has his voice, too, but it isn't overused and overkilled like it was in the Super Mario Advance games. The inclusion of just about every classic Mario sound effect is also appreciated.

Gameplay:
And that's what New Super Mario Bros. is all about, really: nostalgia. Fans of the Mario games will feel right at home as soon as World 1-1 starts up. Levels are back in linear form with all the mushrooms, fire flowers, goombas, koopas, coin blocks, and underground pipes you remember so well. There's even a flagpole at the end of each level! It's instantly recognizable how to play, and it's a lot of fun to see Mario running through familiar territory again. But don't think this is just a prettied-up version of an older Mario game. This is New Super Mario. No level feels like a retread, although a lot of elements from previous games make it in here, like the climbable cages and movable trampolines from Super Mario World.

Unfortunately, New Super Mario Bros. tries to be too much like Super Mario Bros. 1. That's not necessarily bad, but it also means the power-ups from Mario 3 and World are nowhere to be seen. No Yoshi. No feather cape. No raccoon suit. The game is slimmed down to the very basics: mushrooms and fire flowers. It's crazy how much fun you can have with just those available to you. I was just really hoping for something more. But New Super Mario Bros. does introduce a few new tricks of its own. Mario now has access to a mega mushroom and a mini mushroom, power-ups that make Mario super big or super small, respectively. The mini mushroom comes in handy a lot as a way to uncover secret tunnels and pipes normal Mario can't fit through. While secrets don't seem as plentiful as they did in Super Mario Bros. 3 (what with all those whistles and bouncy music notes), there are still a lot of surprises.

Controls:
Another change comes in the form of new moves for Mario. He can now wall jump and butt stomp a la Super Mario 64. The wall jump is a very practical addition and makes for some interesting puzzles later on in the game. It also serves as a last-second maneuver to save yourself from falling in a bottomless pit. However, the butt stomp is kind of a cheap move. Before, you had to be creative with your turtle shells to break open certain bricks. Here, normal-sized Mario can break them with his butt. This trick isn't always useful, though. If an item was in the brick you just stomped, it wall fall out the bottom and sometimes land in a pit. This also applies to hidden vines, so you do have to be a little careful how you use Mario's new skills.

Frustration:
However, New Super Mario Bros. allows a lot of carelessness. Every level has a halfway checkpoint, and extra lives are quite plentiful. Overall, the game is actually kind of easy, even though I lost a lot of 1-ups on the way. But you should take into consideration that I'm saying this as someone who has beaten Super Mario World 15+ times. It's also important to remember that Mario games have always been light and easy. Yeah, Super Mario World's bonus stages were a pain in the neck, and Super Mario Bros. 2 had some killer boss battles. But that was ten years ago! Mario veterans have since grown used to these challenges. There's not much more you can do before you start excluding those who haven't grown up on Mario. This game was meant to be simple and easy to pick up (as all Mario games are), but there's just enough challenge present for those who want it (in the shape of speed runs, high scores, etc.).

Lasting Appeal:
Yet in the end, this game's difficulty isn't as important as its fun factor. Mario games are always brilliantly designed in such a way that you can play them 100 times and never get tired of it. Now, some may complain that New Super Mario Bros. is too short, but I remember having to beat Mario 1, 2, and 3 in one sitting because of the inability to save. New Super Mario Bros. will actually only take two or three days to reach the end, but there are still a lot of secrets to uncover. Each level contains three hidden coins, and these coins can be used to open up mushroom houses or alternate paths on the world maps.

On top of the adventure, New Super Mario Bros. also features an amusing multiplayer mode. Versus mode pits two players against each other in a race to find the most stars. Head stomping and hilarity ensue. It's actually one of the better multiplayer implementations in a Mario game. It's not nearly as frantic as the battle mode in Super Mario All-Stars, but you should get a kick out of it anyway. There are also a handful of mini-games for 4-player download play. Regrettably, these mini-games are just recycled from Super Mario 64 DS. They were interesting a year ago but feel pretty lame included here, even with the addition of three more players.

Overall:
As a huge fan and guru of old-school 2D platforming, I don't think Nintendo could have released a new Super Mario which would have precisely met my expectations. I mean, it's Mario! This guy is the epitome of classic gaming. But let's face the truth: that old-school magic will never come back. It's nothing new to us now. I'm glad Nintendo went ahead and tried it anyway, though. New Super Mario Bros. probably won't go down in history as anything more than a two-month bestseller for the Nintendo DS, but it's a fun and nostalgic experience that any handheld owner needs to have. In fact, I actually like this game more than I like Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2. And any game that can be better than those two is... well... pretty darn good.

Points:
+ It's a new Mario game!
+ Instantly nostalgic
+ Simple but challenging... and fun!
+ Mildly amusing multiplayer
-- Recycled (and stupid) mini-games
-- Based too heavily on Super Mario Bros. 1

Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/06