"Oh, mario, how you've aged...."

"Oh, mario, how you've aged..."

With the exception of Paper Mario, I've played every single mario game from the old mario bros. on the old NES to mario pinball on gameboy advance. I have always had a great time because over the years, the Nintendo corperation would find new, innovative ways to tweak the mario's gameplay to keep things fresh and interesting. I appreciated that, even though I loved the 2-D games (in particular Mario World, since that was the first mario game I've ever played). I played Mario 64, even though I never really got into the collect-everything-you-see craze that was going on during the 64 era. Now, 13 years later, Nintendo decides to bring mario back to the 2-D platform era with the New Super Mario Bros. and remixes with some of the best aspects of the previous mario games. However, all is not well in Mushroom Kingdom and what you enjoyed 13 years ago, you will NOT enjoy it here....for the most part, anyways.

Story:
5/10
Baby Bowser from Mario Sunshine makes an appearance as the main villain in New Super Mario Bros. as he kidnaps Peach, and it's up to Mario and Luigi to save here. Basically, throughout the whole game, you'll travel through world by world chasing baby bowser as he runs from castle to castle. Not exactly the most intriguing story, but it's a mario game, so whatever. The game could've been spiced up with some more story dialogue.

Graphics:
9/10
The graphics in this game are just plain gorgeous. It has the perfect mix of 2-D and 3-D and everything looks so clean, detailed, colorful, and vibrant. When you jump into the water, you actually see the water splash around you, and the background looks well-drawn. Mario better than he did in Mario 64 and his fireballs look crisp and fiery. But as good-looking as everything is in this game, it's like looking at the generic handsome person with perfect skin...sure everything looks great, but lacks an interesting spark that sparks the imaginations and fires up the soul.

Sound:
10/10
The sound is probably the part I love most about this game. Just listen to cool little cla-clink sound as Baby Bowser dives into his shell or the huge CLUNK sound the Thumps make as they make a dive towards your head. The guys at nintendo did a really great job in the sound department.

Soundtrack/Music:
6/10
Okay, okay, the music is actually pretty good in this game. Hold your socks for the castle theme song, because it'll blow 'em off. Even the music for the first level is pretty good and memorable, unfortunately, they take that track and they apply it to 90% of the other levels in this game (the only time they DON'T play that track is when you're in an underground, underwater, or sky level), other than that, you're stuck with that same track level after level. It's not a bad song by any means, but would it have killed Nintendo to have come out with some more original music? We are paying something like 30 dollars for this game, and some levels do justify a new track (like the water levels in World 4). The soundtrack is very important because it helps make a level more memorable and players tend to remember/identify a level by its theme song (I still remember the world 1 music for Mario World and the mystery cave music in world 3...we need more of that!). Also, I know this game stole bits and pieces from all of the previous games, but for the boss music, did you have to blatantly rip that off from Mario 3? Yeah, you remixed it a bit and the GFX is little more bubbly, but come on nintendo, this is a new game. And a new game should have new music.

Gameplay:
7/10
Mario handles just fine, he moves where he's supposed to go, and he shoots when he supposed to shoot. Mario also has a slew of new abilities that were in previous games like the ground pound and the wall hop as well as new powerups like the Giant Mushroom (that lets you fill up the entire screen and squish baddies and knock pipes out of the way) and the blue shell (turns you into a koopa troopa and if you run really fast for a little bit, think how mario would run in mario 3 for get the racoon tail wagging, you'd dive into the shell become invincible for a little bit and knock everything out that's in your path). Those things are interesting novelties, but that's all they are, interesting novelties and they really don't contribute to the gameplay as much as the racoon tail or the superhero cape did (btw, those were better powerups). Another thing, THIS GAME IS TOO EASY!!! I completed this game in 2 days after 4 hours. The problem is that the levels are too short and they're way too easy. The level of difficulty doesn't really increase after the first world (I was in world 7 and the levels are almost just as easy as world one's), and they keep throwing baby bowser at you in the mini-fortress. His attacks don't really change until world 6, but when once you've beaten him once, there isn't a whole lot of change in your battles with him later on. One thing I'll mention though, is that the reference to Big Bowser in the World 1 and World 8 was a cool way to begin and end the series.

Replayibility:
Once you've beaten it, there's really no point in going back except if you want to go get the secrets (there's really no point in doing that either btw). Mario World and Mario 3 are simply more fun to play because you can fly, the levels are designs are better/more variety, bosses have different moves, and the challenge level is better.

Overall Value:
To tell you the truth, I had more fun playing Mario Land 1, 2, and (definitely!) 3 (wario's first game!! FUN FUN FUN!). Maybe it was because those games had a lot more focus on level design and the platforming aspect. And those games had you going to strange, but fun interactive levels (a burning coal mine, a haunted forest, a giant pig statue, space, a giant turtle submarine) and you could tell that you were in those levels, because the baddies and the obstacles in those levels made it clear to you that you were playing in a new environment. Unfortunately, every level you play in New Super Mario is so generic and you can tell not a whole lot of creativity was put into the graphics, levels and gameplay. You can definitely tell that Nintendo were too busy worrying about the bells and whistles in this game, that they completely forgot about what made a game fun.....QUIRKY, INTERESTING LEVELS!!!!!!

The Good -
-A good intro game for beginners
-The sound in this game is incredible!
-Lots of secrets in the game

The Bad -
-The soundtrack has only 4-5 basic soundtracks, and one of them, is played 90% of the time.
-You can skip 2 whole worlds (no game should let you do that!)
-Doesn't bring back nostalgic mario memories like it should
-The original gameboy mario games were far more superior.

The Ugly -
-This game is DIGUSTINGLY easy!! A turnoff for mario veterans everywhere!
-Too short! You can beat this game in 3 hours - easily!

Final Comments:
So after 1 week of owning this game, I have nothing left to do, but to replay the whole thing and its given me virtually no pleasure. If you want a good, fun mario game, I'd recommend that you pull out your gameboy advance or dust off your original gameboy and search the bargin bins for Mario Land 2 or Mario Land 3, those were fun games that would instantly have you addicted. The worlds in those games are so immersive and they instantly suck you in, sparking the old mario magic. The New Super Mario Bros. will NOT do that for you, it's a shallow, superficial clone of its previous precessors, and if this is how future 2-D mario games are going to be, then I wouldn't ever buy one again. At most rent this game, but DO NOT BUY!!!

So rent, don't buy?
Yes! A big empathetic YES!! 35 bucks is already a lot to fork out for a gameboy game, and you will regret this purchase. I know I did. This mario game is a slap in the face to the previous mario franchises, and you'll be just as happy not playing this game than you were playing it....no wait, scratch that, you'll be HAPPIER not playing this game because at least you won't feel guilty about spending your hard-earned money on a game that will only last 3 hours.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/06