"Mario's return! Free mushrooms for all (terms and conditions apply)!"

New Super Mario Bros.

‘What!? What's that you say? Something's amiss in the Mushroom Kingdom?'
‘Yes, I'm afraid so! Fear ye not! For our mustached crusader has hearkened to return our Princess to her people!'
‘And I'm sure that spiky-shelled spinning top Bowser is to blame yet again!'
‘Nay, it is not so. But we must not look far from the fiend to find the source of our latest woes. It is Bowser Jr. who hath wrecked havoc upon this once peaceful kingdom.'
‘Our hopes now lie with Mario! He has yet to let us down. A hero he has been and a hero he shall be once more…'

The drought is over. Rejoice as the cool rain nourishes our crops! After years of waiting a new Mario platformer has finally descended from the heavens. New Super Mario Bros. is the name of the latest side-scrolling sensation to have graced our DSs. It's been a long wait but it's certainly been worth it.

From the moment you slot that small, rectangular card into your DS (or DS Lite as it may be) you'll be hooked! From the classic music to the spiffy new graphics, this game has got it all!

While Mario and the Princess are out on a walk they spot a great commotion at the castle. Overalls and moustache blur as our hero rushes to the smoke engulfing the building. Yet as soon as he disappears Bowser Jr. whisks away the Princess which can only mean one thing! Mario is off on another adventure through the sunny plains, watery depths, fiery towers, dank caverns, snowy mountains, sandy deserts and whatever else may lie in his path to save Peach.

The story may fail to achieve any Toadstall Awards but at least our favorite plumber has a chance to go frolicking over 8 islands to complete his noble quest.

This game is a marvel to play, taking the best from Mario's Bowser-thwarting 2D days and the best from his Bowser-thwarting 3D days (yeah, not much has changed) and packed it into a snazzy hybrid 2D/3D(2.5D) side-scroller. By hybrid I mean that the main character/enemy models are in 3D while the backgrounds and levels are 2D sprites.

In other words take your classic Mario platformer, add ground-pounding, triple-jumping and wall-jumping from Super Mario 64, slap a ‘New' to the title and you've got one marvel of a game. Well, it's not as simple as that but you get the idea. To win a level get to the end and jump on the flag pole!

These new moves add tons to the depth of the game. Instead of limiting Mario to jumping and running, the Mustache now has much more ways to wreck havoc and maneuver the levels. These add to the challenge of the game and make unlockables and secrets require a wider range of skills to acquire.

With that said the move list isn't the only thing that has expanded. This game offers three new items into the mix. Plain old red and green polka dotted mushrooms are not enough for Mario! For those of you under a rock (come out, we won't bite!) red mushrooms turn Mario Super and green mushrooms give you an extra live. Let's not forget the flowers. They're much too chilly for Mario to handle so they cause him to shoot fireballs from his hands. Don't judge Mario too harshly! He has to get rid of the fiery pain somehow and water just makes the flower grow. His snack list has now expanded to include tiny blue mushrooms (mini-Mushrooms) that turns him teeny as well as a huge orange mushroom (mega-Mushrooms) that turns Mario into a giant.

That's not it of course. I did say three new items, didn't I? Mario can also find Blue Shells that turn him into a Koopa. Well, not really, it just makes him look like a poser. Quite sad really. Poor Mario, he got jealous after years of seeing Koopas spinning all over the place (as a result of his bullying, I must admit). He just wanted to fit in with the crowd! These Blue Shells are really fun. Run fast enough and Mario will start spinning like the best of them! He'll knock down any enemy that gets in his way (well, not all enemies). Also, anything breakable will smash although it repels Mario in the opposite direction.

Teeny Mario is the same as normal Mario, 1 hit and he's out, so be careful. On the plus side gravity doesn't seem to have much of an effect on Teeny giving Mario longer airtime to bust out those tricks. He can also enter those tiny pipes. If you ever see a small pipe that you can't fit into (we all have) just take a bite of the first blue mushroom you see! You'll slide through just fine.

Those orange mushrooms however, are not to be taken lightly; they contain tons of calories causing Mario to inflate like a balloon. Our stubborn hero is not one to complain however! He knows that obesity is unhealthy so he'll just squash everything in his way, enemies, blocks and pipes included, to burn of all that excess fat. Couple that with Mario's super-fast metabolism and those mushrooms don't last too long…

So, now we have new moves and new items. The depth of this game compared to previous entries, the ones with cobwebs covering the surface (it's been that long!), has improved out of sight. Seriously, you'll be surprised how often you need a mini-Mushroom to access certain areas in levels. The depth adds tons to the individual replayability of many levels as you'll often have to play them again (with the correct items) to get everywhere.

All the favorite enemies we love to kill have returned in full force, Goombas, Koopas, Cheep-Cheeps, Pokeys, Piranha Plants, etc! They're all back and roaring to make Mario's adventure as irksome as possible. Aren't they sweet? No? Yes? Maybe? Well folks, that's not all! Our favorite developers have gone the extra mile and added tons of new enemies for Mario to bounce and stomp. From Splunkins, those adorable walking pumpkins to those tank-like Broozers, pumped-up ghosts trained to box. Yep, those boxes they make are sure to store all the mushrooms Mario needs! Wait... Whoops! Silly me... This is quite embarrassing. Apparently Broozers box as in throwing punches, not making cardboard rectangles.

Each level has three Star Coins to acquire. These are the unlockables of the game. Most can be acquired without too much sweat however some are cunningly hidden or require special items to acquire. Collecting these coins makes up most of the playtime of the game. Without these to fall back on the game will be over in the blink of a Goomba.

There are also secret exits scattered around the place for players to find. These secret exits are differentiated by red flag poles. Jump on one and an extra path will open up on the map. To find all the Star Coins and secret exits players must search each level thoroughly. Look hard! Some can be really irksome to find. Nevertheless these two aspects add the most to the game. They add heaps to the experience and are easily the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of the adventure.

Mario, still too poor to afford a helicopter to fly to Bowser's castle with nothing but Lakitus blocking the sun, has to get from level to level. How does he do this, friends? This game builds up upon the SMB3/SMW formula. That's right, Mario must trek an over-world map to get from level to level. Mario isn't complaining though! He can revisit the levels he already won when he grows weary of his quest to save the Princess.

‘Meh, I'm sure Bowser Jr. won't mind if I take a day or ten extra to save Peach! I feel like replaying Level 5-2! That was fun!' I tried to sway him, ‘Mario! We must hurry! The Kingdom is suffering without the Princess!' But he just shrugged and said ‘I'm the hero here, not you! I decide when things get done.'

There isn't one huge map however. The game is separated into 8 worlds, each with a different theme, which Mario must progress through to save Peach. Each world contains at least one Tower and a Castle. The Towers are basically the midway point of a world at which Mario must fight Bowser Jr. to advance. No flags poles here folks! It's quite a shame that the Bowser Jr. fights aren't distinctly different. There are basically two variations in the Jr. vs. Mario fights. One variation is pounding the living hell out of our young assailant. The other is using a green Koopa shell to ground the delinquent before… POUNDING HIM! Yeah, not much variety…

The Castles on the other hand, are only slightly better. To advance to the next world a player must complete the Castle level. Like the Towers each Castle has a boss at the end. The Castle bosses are not Bowser Jr. however. Each world features a different boss fight. While all unique there is virtually no challenge when fighting these bosses. The boss fights, from start to finish, do not require much effort. Of course Mario has never been about the boss fights but come on! It would have been nice to have some challenge at the end of a world!

Castles and Towers aren't the only special attraction. Toadsworth makes a cameo in this game. Spread about the worlds are Toad Houses. Spending your hard-earned Star Coins to access these areas is a pretty fair deal especially when you get an opportunity to save each time you spend coins. There are a few varieties of Toad Houses. You will usually receive items and lives from these houses.

New Super Mario Bros. is without a doubt the finest looking 2D side-scroller the Mario factory has ever produced (‘Ouch! Stop poking me Luigi! I don't care if you feel left out! Crying isn't going to change anything!'). The 2.5D design of New Super Mario Bros. and the stronger processing power of the DS provide crisp, sharp visuals. The 3D character/enemy models look superb. Mario looks better than ever. His moves and animations are greatly improved. The running animation, for example, when compared to previous games is superb. The smoothness of the animations is unmatched.

Not all models are 3D. All the bosses such as Bowser Jr. are 3D as well as a few of the enemies. However the more basic enemies remain as 2D sprites.

The level sprites and backgrounds are also, for the most part, 2D. However they look absolutely brilliant. The colors are vibrant, there is a lot of variety (in some levels) and the level design is outstanding. These levels are leaps ahead of anything ever shown in a previous Mario game. The backgrounds layers are highly detailed adding visually and stopping the game from having a simplistic, tiled appearance.

Who can ever forget that classic Mario tune! You know the one I'm talking about! (‘I don't know.' ‘That's it Luigi! No more pizza!' ‘Awww…'). This game, like previous Mario entries won't disappoint. The tunes are a nice mix of the glorious old and vibrant new. It's quite easy to get into the tunes and start humming along. Heck, even the enemies agree (‘Luigi doesn't agree.')! Play a level and you'll see the enemies shake to the music. It's doesn't add much to the game but it's nice to see the developers put so much care and detail into the game. Mario has some more catchphrases to make you chuckle. (‘Thank you very… Uhh, line…' ‘Luigi, stop living through Mario. It's sad.').

The best thing about a Mario side-scroller is that no matter how long you play you'll never get bored. This game is no different. The actual adventure may not last you very long. If you're hell bent on winning it as fast as you can the adventure may be over in a day. However if you take your time and enjoy each level the first time through then I guarantee you will get much more out of the experience. There's always time to come back and rush through each level (the fun, reckless way!) however it's best to soak as much as you can from the game. Once you finish the adventure it's time to collect any remaining Star Coins and find all the secret exits in the game. Once you do everything you'll earn yourself three shiny stars next to your save slot. Beat that!

New Super Mario Bros. is not all that different from previous games. Nintendo basically took the same old formula, added some whizzes and bangs as well as new items and moves. However Mario platformers were amazing before Nintendo modernized them with New Super Mario Bros. These additions take a working, excellent formula and add depth and class to it.

New Super Mario Bros. is a wonderful game offering entertainment from start to end and beyond. After years of waiting Nintendo have finally released a new Mario side-scroller. It was worth the wait for this is possibly the greatest of the series. Nintendo have done it again! This game will not disappoint.

Summary:
Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9
Value: 10
Overall (not an average): 9.8 (Rounded to 10 for GameFAQs)