"A Love Letter to Mario Fans and Tribute to Oldschool Gaming"

Who says Nintendo never listens to its fans? For years countless Nintendo loyalists have been begging for a brand new, side-scrolling Mario game. While few can doubt the amazing results we saw when Nintendo brought the series into full 3D with Super Mario 64, there were many who still longed for a brand new game in the old school tradition. But Nintendo was content to bide its time. It re-released nearly every 2D Mario game on the GBA and also gave us some new Wario games. When the DS rolled, around, Nintendo chose to launch with a port of Super Mario 64 and later gave us new platformers with Kirby, Yoshi, and even Peach yet still no Mario! Well, Nintendo has seen fit to answer our prayers and New Super Mario Bros is just about everything we could have hoped for (despite the rather uninspired title). While it may not be the be-all, end-all Mario game that some might have wanted, it comes damn close and is easily the best 2D platformer since the original Yoshi's Island on the SNES.

Story

Mario games have never been known for having a ton of story and New Super Mario Bros is no exception but it nevertheless manages to set up it's rather thin attempt of a plot with some simple, oldschool charm that has been lacking in recent years. The game opens with a brief cutscene, using in-game graphics, of Bowser Jr. (introduced in the Gamecube's Super Mario Sunshine) kidnapping Princess Peach. As Mario, the player follows Baby Bowser from castle to castle in attempt to once again save the princess and bring peace to the Mushroom Kingdom. It's not Shakespeare but, for games of this type, less tends to be more. Just look at Sonic Rush if you don't believe me. The lousy voice acting, silly cinemas, and dialogue that appeared to be written by a four year old only served to make players groan and long for the days of Sonic 3 where all we needed were a couple of silent in-game cutscenes of Sonic sparring with Knuckles and chasing Dr. Robotnik. Sure I wouldn't have minded if Nintendo had produced a slightly more elaborate story-book opening and ending like they did with Yoshi's Island but, it's become clear that with this genre, it's better to be understated rather than overstated.

Gameplay

Gameplay-wise, New Super Mario Bros is an amalgamation of most of our favorite Mario titles. As in the older games, Mario's main goal is to run from one end of the level to the other and, in a very nice oldschool nod, still slides down a flagpole as he did in the original Super Mario Bros. The game also features the return of the fire flower, absent since Super Mario World, as well as numerous other old-school devices. Mario has also retained some of his 3D skills as well, being able to use moves such as the triple jump, butt stomp, and wall jump. New Super Mario Bros also takes a page from Yoshi's Island in that each level has three special star coins to collect as well as 8 red coins that can be traded in for an extra life. Most of the game's challenge comes from collecting the star coins which can be then used to buy new wallpapers, obtain extra power-ups, and open up new paths through the game's eight worlds. In true Mario fashion, many of the levels also have alternate exits as well that often lead to new routes or warp canons to extra worlds. It is in this way that New Super Mario Bros, like most Mario games, appears simple but hides a rather impressive layer of depth. One can certainly cruise through the game in a day or so and wonder what all the fuss is about. The difficulty isn't very steep, especially as far as boss encounters go, and players can skip two entire worlds if they aren't looking for them. However, taking the time to collect every star coin, find every alternate exit, and complete every level is quite a task and one that should last players for a very long time.

The control is everything you'd expect from a Mario game. Despite the 3D characters, everything is incredibly tight and accurate and stylus use is kept to a bare minimum (as it should be). The new moves also fit perfectly into the game and, in time, you'll wonder how you ever did without them. Simply put everything just feels right. It's something Mario fans have come to take for granted and that one doesn't really appreciate until one tries another platformer and realizes that it lacks the same magic.

The game's numerous levels read like a love letter to long time Mario fans; managing to include a variety of environments, some paying homage to the original Super Mario Bros while others taking a cue from more recent titles. Amongst hardcore Nintendo fans, there has been some concern that the level design of New Super Mario Bros may not but up to snuff with previous 2D Mario games since series creator Shigeru Miyamoto did not have a hand in the game's development. Well, having played every level of the game, I can safely say that New Super Mario Bros can go toe to toe with the best of them. While the levels may not be quite as brilliant as Super Mario World or some of the standouts in Super Mario Bros 3, they manage to be fun, varied, and quite entertaining; easily besting any 2D platformer I can think of in the past decade. There are also a couple of really creative stages in the game that show there's still a lot of stuff to be done in 2D level design as long as developers like Nintendo think outside the box.

If there's one criticism I have however, it's that New Super Mario Bros, as a love letter to the whole Mario lineage, doesn't do much to push the series forward. Take the power ups. Aside from the fire flower we get a mega mushroom which lets Mario grow to an enormous size, a mini mushroom that shrinks him and lets him jump farther, and a blue turtle shell that lets Mario, wait for it, turn into a turtle shell and spin. It's not that these items are bad but they don't play a big part in the overall game and certainly aren't as innovative as the various suits in Super Mario Bros 3 or Yoshi in Super Mario World. And why doesn't Mario fly in this game? Flight in one form or another has been a trademark of the series for the last 15 years! Would it have killed Nintendo to throw in a cape, raccoon suit, or winged cap? None of these are huge flaws. But in trying to give us an amalgamation of everything we've seen thus far in the series, Nintendo seems to have forgotten to show us something new an exciting. Also, just like a similar flaw I noted in Super Mario Sunshine, there really isn't much of a reward for unlocking everything. In Super Mario World we got Star Road (a whole secret world) along with a revamped version of the main world once that was completed. In Super Mario 64, we got a cameo by Yoshi. Somehow an extra star next to your name on the startup screen doesn't quite compare.

Outside the main game comes a collection of mini-games, many of which have been recycled from Super Mario 64 DS. I'd complain that there's not much new here except the mini-games were so damn fun in that game and are still really fun here, still showing some of the most entertaining uses of the stylus I've seen on the DS.

Graphics

Graphically, this is easily one of the best looking games I've seen on the DS. The title uses 3D characters and some 3D objects over 2D backgrounds. The 3D characters and objects manage to look detailed yet cartoony enough to fit with the rest of the visuals. The backgrounds are much cleaner and more vibrantly colored than previous 2D Mario games (more along the lines of the pre-rendered backgrounds of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES) yet still manage to feel completely “Mario” in their look. Other titles have tried mixing 2D and 3D art before but usually ended up having too much of one and not enough of the other so that either the polygonal images looked blocky and lacking in style or the sprites looked flat and archaic. New Super Mario Bros strikes just the right balance and, better than any game I've seen before, manages to mix to the two styles perfectly, making it nearly impossible to tell at a glance what's a polygonal and what's sprite based. The DS hardware also allows for some truly gorgeous transparencies, lighting effects, and sophisticated background scaling and scrolling. If ever there was a game that visually was far more than the sum of its parts, it's New Super Mario Bros.

Sound

The Music is strong but perhaps not quite on the same level. Some of the tunes are remixes of previous Mario classics and they're every bit as catchy as they always have been. The newer tracks aren't bad, they certainly feel distinctly “Mario,” but aren't quite on par with what we've grown accustomed to. They never get annoying but aren't likely to leave a lasting impression the way their 8 and 16-bit cousins have. Also, taking a cue from recent Mario titles, Mario once more has a voice made up most of yelps, squeaks, and his now obligatory, “it-a-me…..Mario!” Sure some fans loathe his cute, Italian-stereotype voice but it's clearly here to stay and I for one am glad (though I do have a feeling that Mario would likely get his ass kicked if he showed up in Brooklyn or the Bronx spouting that accent).

Graphics: 10
Sound: 8
Story: 8
Gameplay: 10
Value: 10

Overall: 10

The success of the Gameboy Advance with it's many 16-bit ports as well as the popularity of emulation has resulted in a new generation of gamers being able to experience some older masterpieces for the first time. I've been playing games since the NES days but even I've missed my share of great games over the years and I've found that there is truly a magical feeling in discovering some lost classic like Yoshi's Island that you missed back in the day but were lucky enough to unearth years later. In many ways, this is what New Super Mario Bros feels like. It's almost like we dug up some never released missing link between Super Mario World and Super Mario 64. This game is an instant classic and perhaps the best reason yet to own a DS. It may fall short of being the best 2D Mario game ever created (Super Mario World still holds that title in my book) but it proves to be a very worthy chapter in one of the most consistently magnificent series of all time. Let's just hope it won't take Nintendo another 15 years to give us another original handheld Mario game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/07