New Super Mario Bros.

Story:
One day, Mario and Peach see a stormcloud hit Peach’s Castle and a fire starts. While Mario checks it out, Bowser Jr. sneaks up from behind and captures
Peach. Pretty typical Mario stuff, except Bowser dies in the first world O_O

Gameplay (6.5/10):
-Mario: Controls well. All of his moves from Galaxy and the 2D Sunshine select screen are here, though there is no real physics engine to it. His power-ups
are the normal star, fire flower, and mushroom, but now there are also the mega and mini mushrooms from Mario Party 4, and an all-new Blue Shell Suit. The
former couple is exactly hw it sounds. The Mega Mushroom serves no purpose other than some epic carnage on a few worlds, which is a shame, because tons
of puzzles could have been created  using it. The mini mushroom is the most gimmicky item of all time; without it, you can’t even go to two worlds! It
doesn’t do anything else but unlock 10 or 11 different rooms with star coins in them. Both are bad power-ups. The Shell suit is very cool, in my opinion,
as it is completely original. When you run, press down and slide, or just press down, you’ll tranform into an invincible shell. Friction is your enemy here,
though, because it is hard to get in many areas where you can actually use it, much like the penguin suit in New Super MArio Bros. Wii. Unfortunately, this
item serves no purpose, either, and is merely a novelty item, basically.

-Enemies:Pretty much the usual. There’s Koopas/Goombas/Lakitus/Hammer Bros like always, then there’s Bats, Piranhas, crows, pumpikins, Pokeys, and a few
others, but almost no new original designs. All are used or variations on one, and the enemy design is so bland that you’ll see the same enemies in Beach
World as you’ll see in Lava World. However, barring the first Bowser fight, the bosses are intensely original and fun to play, much more so than the Koopal-
-ing battles in NEw Super Mario Bros. Wii.

-Levels: The designs are what you’d see if you took SMB3, and removed all of the things that wouldn’t be found in the original SMB. In other words, it has
all of the slopes and extra areas from SMB3, but other than that, it’s completely linear and non-secretive gameplay. After abut world 5 or 6, it gets very
old, aside from the occasional water level or something like riding on the back of a giant Wiggler. Also, the world designs are very boring. It loses the
charm of something like Super Mario World and goes for the platforming stereotypes like desert, forest, plains, water, lava, sky, ect.

Overall: A solid Mario experience. No more, no less. I would have expected much more innovation from Nintendo, especially as it was on the DS!

Graphics (7.5/10):
I love the Pre-rendered stuff, but the real 3D is extremely compressed and small. Why not zoom in the screen a little bit and make the models big enough?
Mega Mario is beautifully rendered, and it shows just how well Nintendo can do 3D on the DS.

Sound (8/10):
Great overworld theme and Castle them. That’s it. The rest is remixed SMB stuff. Very sad. The sounds are recycled from older Mario games, and
Mario’s own voice clips are from Super Mario Sunshine! Though it’s good, come on, guys! You can’t make 10 new tracks for us to enjoy? Bowser Jrs voice
is not from SMS, however, and I do compliment Nintendo for that =P

Challenge (6/10):
Some levels are pretty hard, and some star coins are frustatingly difficult. But most of the game is easy peasy lemon squeezy, or however they said it.

Frustration (3/10):

You’re probably not going to get frustrated on this. How? Go on world 1-1, use Mega Mushroom, collect 1-Ups. Repeat 4 or 5 times. After that, you’ll
be stocked up to the point at which you’ll never run out of lives!

(anything past 4 not counted)

Replayability (9/10):

There was <i>supposed</i> to be a from of 2-player co-op implemented, but instead, Nintendo re-introduced the minigames from New SMB, and included a forget-
-table “battle mode”. Luckily, the minigames are utterly addicting (even some card games), and you can even play them by yourself. Now, for completionists,
getting all of the star coins will take you for hours and hours, which is really good, too. So this game will indeed last you for quite some time. It sure
did for me!

Value (8/10):
Even at full $35.00 US, it’s still getting you dozens of hours of fun, something more than many other full-priced DS titles cannot do.

(Value not factored into final score)

Overall (7/10):
also 39/54, 7.2, or 72%.

This is the definitive Mario title. Well, no, more like generic. Generic soudnds, generic enemies, generic design overall. It’s the benchmark at which we
can measure all other Mario titles, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a great game. It’s average. Granted, it is a Mario title, which includes some of the
highest-rated titles in gaming history, but there are so many other titles to choose from if you don’t have them. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great ex-
-ample of a game that uses Mario elements to make a completely original game. This is not. Buy this game if you like Mario platforming, but not for anything
else like adventuring, puzzles, or any other staple of all SMB3+ Mario games.

Thanks for reading my review. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the next reviews I do, PM me at nintendo City, or comment on an article
at http://ncbblog.wordpress.com/ . It’s off for me to do… something else. Oh yeah, read my comic The Mushroom Kingdom at http://tmk.smackjeeves.com/ , it
is what inspired me to write so many of these dang Mario reviews. =P
Ciao!

Screenshots