The new standard in unchallenging I guess.
Originally written 11-23-11
While going on a walk with Princess Peach, Mario notices the castle on fire. He dashes off without a second thought, and as a result, the Princess is immediately snatched. Mario leaves in hot pursuit to save her. -summary
Super Mario Bros. has been a household name for over two decades. Besides the fact that the games can be incredibly fun, they built a reputation for being difficult plat-formers with Super Mario Bros. 3 leading the charge. That game went down in history as quite possibly the best for the original Nintendo, and I still hail it as the best Mario game ever. It was the ultimate in the run, jump, and action/adventure experience. During the last few years, the franchise has been a shadow of itself due to these games being way too easy. New Super Mario Bros. for the DS was a total disappointment for me and stands as one of the lows in the franchise. If this was a game made for children or those who enjoy easy games, then I definitely consider it a success. However, for the serious gamer looking for a challenge? You're better off searching for something else because you'll run through this in maybe a day, and that's including collecting all the stars and clearing all stages.
Game Play:
New Super Mario Bros. exercises the exact same formula as days past; the player will navigate through eight worlds that feature smaller ones to complete. Mario will run, jump, swim, and even smash his way through these stages on his way to rescue Princess Peach. The ghost houses and smaller castles are still present, along with those tight jumps that can spell a quick doom. The various power ups make their return, with the usual suspects being the fire plant to throw fire balls and the star man for limited invincibility leading the attack. There are also three new power ups; a blue Koopa shell that can be used to smash into things when Mario runs and ducks inside of it, a small mushroom that will shrink him down to a tiny size, and a bigger mushroom that will grow Mario to a gigantic size.
The enemies clutter your path and there's some variety amongst them. Familiar faces such as the Goombas and Koopa Troopas return, and even Lakitu shows his annoying face with a couple of new ones here and there. Most enemies can be disposed of by jumping on them, while others will either have to be evaded or defeated with the power ups you pick up. This also applies to most of the bosses who must be defeated in the same manner.
Some of the stages have very nice designs and variety; varying from icy and snow laden environments to water filled. Along the way, Mario will earn multiple 1-up lives and there are plenty of coins to pick up to help him earn more. In addition, there are three larger coins added per stage. These coins allow you to access Toad houses for power ups and even more extra lives. You can also access alternate routes. The game is very linear with no chances of being either stuck or lost.
Now this is where my heat rounds will be felt with no mercy. When releasing this game, Nintendo was supposedly recreating that old, challenging feel of the game play that made them juggernauts in the gaming industry concerning plat-formers. Thus the "New" title being tossed in there. Perhaps the "New" must apply to their new standard of putting together very easy games. This game is just way too easy and it seems as if Nintendo heavily wants you to win. The game play is very forgiving and I think the power ups are part of the problem. There are just way too many opportunities to obtain fire plants, and they make the game even easier to get through. You can defeat most bosses using the fire plant with ridiculous ease. To make this crazier, a second item can be stored (probably best a fire plant) and used should you lose the current one. The possibility of losing both fire plants in a boss battle is probably non existent. In the unlikely event should you lose your fire plant, but you have the super mushroom in stock, you can defeat the boss with that instead. Hell, you can just open up the battle with it and it's a done deal. In addition, this super mushroom makes crashing through stages incredibly easy as long as there's ground for you to walk on. The mini-mushroom is almost completely unnecessary, and I found it only necessary to be used to access hidden areas and additional worlds. That's another thing that bothers me; two of the levels must be found and it's very possible to skip these two worlds making a short game even shorter than what it already is.
Nintendo felt the need to give Mario two additional jumps. The first is a wall jump that can be done when Mario slides down a wall and kicks off. There's probably only two occasions when you actually need this. The second is a triple jump, and I can't recall actually needing it at all. The game also gives you way too many extra lives, either through coins or bonus games. The super mushroom that turns you into a giant, also rewards you with extra lives all depending on how much you destroy. The additional power ups feel way too gimmicky and they bring down the game play a great deal. The Mario games of the past forced you to learn the stages, and put your skills to the test, damn near forcing you to become a ninja. I didn't experience that at any time during this game. The three stars in the stages also aren't that hard to pick up.
Controls:
This is one of the stronger areas, the controls are very responsive which is necessary for a game like this that has close call jumps. The game uses the d-pad for the main game, and performing the wall and triple jumps are simple. The special items can be accessed by using the touch screen. And speaking of the touch screen, it's used for the mini games in an additional mode, but I stick to the stylus for this and it works out nicely.
Graphics/Music/Sound:
The visuals are the only thing new here and they're the games best feature. The game looks very pretty, and in this day and age it damn well better be pretty. The characters use the 3D in their polygonal look and the lively sprites have some depth to them. The animation has some really good movements and I thought it was funny to see the characters dancing to certain parts of the stage songs. There are some cool character designs, like a punch drunk looking ghost wearing boxing gloves and smashing through walls. I especially like the 2D backgrounds that does use some 3D, and some of the stages have more depth to their backgrounds. One stage that sticks out to me is found in the 8th world, and it takes place inside of a lava cavern. The background features smaller lava filled water falls and it looks so cool.
The soundtrack is fitting for a Mario game, and it captures the light-hearted and fun-filled nature of the game. Kids will more than likely enjoy the songs a great deal, and there are some songs to be heard for the long time nostalgic fans, such as the remixed boss theme from the 3rd game among others. The sound effects are what you would expect from a Mario game, with the usual mushroom stomps, Bullet-Bill shooting out of his cannon, and shells hitting plat-forms, plus his annoying voice that I don't think I'll ever get use to. There has been some upgrade to the sound effects but there's nothing I could possibly complain about.
Replay:
The die hard completest is going to search for all those stars if they don't pick them all up in their first run. Other than that, I can't think of a serious gamer coming back to the main game. Serious Mario fans and kids are the only ones I can imagine coming back to this. The mini-games from what I heard return from Super Mario 64 DS. Since I haven't play that game these modes were pretty fun at first. They use the DS download for multi-player, and there are just some cool games even for soloist; such as a "wack a mole" game where you have dozens of holes with moles popping out, and using the touch screen you have to hit them without hitting Luigi who is also present. There's also a "Where is Waldo?" like game, and here you will have to find, let's say Mario's face, in a see of other faces consisting of sometimes hundreds of Luigi's, Yoshi's, and Wario's. The games held my attention for a little while.
Final Thoughts:
Overall it's the main game that counts, and for serious gamers searching for that plat-forming challenge are going to come away really disappointed; and I think their frustration will be aimed more towards the hype surrounding this game. I'm still amazed by so many who swear by this title. It has left me wondering has some of these folks ever played a Mario game before. Anyone who has played through Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, or even Yoshi's Island should be at least a little disappointed. Those games featured a higher challenge and power ups that were actually worth using. Nintendo set the standard years ago on what a Mario game should be like. This feels like too much of a backwards. Only recommended to very serious Mario fans and kids.
Rating: 6/10
Pros:Visually impressive, tight controls, nice mini-games
Cons:Joke of a difficulty level, and bad power-ups