32 out of 32 people found this review helpful.
New Super Mario Brothers: New and Improved or Old and Recycled?
Date of Review: Jun 24, 2009
The Bottom Line: It's one of the deepest Nintendo DS games, and about what you'd expect from a Mario platformer.
Like most people my age, I grew up on Super Mario Brothers. It's a series that has undergone a huge transformation the last dozen years. My daughter is a big gamer, but she is not that big into the older consoles which made these games so famous. I often thought that these games would be lost to her until she's old enough to realize what she's missing. However, thanks to this game, my daughter has learned how fun a 2D Mario platformer game can be. At least I think she does, she doesn't talk too much about the game, but I know because it's the one game that dominates the cartridge slot in her DS the past month or so.
Gameplay
The Princess has been kidnapped again. While Mario was distracted by a fake attack on the castle, a stranger makes off with the Princess with Mario in hot pursuit. You must rescue the Princess by traversing stage after stage in several different themed worlds in order to track her and her kidnapper down.
New Super Mario Brothers is a 2D platformer where you run and jump your way though many different stages. Each stage has many different jumps, enemies, and other unique obstacles that stand in your way. Enemies vary from the standard goombas and koopa troopas to some new enemies that are tough to get past. That doesn't mean there aren't tools that can help you out. Most enemies can be jumped on or stomped on. Also there are powerups that made you bigger, give you the ability to throw fireballs, or even make you really big such that you can smash through anything in your way. There are also powerups like mini mushrooms that turn you small so you can access new areas as well as a turtle Mario powerup where you can smash several enemies on the ground.
You die by falling into a pit or into another instant death hazard, running into an enemy after losing all your powerups or running out of time. When you run out of lives, the game is over. There are however many ways to earn extra lives. There are 1up mushrooms that are hidden away in many different places. There are big coins where if you collect all three of them in a given run through a stage, you get an extra life. Finally, if you collect 100 coins, you can also earn an extra life as a reward. I found that there are often too many ways to earn extra lives in this game such that it makes it very forgiving. I almost wonder why even have a total amount of lives if it's practically infinite anyway. However it's also true that this problem exists in most other Mario games too.
Like in Super Mario World, some stages have secret exits that can open up new routes to the next stage or even a new stage or attraction in general. On the world map you can find Toad Houses which can give you extra lives. In addition there are powerup blocks on the world map that can power you up or give you a better powerup in reserve. While secrets appear not to play a prominent role on the surface, I found that there are just as many as in other Super Mario platformer games.
You can also play a variation on the main game in multiplayer mode. All multiplayer modes can be played locally with as little as one cartridge, through the DS's download multiplayer functionality. The Mario versus Luigi multiplayer component is where you and a friend can compete in a given stage to collect stars. You can either focus on collecting the stars or stealing your opponent's stars by jumping or stomping on them. It's a neat concept which can be fun, however it doesn't have much lasting value as a multiplayer concept.
If you do not wish to play the main game there are stylus-based minigames. There are 18 in all split up into 4 different categories: action, puzzle, table, and variety. Most of these games are really fun and act as a type of game you'd find in a Mario Party like game. You can play the minigames single player or against an opponent. Depending on the category of game you choose, the minigame can either challenge your dexterity, or intelligence, or even both. Both my daughter and I can get caught up on just a single minigame for hours at a time trying to perfect a strategy or technique. Competing against each other is also pretty fun too.
While the New Super Mario Brothers has it challenging moments, there's a certain forgiving stickiness to the gameplay. If you walk to the edge of a drop, Mario will begin to teter but never really fall. There are so many moments where I keep on saying to myself that if this was Super Mario Brothers 3, I would have died there. When you factor in the momentum Mario generates, this also helps to save your skin from time to time. This is in stark contrast to Super Mario Brothers 3 where there you could practically turn on a dime, and the first Super Mario Brothers where your momentum often killed you whenever you decided to run at full speed.
Controls
The controls are like most Nintendo DS games. The main game controls make heavy use of the dpad and face buttons. The dpad moves Mario while the face buttons cause Mario to run, jump, and shoot fireballs as well as many other moves. The left and right shoulder buttons can move the screen farther ahead or back, which is a nice feature if you're really concerned about what's ahead or behind you. Just about the only function that the touchpad has is to release your spare powerup.
The minigames are another control scheme entirely. Instead of using the dpad and face buttons, they use the touch screen heavily. There are even some games that use the microphone, which makes having a DS Lite a little more advantageous.
Overall the controls are pretty responsive within the framework of the gameplay.
Graphics
The graphics are just as bright and vibrant as any other Mario platformer. New Super Mario Brothers does take an interesting twist with the graphics. Even though this is a 2D platformer, the enemies seem polygonal and have depth to them. So when Mario picks up a mushroom of fire flower, his sprites don't simply change, but rather he transforms. It seems to give the gameplay a little more liberties in terms of gameplay effects that couldn't be represented in other Super Mario games. As a result the animations are all much better than any other Mario platformer. In addition, the backgrounds are also a little more interactive than usual. The result is a great graphical experience.
Sound
The audio is about what you'd expect from a Mario platformer. Nintendo has recycled the same themes and added variation and spice to them. The idea here is for the musical score to breathe familiarity. There are a few new themes I didn't recognize, but they're more unique to certain situations. I would have liked to see more music in some known locations since the Mario games are very good in the musical score department.
Let me make it known that I'm not a fan of talking Mario. I hate his voice and it just makes me cringe in many different ways just hearing it. Still, if you've been playing the Mario games going back to Super Mario 64, then you'll feel right at home here.
Finally, the sound effects embody the classic Mario experience. The same sound effects are here, except they have more body to them and sound richer. While this is mostly a good thing, there are a few sound effects that have lost their identity as a result. But at least they took a chance to try and make an improvement here and they succeeded for the most part.
Replay Value
Super Mario games have a high amount of replay value due to their solid gameplay and ability to do new and interesting things. However Nintendo didn't rest on these laurels because it's the multiplayer and minigames that add even more replay value onto a solid platformer game. The sheer amount of minigames and their wide variety of appeal targets a vast audience and keeps them playing this game long after you've saved the princess. Pound for pound this game has just as much replay value as any other Nintendo DS game out there, and only a few other games can compete for that valuable slot space in your DS.
In the end New Super Mario Brothers is a great game that measures very favorably against its 2D Mario ancestors. Still, I can't help but notice that if you're going to take more than 10 years to release a new 2D Mario platformer, you could have taken a few more chances. Look at how dramatically different Super Mario 2 and 3 were. Even Super Mario World went all out when it came to the sheer amount of secrets that can be found. For once I'd like to see a major publisher just go all out with a title that has the feature set of a homebrew or Japanese sports game, but the polish of a 1st party Nintendo title. It's not that I'm complaining about this game because it's great, it's just a conservative spin of a classic formula.
