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New Super Mario Bros. |
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Written by Ben Hartland
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Saturday, 27 May 2006 |
As the title suggests this is a completely new Super Mario Bros game, this is not a port of an older game with new features, it’s completely new. The story is very simple, while princess peach is enjoying a nice walk with Mario; suddenly peach’s castle is attacked. Mario runs up to the castle to try and save it and at the same time Bowser Jr. appears and kidnaps the princess. Meaning it’s up to Mario to save the princess once again. [b]Read on for the full review[/b]
The gameplay does a very good job of bringing back the old 2-D Mario physics. A lot of moves Mario could do in the past have returned, such as grabbing koopa shells to being able to run along the top of the screen in the underground sections. Mario moves just like he used to but now has access to some moves that he has learned over the years, such as the wall jump and the triple jump, which feels like Mario has been, updated which is needed for this game to appeal to both new and old audiences. They have also updated the graphics, using the DS’s 3-D capabilities to appeal to the new audience they are after and to make Mario do moves such as wall jumps are too complicated to look good using sprites; so people who wanted the old sprite form of Mario will be disappointed. I on the other hand feel it helps keep the game looking new and updated. The top screen is where all the action takes place. The bottom screen is used for inventory such as power-ups at your disposal, how many star coins you have found in one level and your progress bar which shows how far you are from the Goal at the end of the level. The bottom screen works well at allowing players to have more information but not getting in the way of the action on the top screen. When you want to access the stored item from the bottom screen you need to touch it and then it will fall down to Mario on the top screen. However it feels like it was used just because there is a touch screen and Nintendo felt it needed to be used but doesn’t really make accessing the item any easier than just pressing a button in Super Mario World.  The game also features a mode called Mario vs. Luigi which is a 2 player game and you can play it with either 1 or 2 cartridges of the game, this mode requires you to be either Mario or Luigi and battle it out in 5 different stages to collect the most Big stars. Both the brothers have access to all the power-ups in the main game. Before the match you can change the items listed below: Wins- Choose the number of matches needed to win the competition Big stars- Set the number of Big stars needed for victory Lives- Select the number of lives Mario and Luigi have during the game Course- Set the course selection to either ‘Choose Each time’ or ‘Random’ This multiplayer mode is fun but is more of an extra feature rather than an essential part of the gaming experience.  Some of the touch screen mini-games from the Super Mario 64 DS game are back as well, plus 3 brand new ones. Not a lot of changes have been made to the mini-games graphics; one or two have had graphical changes but that does not really matter. What really matters is that this time around all the mini-games can be played in single player mode or Vs. Battle mode which can have up to 4 players playing simultaneously with one Game-card through download play. The fact that the mini-games are now available through multiplayer means that the mini-games will probably last a lot longer compared to when they were only single player affairs. Getting to the final boss won’t be any kind of challenge to players who completed the original Mario bros games. There is plenty of replay ability with unlocking the 2 secret levels and collecting all 3 star coins from every level in the game. Completing everything in the game will take on average a good 20-25 hours. I have found with any 2-D Mario game; that I can simply play the same levels again and again due to the high quality level design that brings me back for more every time. Plus with additional multiplayer modes this is an adventure/platformer you won’t want to miss out on for the DS. Score: 9.0/10 |
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