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New Super Mario Bros. Review
- Title: New Super Mario Bros.
- Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
- System: DS
What follows from the typical 'stealing the princess' scene is pure Mario flavour. You move your little red and blue plumber from left to right, avoiding Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and the occasional pit. What makes this game a worthy successor and not a cheap cash-in is the title's endless attention to detail and novelty. 1-1, for example, is an almost picture perfect mirror of the very first level of the original Super Mario Bros.. A mirror, that is, until you get over the second hill, pop the question block, and release the giant mushroom. The rest of the level rushes past in a blur as giant Mario slams through enemies, pipes, and scenery, before reaching the flag at the end of the level. This melding of the old and the new allows NSMB to mostly rise above expectations on the friction of greatness. The core of this greatness involves time-worn game concepts that have been freshened up with some new thread and a lot of care.
These game concepts come from across the many Mario titles. The map that allows you to navigate the Worlds and their sublevels is lifted from Super Mario Bros. 3. There are alternate routes through the maps, encouraging exploration and experimentation, as in Super Mario World. The butt-stomp and wall-jump from Mario 64 are here as well, and seeing them executed well in a 2D environment is well worth the price of admission. The only game element that somewhat disappointed was the powerup department. While the mega mushroom is a fun novelty the first time around, it has a fairly limited usefulness. There's also a mini mushroom, which makes you very small; Perfect for long floaty jumps and getting into tight spaces, but not that much fun. There's also the Troopa suit, a turtle shell that effectively turns Mario into a Koopa Troopa. You can run, get up some speed, and slide in the shell through enemies, knocking them akimbo. These are fun elements, but compared to genius like the flying Tanooki suit or the invincible Kuribo Boot they seem somehow a little thin.
Mario's transformative costumes aside, the quality of design here demands exploration and concerted effort. Levels ramp up in difficulty as you move through the Worlds. Requirements for completion go from 'a carefree leap or two' to 'carefully planned trial and error assaults'. Enemy placement is always designed to challenge and occasionally frustrate, but never to provoke calls of 'cheap!' Each world has a theme, of course, with World 2 being a sandy desert and World 5 covered in snow and ice. Within the overall theme of the World, each level provides thoughtful variation. Their overworld map appearance gives hints of what they'll be like; levels located in pits on the map are the familiar subterranean levels, while those on the edge of the ocean tend to have aquatic elements. Some levels are special cases, such as the towers and castles that dot each world. The tower is a mid-level challenge, a chance to face Bowser Jr. (Princess Peach's jailer) and drive him further along the map. The castle is the penultimate showdown for the current World, and defeating Jr. there drives him on to the next World. Generally unlockable, there are *-A levels that are entirely aquatic (and filled with swarming fish). There are also Ghost Houses, as in Super Mario World, which pit you against the surreal surroundings of the Boos and their crews.
The World map, then, is informative; It can also be frustrating. Scattered across the map are paths that are unreachable, tantalizing areas that beg to be unlocked. Some, like the powerup mushroom houses, are simply blocked from the main path. These can be unlocked with the large coins you find hidden in every level. Entire levels, though, are secreted off branching parts of the World's path. These require you to exit a particular level via an alternate route in order to open up that part of the path. The flag at the end of each level may, indeed, not be the way out you want. These secret routes lead to hidden levels, warp pipes that allow you to skip around within a World, cannons that blast you across the sky to land in other Worlds, and in two cases even allow you access to Worlds that would be otherwise inaccessible. This exploration element is as entertaining as it is addicting; Wondering just how you get from point A to point B will have you puzzling over the World map for many minutes.
Those minutes will pass by quickly, though, with your eyes resting easy on the beauty that is New Super Mario Bros. The DS has come into its own in the last year, with titles like Metroid Hunters proving the surprising power of Nintendo's two-screened beast. NSMB doesn't push the console the way Metroid did, but the game's graphical presentation is just as rock solid. The 3D elements that are incorporated into the 2D maps make the game pop out at you, as Mario and the various enemies shuffle and run through the colorful environments. The big smiles, though, are likely to come from the little touches. As mini-Mario, you can run across the surface of water, with splashes kicked up by the tiny plumber's pumping feet. In World 5 packed snow hanging on background tree branches is shaken loose as you pass, trapping you for a moment under a mound of wintery goodness. The environments are interactive and imaginative, and scored in the same style as all of the classic Mario titles. In order to avoid burnout by including endlessly familiar tunes and sound effects, there's a good deal of differentiation from the older titles musically. Just the same, you'll recognize where they're coming from with the underground theme, the noise when Mario loses a powerup, the particular blip as a Goomba is flattened, and the frustratingly familiar musical sting when you fall into a pit. These variations put you in the right state of mind, but don't come out of the box already old or annoying.
This preoccupation with recreating the familiar in a fresh way is, ultimately, why New Super Mario Bros. succeeds. The tight control of a leap atop a wandering Goomba is a gaming moment that, while certainly not new, never fails to be somehow special. NSMB taps directly into this with level design, musical scoring and sound effects that harken back to the best days of the NES and SNES. Even while the game looks backwards, it keeps its feet firmly in the now. The game looks terrific, is a challenge for a gamer of any skill level, and offers plenty of exploration elements to keep your mind active. There are even some WiFi multiplayer elements borrowed from the DS port of Mario 64, to keep you and a friend company on long trips. Some may look on this title as falling short of greatness. I see New Super Mario Bros. as competently meeting the expectations of our gaming heritage. Some games last a few hours, and some last a lifetime; This game was already a classic by the time I'd slotted it into my DS. NSMB belongs on the shelf alongside God of War or Half-Life 2, part of a stack I'll be carrying with me for a good, long time.
I just got this game on Monday and my 2 year old son has learned several new cuss words. I forgot how frustrating it can get having to time that first jump after the second one. I was never very good at Mario games, my little brother was the genius with them. I'm currently straggling up to 2-1 now after a good few hours of getting to play the game.
The graphics are great and the 2-screen goodness with the 'stacking' of power ups for later use is a very nice touch. I'm very happy with my DS and have bought quite a few titles I'd never thought I'd get with it.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
I've always been disappointed at the lack of modern 2D games; it seems ever since the PlaySation the only new games we see are 3D. There are tons of excellent 2 dimensional games that would look great on a modern system. In particular games like Raiden, Sonic, Megaman, Contra, Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, etc. all come to mind. Certain genres do well in 3D, but at the same time platformers and shooters are often better left in the second dimension.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
It was so much nicer to open up a mushroom house and grab an item that I could use whenever I wanted.
My favorite GameCube games are essentially 2D - things like Animal Crossing, Zelda four swords, and Paper Mario. 3D games with ever-changing cameras confuse the hell out of me at best, and make me dizzy and nauseous at worst. Give me a fixed camera any day. I want a GBA player for my GC so I can play more of these - too bad DS games need the stylus!
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
why did you capitali(s|z)e the words 'Akimbo' and 'Penultimate'?
Why didn't you capitalize the first word in your sentence?
If you want, I can find a few other mistakes in my comment or your comment. Neither of us automatically write perfect English. Nor do either of us bother to edit our own comments, understanding where they fit in the continuum of importance. Nor have either of us made errors that detract from reader's understanding of our intent. However, when I write an article that thousands of people will read I try to stick to words I know the meaning of. I don't think I'm being too much of a Nazi to expect that much.
I think Slashdot could use "editorial" comments that can be acted upon then hidden - or just not visible by default to normal readers. As much as you apparently see me as hypocritical, I think there's value in trying to improve articles - but I'm sometimes tempted to respond as you have done when I see an editorial comment mixed in with more interesting content.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
It's Koopa's black magic.
Anyone remember the original Super Mario Bros. manual? Pipes were flowerpots, and coin blocks and other hidden items were actually Mushroom Kingdom citizens turned into stationary objects by Koopa's magic who give Mario powers as reward for freeing them. Goombas were corrupt Mushroom Kingdom rebels.
Oh my god, I'm an encyclopedia of Super Mario Bros. lore.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I had one of those Castlevania games ("Harmony of Dissonance", I think?), and while it was kinda fun to play through once, it didn't have any lasting appeal. I think it was too easy, really. In addition, the subscreen interfaces, while adequate, were a little rough. It could have used a tad more polish.
For me, beating it was mostly a question of time, not skill. I put in my time, beat it, then put it away. After a few months I sold it, knowing that I'd never want to go back to it.
My stupid web site
There are MATH SYMBOLS in the CLOUDS!!!
Better than that - equations. My personal favorites are "heart square equals the sum of all mushrooms" and "fireflower is greater than or equal to square divided by warp pipe."
There's some fundamental truth there, I tell you.
I've never understood why they do that. I don't know if it still does, but last time I checked, several sections of the Nintendo website including the online store required you to use IE. Forcing your customers to use your competitor's products before they can even buy yours doesn't really seem like a good idea to me.
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?