Slashdot Mirror
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.
It's too bad they aren't releasing it for a console system.
I prefer my gaming on screens larger than 4".
This game is awesome, and lots of fun. GET IT. This is like what Super Mario World might have been if Nintendo waited until now to continue the Mario franchise.
Also, the Blue Shell powerup (it allows you to dash to curl into a shell and knock enemies while speeding through the level) will be featured in Super Smash Bros Brawl, and it fits so perfectly I can't help but think it was planned.
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.
Super Mario Retirement Home to come out.
'Loose' is when your pants are three sizes too big. 'Lose' is when you misuse 'loose'.
Speaking as a Goomba, I find this whole line of games extremely offensive.
I for one welcome our new turtle-jumping, pipe-warping, fireball-spitting, bowser-butt-kicking, princess-saving overlord(s)!
PS: If anyone hasn't seen the flash videos yet over at mario.nintendo.com, they are awesome!
640YB ought to be enough for anybody.
After some point, you really have to wonder if Princess Peach doesn't want to be kidnapped. Once or twice, ok, sure, Bowser is a real jerk. Eventually, you gotta figure that the Princess must not really mind it so much, if you get my drift.
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
I have to say Mega Mario very fun to play with. There is one secret area where there are nothing but pipes and a mega mushroom . Watching Mario destroy the entire area really is quite entertaining. Mini Mario is also fun with those secret little pipe areas that lead to midget goombas. Not to mention the fact that you actually have to use him to reach the two secret areas. This is very challenging because you have to butt stomp to do any damage. I have to say Nintendo took the best of all the Mario games including one stage that reminded me of the Doki Doki Mario Brothers where you could just keep on running right until you popped out on the left screen.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Yeah, "Time Travel Paradox Mario" was uber hard. Way harder than "The Lost Levels."
The castle is the penultimate showdown for the current World
Penultimate: next to last.
The castle is the not the next to last showdown for the current World. It's the last showdown in the current world.
slide in the shell through enemies, knocking them akimbo
Akimbo: In or into a position in which the hands are on the hips and the elbows are bowed outward:
They really get knocked akimbo? That doesn't make sense. If you don't know what words mean, don't use them.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...