New Super Mario Bros. (Video Game Review)

Some people hate the fact that every other week, Nintendo releases a game starring it’s mascot/contract-plumber Mario. For a select vocal few, every non-traditional Mario game is not really a game but a simple concept (such as a tennis game) with Mario and company plastered all over it. While they may have a point, games like Mario Kart not only created the genre of kart-racing but keep reinventing the genre with each new release while each iteration of Mario Tennis may not raise the bar in sports games, they are generally better than most of the tennis games on the market (as well as incredibly fun multiplayer games). In lieu of these cash-in titles, people have been clamoring for a new 2D Mario game for quite some time. Nintendo finally delivered with New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS. Basically, it’s Mario and it plays just like the other traditional Mario platformers. However, just like every other Mario Party and Golf games out there, New Super Mario Bros. is good for a video game but not necessarily great for a Mario game.

It’s the same old story for every single Mario platformer; Bowser kidnaps the Princess and Mario must go out and save her. Mario must travel through deserts, lakes, lava-infested infernos, snow-capped mountains, and the sky to save her. He has his power-ups to help him along the way. There’s not much to say about the story in this game (or any Mario game for that matter). Mario games are not the type of game that needs a story because it can survive on the gameplay alone. You have to jump from platform to platform, killing enemies in your quest to save the princess. Hardly even worth a paragraph of words.

The controls are simple enough. D-pad controls where you want to go. You have another button to jump and another button to make you run or shoot a fireball if you have the fire power-up. All the standard controls for the 2D Mario games are in place but there is also the addition of some of the 3D moves as well such as the triple jump and the wall jump. These moves are neat to pull off but outside of certain areas that are constructed to show off these moves, they do not offer anything to the gameplay. At least Nintendo did not mess with original formula of Mario’s run and jump action so these additions do not hurt the gameplay one bit; however, they do not make it better either.

Graphically, this is the prettiest Mario platformer ever. Mario looks and moves like Mario should. Every part of him animates as well as all the enemies. Foreground blends well with background. The vistas of the Mushroom Kingdom look gorgeous. There’s only so much you can do visually with a 2D cartoony platformer and it seems that Nintendo has achieved the most that could be done. Everything is very detailed but there’s it’s not as much of a leap graphically from Super Mario World as the leap was from the SNES game compared to the NES games. Nothing can be done about this really as they really have achieved the pinnacle of what a Mario game should look like. It looks great but it doesn’t seem to push the hardware all that much.

The sound is fine, perhaps a little bland though. The opening level tune is fine enough but starts to grate on the ears after repeated play. The tunes just aren’t that memorable and at times level you longing for some of the classic music from the games of yesteryear. Also, Nintendo has to stop this nonsense with all their main characters making sounds during the game. Mario doesn’t need to gasp every time he jumps. In case you haven’t realized but Mario jumps a lot. That’s what he is famous for. If you’re able to withstand several levels of him and his gasping during every jump, you have an incredible amount of patience.

One major issue with the game is that it is too easy. Even if you have never played a Mario game or even any other platformer, this game will not provide too much difficulty. Even if a player runs into trouble, there are plenty of extra lives to be found. Although extra lives really mean nothing because when you do lose all your lives, you don’t really lose much of your progress. One could argue that allows you for a bit more exploration and experimentation to try to find secret levels but when the bar is set so low in terms of challenge, achieving 100% in the game doesn’t feel like that much of an achievement.

Another gripe would be some of the ways to find the secret levels. This has been a problem since Super Mario Bros. 3 but it is still prevalent in this outing. Some of the levels could only be found by accident or by exploring every last pixel of the level. Some games have made their legacy on forcing gamers to look at every last area (the Mario series being one of them), but it often gets annoying when thinking whether or not it’s worth it to take that leap of faith which will more often than not lead to certain doom. Rarely do you actually find a path worthwhile when you take that plunge and if you do actually find something, it’s not all that satisfying. It’s more enjoyable when you can only reach a secret exit by managing to keep your special power-up during the course of a particularly nasty level (which does happen quite a bit in this game). Some may enjoy the additional exploration required to finish the game 100% but most will play the game straight-through without thinking that much about wasting their time on looking for secrets.

The original power-ups are back with the mushroom and fire flower representing the very first Super Mario Bros. game. Added to the roster is a mega mushroom which causes Mario to grow to the size of the screen and destroy everything in his path. There is also a mini mushroom which shrinks Mario down to the size of a couple of pixels. This power-up is a lot of fun because while anything he touches can kill him and he can’t really kill any enemies, he has a high jump that floats a bit which opens up certain areas as well he can gain access to areas that are too small for when he’s his normal size. The interesting part is that there is certain risk to the possible rewards (Mario has more access to certain areas but he’s more vulnerable to enemy attacks). The other new power up is the koopa shell which gives essentially turns Mario into a Koopa Troopa. Ducking enables Mario to hide in his shell to ward off indirect attacks while running for a short while converts Mario into a spinning shell projectile that can knockout enemies. At times it could be the most fun and most frustrating power-up solely for that reason because on one end your having a blast spinning around knocking over anything that moves but on the other end you become extremely difficult to control. If there is one thing that the Mario series has gotten right since the get-go is the power-up system. They all have balance. Some offer few abilities but have few risks involved while the stronger items pose a greater risk. It’s also fun trying to figure out which items work better in different areas.

That being said, it would have some different power-ups. Notably missing is the leaf/feather power-up that enables Mario to fly. This staple of Mario games would have made the exploration parts of the game a little less hit or miss and more enjoyable. Those expecting the level of variety shown in Super Mario Bros. 3 will be disappointed but it is a better offering than Super Mario World. Yoshi sat out this game which may also sadden some. One of the more interesting parts of Super Mario World was that if you knew you had mistimed a jump, you could score yourself a lifeline by jumping off Yoshi (which would plummet the green dinosaur to certain doom).

The game has a couple of extra features which is nice. There are minigames available which may be a welcome diversion for some but they are identical to the minigames found in Super Mario 64 DS. The touch screen is hardly used other than a place to show the players progress and score. There is also an option to use to press the screen to use your reserve power-up but there is an actual button reserved for that option that is easier to use. It could have been better served to show off more of the playing area considering that score and lives are redundant. Only a small amount of real estate could have been devoted to those things and the time and score but they take up the entire screen.

Saving the best for last is the multiplayer in this game. It’s an amazing amount of fun as Mario and Luigi compete each other to collect stars. It feels like the next evolution to 2D Mario games. If they had made the entire game like this, it would have been a much better game (which makes the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii that much more appealing). Playing against someone, the phrases “you lucky bastard” and “let’s do it again” will be utter many times during a play session. Playing Mario has never felt as frantic and never felt so fresh.

This may seem like a negative review for New Super Mario Bros. but it really isn’t. We should hold Mario games to a higher standard because of both the pedigree of the developer and the main character. If this was produced by any other publisher starring any other character, many would consider this an adequate game. The bulk of the high score for this game comes from the multiplayer component which add so much value to this package. For a video game, it’s good but not great. For a Mario game, it’s acceptable; just not what was hoped for.

☆☆☆☆