New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros., known in Japan as スーパーマリオブラザーズ [Nyu Supa Mario Burazazu] is a 2D scrolling platform action game in the Mario universe developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS on 2006-05-05. Like most Mario games, Peach has been kidnapped, this time by Bowser Jr., and you must

Status

I don't own this game, but I have beaten it.

Review

• Overall: 5/10
• Best Version: Nintendo DS

Good

• I like the addition of the Super Mario 64 enemies into a pseudo-2D Mario game.
• The mega mushroom was a nice new powerup. The mini mushroom, not so much.
• The inclusion of the wall jump was nice and the designers did a good job of designing maps to benefit it.
• There was some pretty nice level design, and the new objects that alter the maps (P-switches which shift the floor, water level shifters, etc.) are well used.
• The graphics do a pretty good job of marrying raster backgrounds and 3D sprites.
• The environment graphics are pretty wonderful.
• Using star coins to unlock beneficial areas of the map was a nice way to encourage players to try to reach more difficult areas of the maps.
• I love how the characters in the game react to the "wah wah" of the above ground theme music.
• I like how the screen shifts from top to bottom when you go down pipes.

Bad

• The game is still a bit too similar to standard Super Mario Bros. For the most part, I felt like I was playing a level expansion rather than a new game.
• I don't like how the player skips every other world as part of normal play.
• I'm so tired of the damsel in distress trope. Sing us a new one.
• The 1up guessing "game" isn't a game because its entirely random.
• While I appreciate the addition of mini games, they're all pretty dull.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Links

• mobygames.com/game/new-super-mario-bros - MobyGames.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Super_Mario_Bros. - Wikipedia.