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By Christopher Troy New Super Mario Bros. The most original title ever no, but hey, it’s the first traditional Mario title in years. That counts for something right? NSMB is a old-skewl Nintendo fan’s wet dream, with the world renown plumber returning to his Goomba stomping, fire ball shooting, platforming roots, without a kart, soccer ball or….magical hose backpack.....to be seen for miles. Mario’s even picked up a few new moves from his N64 days, and can now butt stomp, wall kick and super jump, rounding out his usual move set. Plus, there are several new power-ups introduced in this game, including a Mega-mushroom that turns Mario Godzilla-sized, resulting in a giant monster-esque rampage. Good times indeed folks. If you’re going to ask me what the plot of this Mario title is....then you an idiot. Come one people, we all know the deal by now, giant turtle steals hapless princess (You think with all the cash Mario’s gotten from his games, he would have bought the girl a gun by now?), said plumber ventures into various fire, ice, desert, water-based worlds to save her, grabbing coins and power-ups on the way. No surprise there, but hey, this is Mario, not Zelda gang, you really shouldn’t be expecting a deep plot. So let’s focus on the other aspects of this title shall we? Graphic wise, this game looks mint. It’s bright, colorful and despite being a side-scroller, all of game’s character models are in 3-D. The musical score keep faithful to the series usual “Da-da-da-da-da!” stuff, and the game feels like you were playing it on your Super Nintendo, using the second touch screen as a interactive map and inventory screen for power ups. Now this and being able to play as Luigi upon beating the game would have made me happy enough, but Nintendo went the distance with this title. In addition to the single player “story” mode, there’s a whole slew of multi-player games. The first mode plays exactly like the single player mode, pitting you and your friend against each other as the plumber brothers in a star grabbing contest. The second multiplayer mode can be played by yourself or with up to 3 of your friends, and is a series of 30-somewhat addicting mini-games in the vein of Mario Party, only your stylus is used…on and they don’t suck. Huzzah! It’s hard to find something to complain about with this title…unless you were expecting a brand new gameplay experience. At times you’ll swear you’ve played this title before, despite all the new moves, levels and power-ups. And aside from the minigames, you’ll barely use the stylus in this game. Also, this game’s difficulty is really unbalanced, going from stupid easy to classic hard in a matter of seconds, which youngsters and n00bs may find discouraging at times. Still, it’s hard to hate Nintendo’s main mascot at his best, especially when you consider how long since it’s been since we’ve gotten a Mario title that isn’t sports related in some shape or form. Nothing wrong with sports titles, but if I wanted to play soccer, I’d buy “Winning Eleven World Soccer” not a Mario based spin off. If classic gameplay is your thing, New Super Mario Bros. is a must-buy.
With a great single player mode and tons of multiplayer and mini-games
to play, it’s like getting 2 excellent games for the price of
one, and a welcome addition to the DS solid game library. Welcome back
Mario, we’re all glad to see you in top form again, man….unless
you’re a Sony Computer Entertainment Employee. They really don’t
appreciate the way you and your dual screened wonder console are outselling
the PSP. |
