New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. is the newest Super Mario side-scroller in over a decade. It uses the same gameplay as the original Super Mario Bros., only now the game has enhanced 3-D graphics, new enemies, and new places. Classic elements like Goombas, Koopas, pipes, and mushrooms add to the fun. But new things help too: a giant mushroom the transforms you into a giant behemoth, ghosts that bust down brick walls, and a blue Koopa shell that lets you slide across the landscape.

Despite the presence of more popular genres like shooter and racing, New Super Mario Bros. is still able to prove one thing: the old formula does work.

When Bowser Jnr grabs the princess and legs it across town, Mario gives chase across an array of worlds and challenges. The plot is just that simple and it marks a return to the 2-D Mario games that many of those buying the game will have grown up on to at least some degree. For me personally I was always going to get this game as my gaming experience started with the 8-Bit (which I still own!) and Super Mario Brothers. This was followed by the SNES and the N6 although I had "grown up" by the time the Cube came out. The DS drew me back in with Mario Kart and then this game though as both of them capture what I loved about the originals while also bringing enough to the table to mark them out as more than just reruns or copies.

Those used to the games will get into it in about 10 seconds, with the old controls flooding back and the new ones being very easy to pick up although a bit trickier to master. The first levels lets you get the excitement of "Big Mario" out of your system and then it is onto the game. Those used to the Mario games will not be surprised that it is nicely layered and developed. On a very superficial level it is probably far too easy and blocking a good 2 days out in your diary when you buy it will most likely see you completing it without too much trouble. To hear this it may put you off but, by the time you finish the last castle, you'll have twigged that you have not finished at all. The hiding of different worlds and the collecting of the 3 gold coins in each level means there is plenty here to try and work out and it is pretty satisfying to do it – giving challenges long after Bowser is gone.

Visually the game recalls the classic Mario games but also uses the DS well. The touch screen is useful and holds information that would clutter the top. The 2-D look is cool but it has more than enough detail to remind you that you are playing a powerful little machine. The edges are nicely rounded and the characters are mostly colourful. The old characters are all there and some of the nice aspects of recent games are here while some of the weaker ones are not! The new touches are mostly clever although the "Koopa shell Mario" is annoyingly difficult to control with little actual benefit – am I the only one that gets hit just to get rid of it? The mini-games are amusing but they don't offer any lasting interest; it is nice to have them there but they are very much a curiosity. I haven't played the multiplayer games so can't comment on them, but I hear good things from others in this regard.

Superficially then, it is far too easy and it might disappoint those used to the linear approach of some games because the finish line is not that hard to reach if that is all you want to do. However the lay out of levels and worlds, along with the challenge of the three coins makes for a lasting challenge that anyone who has enjoyed a previous Mario outing will easily enjoy. The limited save point thing is a bit of a pain if you're looking to take your time and play in small bites or if you really want to build up the perfect "game" but it isn't that limiting until you've been on one game slot for quite a while. Overall it looks great and has a nice difficulty curve (in the wider challenge). Fans of Mario will love it as it does great work with the characters, feel and sounds of the Mario world. Well worth a purchase and, for fans, pretty much worth buying a DS to own!

(www.plasticpals.com) In what could be described as a re-imagining of the original 8-bit sensation, Nintendo returns to its roots with a traditional 2D side-scrolling Mario game. It has all the hallmarks of Mario's first adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom, but ditches the frustrations with a more modern approach. It's an ode to the old-school game play that made the Italian plumber famous, but a game that can be beaten in a single sitting will leave many fans feeling a little short-changed.

Although it is heavily based on the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros., the graphics and music are the game's best assets. While the game is played from a traditional 2D side-scrolling perspective, all of the characters are smoothly animated and modelled in polygons. Some background elements playfully take advantage of their new flexibility; mushroom platforms spontaneously grow fat or thin, sway left and right, and wobble around to knock you off balance. Each world has its own theme which helps to keep things fresh, even if they fall into somewhat tired gaming tropes. The music is typically cheerful Mario stuff, with the right amount of tension in the ghost houses and enemy strongholds.

Sadly there are only three new power-ups introduced in this game. The best one is the Mini-Mushroom, which shrinks Mario down to the size of a few pixels. He becomes really floaty, allowing him to jump higher, and because he's so small he can access tight spots. It also makes him extremely vulnerable to getting squished, so it makes the game a bit harder.

The Mega-Mushroom has the opposite effect; for a limited time Mario grows as tall as the screen, and he can bash his way through just about anything. It's fun the first time, but it isn't very useful in most stages. Finally, there's the Blue Turtle Shell, which lets Mario ricochet through a stage like a regular shell. It's useful in a few very specific areas, but due to its sloppy controls it could also end up killing him.

In the current market, it would be considered draconian to exclude the save utility, but that is exactly the kind of bold decision this game needed. It's evident that Nintendo wanted to create a game that was highly re-playable and that could be beaten in a single sitting, much like the original Super Mario Bros.. The inclusion of several warp points (allowing you to skip entire worlds) suggests they wanted you to finish it multiple times in one go, trying out different routes and finding secret paths. After all, the early Mario titles didn't have passwords or save functions, and as a result players were glued to their sets for weeks or months trying to solve them.

With the ability to save, most gamers won't attempt to beat it the old-fashioned way. You'll find lots to enjoy if you work your way through each level at your own pace, but when it's over you'll feel robbed. And there are some drawbacks to some of its traditional design choices. For example, Bowser Jr. serves as a repetitive and boring mini-boss in every world, and the bosses themselves are much too easy and not very imaginative compared to previous titles. In fact, you'll find more difficult bosses in Super Princess Peach.

With some investigation you can find a small handful of secret exits in certain stages, which will ferret out new levels or lead to warp points. By far the most difficult challenge will be to collect all three Star Coins from every level, but this is completely optional, and the coins are only used to open bonus items on the map. To add some much needed incentive, they could have been used to unlock the included mini-games or other, more rewarding content.

NEW Super Mario Bros. is a fun and sometimes truly inspired game. However, in attempting to appeal to a broader, more casual audience most will find the game can be beaten in less than a week, making it one of the shortest titles in the Mario line up. The limited set of power-ups don't do the game any favours, and the new ones are only useful in very specific circumstances. On the plus side, there's a great variety to the level designs, and the graphics and music are top-notch. It was smart to return to a 2D side-scrolling perspective on the Nintendo DS, but the experience ends far too quickly, and there isn't much incentive to return to it when it's over.

New Super Mario Bros. is the first brand-new side-scrolling Mario game since 1992. Through that break from the casual "flinging fireballs at enemies" routine, Mario has been mostly seen in 3D platformers, RPGs, racing, sports, and Party games. It's truly a shame that no new Mario side-scroller has been released on the Game Boy Advance though, only old games (Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, etc.) have been re-released for the portable system. During that time period, Mario side-scrollers became a thing of the past, until recently, Nintendo decided to release another Mario platformer for the Nintendo DS, except it wasn't a 3D game like Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Sunshine or the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy for the upcoming Nintendo Wii, it was an all-new Mario side-scroller starring Mario and Luigi. It wasn't no big mission to retrieve stars or shine-sprites, it was just a normal quest to rescue the Princess from Bowser and Bowser Jr.

The closest we have got to a new Mario game like this was the recent DS game Super Princess Peach, which reversed the roles of the "Plumber saves Princess" formula, but it really didn't relive the classic days of Mario games. Only when New Super Mario Bros. was released when the Mario really returned, it was a normal side-scrolling adventure with no real storyline, but it instead featured 8 worlds with 80 total levels, packed with all the action that made Mario famous from the start. I got this game and it is anything but disappointing. It captures the essence of the old glory days NES games from the 80's and early 90's. But the game wouldn't be "New" without a few new additions, including Power-ups, moves, and enemies.

Nintendo has shoved the game with items such as the Mega Mushroom, which enlarges Mario to the size of the whole screen and can give him the ability to damage almost everything in sight, the Mini Mushroom turns Mario into Mini-Mario, who can fit through tight spaces that he normally couldn't, and for the first time, Mario can actually wear the Koopa shell and roll around on terrains and plow through enemies galore! The Classic Mushrooms and Fire Flowers make a return as well, that turn Mario into Super Mario and Fire Mario, who can fling fireballs at enemies (Sound familiar?). Mario's main move in the game like always is performing giant leaps and jumps, but his trip through 3D platforming has left a stain on him, and it can be seen in some of his new moves in this game, which includes the triple jump, the Ground Pound, and the wall jump, which all prove useful, because the wall jump can save you if you accidentally fall down a gap or can help you reach higher places, the triple Jump can help you jump higher than before, and the ground pound can help you stomp enemies, break blocks on the floor, and more. New enemies flourish through all of the game's 80 levels and each have unique abilities. Some of them include the casual group, including Goombas, Koopas, Thwomps, and Lakitus, but there are never-before-seen baddies that make their debut in this game, and they include Spookums, Balloon Boos, giant eels and such. Even with all of those new additions to the game, New Super Mario Bros. still manages to pull of the feel like you're playing on the Super NES.

Mario has a big history ahead of him, which includes games on Nintendo's next-gen console the Wii, but for now, all these ambitions can be put aside, and you can enjoy this game, which is one big trip down memory lane.

I was so looking forward to this game, with the great reviews and cool-looking graphics and all. But I honestly can't see what all the fuss is about.

For a start, the game is just too damn short and too damn easy with nothing much to make you continue playing. I don't buy into all this 'unlockable' crap and the bonus stuff in New Super Mario Bros. isn't all that interesting anyway. I'm not going to waste my time doing over a level I have already completed just for the sake of unlocking a new background. Only a sad, pathetic loser would do something like that.

And the so-called 'ton' of mini-games is a bold-faced lie since most of them are the exact same ones featured on Super Mario 64 DS and only about 2 aren't. There's only about half the amount featured on SM64 DS too. So there's another wasted opportunity.

Maybe it's because I played this so soon after the GBA version of SMB3 or maybe it's because it's just so damn short and never really gets going, but I was just so let down by New Super Mario Bros. The giant Mario thing is cool but it lasts for 5 seconds. I do wish the flying ability from SMB3 was featured. Or that the game was simply worth the money.

Don't believe the hype. Only pick this game up cheap!

Graphics A Sound B+ Gameplay B+ Lasting Appeal D+