New Super Mario Bros
SCORE: 95
Twenty years ago Nintendo released Super MARIO BROS. This legendary
game flew off of store shelves, and started a revolution in the video
game industry. Mario has gone through quite a few changes since that
time, and this game reflects many of those changes. The New Super MARIO
BROS. on the Nintendo DS takes the original, and completely re-tools it
for today's gaming standards. Some of these are Mario's wall jump, butt
stomp, and being able to run on water (as long as he keeps going).
Nostalgic gamers will completely dig this game, as will younger games
who never got to experience it the first time around.
The graphics are a nice mix of 3D models along with 2D levels. This
is a Mario game after all, thus it is bright, colorful, and very
pleasant to look at. Mario being able to grow the size of the screen, or
shrink down to mini size is handled quite well graphically. The artwork
is exceptional, and each of the worlds is themed differently. Nintendo
has also thrown in some new enemies for players to have fun with. The
older enemies have been visually upgrade as well. The backgrounds in
levels really show major improvements. Going up into the clouds now has
the clouds sinking under the weight of the player in a manner that is
impressive.
The sounds are classic Mario themes that have been around for twenty
years. It is interesting that with all this time these sounds have never
grown stale, which is a testament to why the original game is a
legendary classic. The music is cheerful, except when a boss is faced
(which is to be expected). The sounds, and music all work in tandem with
with areas they are associated with.
The New Super MARIO BROS. does not disappoint in the replay and
extras department. It only takes about five hours to play the game from
beginning to end. Doing so however skips two entire worlds. There are so
many unlock-ables that the average player will be busy for twenty hours
(at least) unlocking all of it. Each level has three large golden coins,
and getting all the coins not only unlocks a new area (at times), it is
also spent to unlock different paths. There are mini games, and two
player modes as well. This is a game that is most assuredly worth the
money it costs to buy it.
The main game play mechanics are of a side scrolling action adventure
game with an emphasis on exploration. Enemies can be avoided, butt
stomped, jumped on, shot with a fireball. The violence is at a minimum
and the player does not always need to take enemies out. In fact in many
areas it is more intelligent to avoid the enemies, and some enemies have
spikes on their shells (jumping on them is ill advised). The level
designs are done exceptionally well, and this reviewer found this game
to be fun to play.
Since Nintendo was able to take a twenty year old game like this, and
completely re-vamp it - this reviewer has been thinking maybe they could
do the same for some other older games. An entire line could be done,
and that certainly would be worthwhile. This game was a joy to play and
review. The violence is done in a cartoonish manner. There is no occult
to the special skills Mario acquires in the game. This is one of those
games that is pretty clean, and as long as the player understands the
difference between cartoons, and reality they should be good.
- Paul
Graphics: 93%
Sound: 96%
Replay/Extras: 100%
Gameplay: 98%
Family Friendly Factor: 89%
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Rating: 'E' for Everyone
{Comic Mischief}
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