I’d played this game for a few days last week…in preparation for Super Mario 3D Land [3DS] which came out yesterday. By the way, I’ve only played it a few hours and I’m on World 3 of 8 already. I’ve been told it gets pretty hard in World 8…but right now, I’m breezing through it.

Anyways, back to New Super Mario Bros.

While it came out in 2006, I’m only playing it now cuz I just got a (3)DS this year. So it’s like, 5 years old. But it’s heavily similar to the Super Mario Bros Wii….well, actually the Wii game is similar to this. I’ll say that the multiplayer aspect on the Wii makes that game a lot more fun. The power-ups in the Wii make some things easier…and harder.

GAMEPLAY: 8/10

It plays pretty much like any Mario game. I found that it’s easy to do what I want generally…with the exception of when I use 2 of the new power-ups – Mini Mushroom and Blue Turtle Shell. While you need the Mini Mushroom to get a lot of the secrets in the game, you move differently than regular Mario; there’s more airtime but you’re also super fragile which makes the power-down (see what i did there?!) pretty crappy. Again though, you need this power-up to get the secrets for some levels (never for the level itself). Some of the most difficult aspects of this game for me was staying alive with this power-up long enough to get the Special Coin I wanted. The Blue Turtle Shell is also pretty crappy because when you run fast enough, you start moving like a shell that’s been thrown. It makes for a lot of unpredictability. You could get out of it by not holding the run/action button…but for me, I ALWAYS hold that button. That’s my natural way to play, so using the Blue Turtle Shell is kinda useless for me, unless it’s in a water level.

Anyways, the gameplay is still good/fun. The Super Giant Mario Mushroom is the opposite of the Mini Mushroom – you’re invulnerable (except from falling in a hole) except you destroy any chances of getting anything special, or going anywhere special. Effectively for me, who needs to get 100%, this is the most useless power up as I’d have to re-do a level.

So what I’m getting at is that all the new power-ups in this game SUCK.

At least they improved that in Super Mario Wii – No Blue Turtle Shell, No Giant Mario…but they added a penguin suit >_< that damn penguin suit. Difficulty wise, this game is super easy. There was one level in Super Mario Bros Wii that was pretty impossible to me. Not just me, I googled it and everyone struggled in it. But for that game, that was the only really difficult level. For this game, there were no really difficult levels. Just as an FYI - let me run down my timeline for this game to you:
Nov 8: Finished Kirby Mass Attack. Play New Super Mario Bros. : Worlds 1 to 2.5
Nov 9: World 2.5 to 4. At this time, I set myself a 4 day deadline to finish the game, so I could finish it for when the new Mario came out.
Nov 10: Worlds 4 to 6.
Nov 11: Worlds 7 to 8. Finished the game with all 3 Golden Coins per level. Finished all the levels. Spent all the golden coins. 3 Stars – 100%
It only took me 4 days to completely dominate & 100% the game. No real difficulty issues. Finished the game with 2 days to spare :D

Anyways, I just wanted to say – it’s easy for an experienced Mario gamer. And while there are a lot of worlds, it’s not deathly slow like Kirby Mass Attack. It was a welcome change from that game. *Shudder*

GRAPHICS: 10/10

They’re pretty good considering their age. It still seems to me like this game recently came out, it was in the stores for free play for so long. And the Wii, with all it’s updated capabilities, looks just like it. For Nintendo DS, I’m pretty impressed. It’s no PS3 or XBOX game I mean, but for Mario, it looks great.

MUSIC AND SOUNDS: 10/10

Same ol’ music. Maybe even more familiar than before for me because I played the Wii game first. Nothing to complain about, the music is engaging, but doesn’t make you sick even though you listen to it over and over. Seriously, all the water levels like, sound the same.

FUN: 9/10

This game is fun. Way funner than Kirby. Fun enough that I could spend hours playing it. Fun enough that I could play it so much, my thumbs hurt the next day cuz of how much I played. And that happened twice >_< I knocked it 1 point off because of the damn useless power-ups. Playing with those abilities was NOT fun, only necessary.

FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s a fun game. There’s nothing brand new, like Mario Land 3-D [3DS]. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel so if you’re looking for something brand new, you’ll be disappointed. I think this game is better for it’s nostalgia, since having a 2-D/2.5-D Mario game hasn’t been around in a while. Super Mario World [SNES] came out in 1991. That was the game I grew up with, the one that honed my skills. Anyways….drumroll please…de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-capachow!