After a 14 year hiatus, New Super Mario Bros. brings back the classic sidescrolling platform play into a new Mario game for the Nintendo DS. Playing on nostalgia as well as improving on an already strong gameplay, New Super Mario Bros. is a fun platformer. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind that is annoying about the game is the lack of being able to save when you want. Considering that this is a handheld game, the only way to save is either by beating a boss level or spending special large coins, which does not suit the portable nature. Sure, you can sleep the DS, temporarily suspending your gameplay but the DS's battery does not last forever. This lack of save anywhere, especially if you're not good at platformers (i.e. you constantly die), may mean you will definitely lose progress and play through the levels you have just passed again and again, just to get back to where you were before. Other than that, New Super Mario Bros. boasts an impressive 80 levels, which starts off with a low difficulty but eventually ramps up to become quite the challenge to finish a level without dying. If you lose all your lives, you get pushed back to your last save, losing all subsequent progress in the process. If you've never played a Super Mario Bros. game then you will take a short while to get accustomed to the timing of the jumps.
Each level has a timer, which is usually plenty enough to finish the level but if you like to take your time to explore, or if you are stuck at one play trying to get that hidden collectible, then you may run out of time and lose a life. Each level also has one checkpoint, it can be earlier int he level, later or smack in the middle, each level is different. This is actually quite annoying during the boss levels in which you have to re-trek over half the level to fight the boss again. Throughout the game, you will travel through different terrains, from slippery ice to caves with lava. Towards the latter Worlds, enemies and environmental hazards will increase, including volcanoes causing rocks to constantly fall from the sky. It can get quite difficult at times. The game has no tutorial but the controls are very simple to pick up. Mario can jump and you collect coins in order to earn extra lives once you've collected 100, and you can get power-ups which gives Mario extra abilities. The abilities in this game are: becoming bigger into Super Mario (able to withstand one hit); growing huge into Mega Mario (crushing everything in your path); become a miniaturized Mini Mario (jump higher and run on water); Blue Shell Mario where he can retreat back into his shell to protect himself; become invincible; and Fire Flower, being able to throw fireballs.
Each level has 3 Star coins (which are larger than normal) to collect, this means that there are 240 coins to find! They are usually hidden so you will have to search every nook and cranny, and try to climb through every pipe you see. While there are eight worlds, two of them are hidden and you will need to do something specific in order to unlock them. This is really cool and encourages you to keep playing in a bid to open all the routes. Levels also have hidden areas with coins or alternate paths allowing you to bypass levels, access new unique levels or warp you to another World. EAch level is populate by enemies which are usually defeated by jumping on them, harder enemies will end up throwing stuff at you or are unable to be defeated. The story is very simple, Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser Jr. and it is up to Mario to rescue her. That's the premise of the story and the sole reason for Mario to run through so many levels. No further story is given which is to be expected of a Mario game. The graphics are decent, considering the limitation of the hardware at the time. While the backgrounds are in 2D, Mario, the enemies and the foreground are all rendered in 3D, which ends up being a very nice effect.
The sound effects and music are good, and what's a nice touch is that if you put your DS to sleep, Mario says goodbye and when you turn it back on, Mario says hi. New Super Mario Bros. uses both of the DS's screens, all the action takes place on the above screen except for a few certain places where it transfers to the bottom screen. The bottom screen during levels shows how far Mario is in that level (i.e. how close he is to the finish flagpole), which of the three Star coins he has collected and you are able to store one power-up to be used at anytime. Every two to three levels is a boss battle, which are easy and quick at the beginning, requiring Mario to jump onto them once. It starts to get harder as the game goes along especially since Mario dies in one to three hits. The final boss can be quite intense. Extras tot the game include 18 minigames that makes use of the touchscreen, and they are good. Furthermore, there are local competitive play, even if your friend does not own a copy of the game. After you finish the game, you can even play as Luigi. Overall, New Super Mario Bros. is a good platformer with a decent challenge, especially if you are going for all the hidden coins. It does feel cheap sometimes with its design but this is a good return to the 2D Mario sidescroller.
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