Everything old is redone again. Badly.
This game is for those people who never, ever, ever played Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, the compilation of all three on the Super Nintendo., or any of the other numerous games with Mario’s face plastered to it. And even if this applies to you, you’d be better off playing one of the classics.
In this one, Princess Peach is kidnapped (again) while Mario’s off doing the hero thing (as usual). Once Mario realizes that his woman isn’t where he last left her, he goes off to find her (of course) while romping through forest stages (check), snow stages (check), desert stages (check), and other atypical environs (frickin check). Along the way he can visit Mushroom shops (SMB3) and will have a chance to wall-jump (SM64) and collect three pretty shiny big coin thingies in each level (which is from another SM game, but you get the idea).
The BIG difference in this game (pun intended) is that Mario can grow to gargantuan size, as well as shrink down to miniscule proportions. Oh, and there’s some blue shell thingy that you’ll see about once a world, and will be phenomenally useless if you’re anywhere around sudden drops. This thing is like steering a retarded cow. Not that the big and little Mario’s will be any better. They’re just a little bit less unwieldy. Big Mario can break through anything in his path ala bull in a china shop. He can go through blocks, pipes, you name it. And the novelty of this will wear off the first time you have to go back through a course because you destroyed the pipe that held the last big pretty coin thingy in it while you were on a drunken rampage through Mario’s backyard. And the small Mario is cute for about the time it takes an enemy to step on you. Little Mario’s claim to fame is that he can run across water, and will “float” a bit when he’s on the downward part of a jump. …That’s it. He will die quickly and painfully, and is the pits to control.
Let’s not jump to conclusions (another pun!), because normal Mario’s no fun to control either. It feels like there’s a split second of lag between the time you tell him to jump and the time he actually does jump. This also seems to be in effect when you move him left and right. This can be pretty sweet. For instance, you can get friends and family members to play this game, and watch their faces go from enjoyment to horror as Mario cheerfully walks off a cliff, or blissfully jumps a hair too far and falls off to oblivion in the “swinging mushrooms of death” stage. But besides that bit of hilarity, Mario’s just not that enjoyable. He’ll run too far and fall, or he’ll jump too far wide of the pit, or you’ll lose the fire flower you’ve had for about three worlds as you inadvertently turn super huge in a pipe with nothing to do but wait the ten seconds for it to wear off. I know what you’re thinking. “He must really sux0r at platformers!” Be that as it may, this game is geared towards a young audience. I suppose I could overlook the lag (you get used to it), but It’s just not that fun. There are better platformers out there. Anywhere. Go look, I’ll wait…
The graphics are phenomenal, as well as the sound. The first time I heard the end music and got a firework to shoot from the castle was a definite blast from the past. …It wears off quickly. The sound and graphics are revamped for today’s audience, and look good.
I’m not really sure why this is a DS game, however, as you only use the touch screen for minigames THAT WERE RIPPED FROM ANOTHER MARIO GAME. Yep, you’re playing the same minigames you played in Super Mario 64 DS. So what exactly is new here, besides the graphics and sound? Not a single thing.
I really wish Nintendo would have spent the time and energy from this game in making a new version of an old classic, like Blaster Master or Bionic Commando. I wish the game wasn’t so bland, so lackluster. And I wish I hadn’t spent the $30+ dollars on a bad “redeux” of a great game.