Hey this is kinda cool.....oh wait...it's over......

User Rating: 7.6 | New Super Mario Bros. DS
For the nostalgic of gamers with hungry inner children brewing inside, Nintendo stretches its palm out and feeds us with a trip down memory lane. It’s a-him, Mario…again, in all his classic splendour with new tricks up his sleeves. Take for instance, the ability to turn ULTRA-large and smash your way, effortlessly, through a level, (Yeh, it’s as fun as it sounds) or the ability to grow a turtle shell and slide down hills and kill things on the way (again, totally as fun as it sounds), or the ability to turn ULTRA-small and sorta float around in a feather-in-the-wind sort of fashion (actually not that fun…) Appeal? It’s Mario, and he’s back in 2D SIDESCROLLING FORM. Some people find that mere fact worth celebrating.

…Not me though… It is a short blast from the past and refreshing in its own way, sure. But ultimately what goes through my mind as I’m jumping goombas and hitting question blocks with my head are the words: ‘been there, done that’. It also doesn’t help that the face of this jolly platformer is marred by a shamefully short lifespan and ridiculously low difficulty. One good surge through...take a good Fire Flower for the big boss and –hey presto- you’ve completed the game. But then again, I spent damned near my entire childhood playing Mario so perhaps my somewhat high and dry experience doesn’t apply to everyone. Production values, for instance, are quite fantastic. Graphics are very Mario-ish and are technically and artistically sound and the same goes for the game’s audio component. In terms of control, Mario responds as tightly and immediately as he should.

Good game? Yeh sure while it lasts. To be fair I had fun doing the whole routine again even if I had done it countless times before. For what it’s worth the game does what it does well. Worth getting? Nah. Way too short for $60. Borrow it off someone who was eager enough to purchase their own copy.