New Super Mario Bros. lives up to the Mario game standard, and that certainly means a lot.
The game starts off like 99% of all other Mario games start off--with Princess Peach being captured, but wait! There’s a twist! Well, not really. This time she's captured by Bowser Junior instead of Bowser. That little scamp takes the Princess through a number of different worlds, and Mario, being the heroic fat plumber that he is (as well as being obligated to) goes out on a mission to rescue the princess.
New Super Mario Bros. features 8 worlds, each of which have around 6 - 10 levels in them. You only need to play through 6 of them to complete the game (or rather beat the final boss), but if you want to complete the game 100% you'll need to play through all 8 worlds, but because of how fun the game is, you'll probably want to anyway. A lot of the levels have alternate ways to finish them, plus there are a lot of secrets within the levels.
As you might have guest, each world has a different environment to it. The first world contains a fairly standard environment, but as you unlock new worlds you'll find an ice, desert and forest ect. worlds. Each world has specific enemies or objects that you'll have to overcome. However, each world also contains a "Tower" and "Castle" stage in them, at the end of which you'll face off with Bowser Junior (for the tower levels) or a world boss (for the Castle levels). There are some new upgrades to be found in this game as well. As well as the red mushroom which turns Mario into Super Mario and the flame flower which lets Mario shoot fire balls out of his hands. First off there’s a mega mushroom that will turn Mario into Mega Mario (I guess you could call him that), which basically means he's much, much bigger and invincible. Additionally, you'll earn a number of green mushrooms (which give you more lives) depending on how much stuff you smash. Mario will also be able to turn into mini Mario using mini Mushrooms, which make him a lot smaller. This means he can get higher physics on him jumps and fit in places and go through smaller pipes that normal or Super Mario could get into. The last new upgrade for Mario is a blue shell, which pretty much gives you the same abilities as a "Kooper Trooper" which can be very useful. If you dash for a few seconds you'll retract into the shell and roll on the ground until you decide to let go of the dash button. This can let you wipe out a great deal of enemies, as well as let you speed through a level, but you'll often lose control and fall through a gap, and jumping can be kind of tricky. Unfortunately though, none of the new upgrades appear very much in the levels. It’s actually quite rare to see them (especially the blue shell). The mega mushroom and mini mushroom may get in the way sometimes rather than help, but it definitely would have been nice to of seen more of the blue shell. Additionally, Mario will be able to perform a couple of new moves. First of, and possibly more importantly, Mario can now wall jump to gain access to higher places which would generally be unreachable other wise. In these normally unreachable places you may find a number of different things, like star coins or some upgrades. In addition to wall jumping, you can now butt-stomp, which is traditionally a 3D game element. You’ll butt-stomp your way through a number of bricks to also gain access to new areas. Aside there the single player though, there are a few modes that may hold your interest, for a bit though. I didn't get the chance to play the multiplayer, but the mini games did manage to keep me entertained for a number of hours though. Most of the mini games featured in New Super Mario Bros. could be found in Super Mario 64 DS, but they weren't all available from the start of the game, but they are now. Some of the mini games are quite fun. There’s one particular one where you have to slingshot cannon balls into bomb-ombs (with the touch screen of coarse) before they touched the ground, which was my favorite of the group, but there is something there for everyone, though as i said, that something will probably only hold your interest for a few hours.
Graphically, New Super Mario Bros. is solid. The backgrounds are 2D, and the character and enemy models are 3D. Some of the 3D models however, are questionable. Just normal Mario sort of looks like he's just been squashed by something and is about to pop back to normal size. Though the Super Mario character models look much better, there still not terrific. The backgrounds however, look quite impressive, especially the underwater levels. New Super Mario Bros. features some great audio, from the small "he hee'"'s and "Ya hoo!"'s from Mario to the remixed Mario music, which still maintains the classical sound, the audio is certainly a highlight of the game. As previously mentioned, the game has 8 worlds, 6 of which you only really need to complete. The replay value of this game is really good. Although there’s really no reason for you to play through the game again, it’s still a blast to play it all over again. If you do get into New Super Mario Bros. (and you likely will) you’re going to be entertained for quite a while.
Mario has been around for a bit over 20 years now, but he's still managing to give us some really great games (and age really well too) and New Super Mario Bros. is no exception. If your a fan of the classic Mario games, New Super Mario Bros. is a must own game, but DS owners just looking for a quality, great looking and sounding, and overall fun game, New Super Mario Bros. is one of the best choices you can make at the moment. New Super Mario Bros. lives up to the Mario game standard, and that certainly means a lot.