Nintendo took a gamble when they tried to re-invent the game that made them what they are today. That gamble paid off!
The little Italian Plumber on an adventure to save the princess from the evil turtle like Koopas and their many minions became the world's greatest and most selling game of all time, sparking literally hundreds of sequels, ports and spin-offs!
Years later Nintendo decided to gamble their prized position and jump with Mario to the 3d world with Super Mario 64 thus creating a new genre that many followed.
With this game however they revisited the classic gameplay and upgraded the visuals and added lots of new things to make New Super Mario Bros. not just a visual upgrade but a whole new experience of itself!
The story is your usual Peach gets kidnapped by Bowser Jr and its up to Mario to save the day! No twists, no complications and no non-sense.
The gameplay of course is what this game is all about! simple controls with two buttons one for jumping and one for running or throwing the fire balls. This is platforming at its best so expect alot of precise jumps, coin collecting and cheap deaths because that's what classic Mario is all about! Lots of nifty tools are available for use such as the classic enlarge Mario mushroom and the fire flower, but some interesting new powerups have been added for a fresh feel. The shrink mushroom will actually shrink Mario instead to help you get a few tight areas. The enormous Mushroom makes Mario as large as the screen and makes him invincible and sends him on a destructive rampage ala Godzilla. The Koopa Shell gives Mario a turtle like shell that both serves as a defensive shield and an offensive weapon when you use the run button as well as enhances the swimming controls (ironically non of the Koopas are ever seen swimming).
Other new elements to the gameplay are a world map similar to that of SMB 3 and SMW where paths open as you clear levels or when you gather enough large coins (three in each level). The world map also has bonus mushroom houses that give you power-ups or extra lives.
Each new world opens up when you beat that world's castle and its boss. This time around instead of pitting you against Bowser or his kids all the time you actually get some creative bosses, my favorite being Baby Piranha Plant! The game also adds a level of challenge where you have to beat each boss after using the shrink mushroom in order to advance to an alternate route. You have to do this to unlock all the worlds in the game.
You do most of the playing on the top screen of the DS with the bottom screen serving as both a progress screen and where you store an extra power up to use when needed by choosing it with the stylus. Checkpoints are a nice and welcome addition to those difficult levels too!
Multi-player battle through Wi-Fi and mini-games are there and there is so much more than I can't remember but will keep you playing long after you've finished the main quest!
The sound is your usual happy tunes and a few remixes of classic tracks that sound excellent but can get a bit repetitive after a while. sound affects are your standard Mario sounds, don't expect Mario to start reciting his back story anytime soon.
The graphics are very nice and colorful and some of the best I've seen on the DS. Animation is fluid and some attention to detail is very appreciated. One particular thing although not exactly ground breaking put a smile on my face is how the many enemies sometimes react to the soundtrack! This is something you have to see to actually appreciate, Mario's world has always reacted to the music of the soundtrack but never to this extent!
The only thing I thought was not up to par in this game is the difficulty level. The game is relatively EASY compared to the original one which was quite challenging. The game is constantly helping you out with power-ups and 1ups that at a certain point I realized I actually had 35 lives! The difficulty does tend to rise as you near the end of the game but with so many power ups I didn't feel threatened. My younger brother did have a harder time with the game but me being someone who played the original game felt that this game was A LOT easier.
The easiness of the game doesn't stop it from being quite a wonderful experience, this is one of the best games out there and it did a wonderful job in upgrading the classic Super Mario Bros. and bringing it to today's standards! Now that its coming to the Wii I have more reasons to get the console!