New Super Mario Brothers

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New Super Mario Brothers

Postby RabidYak on Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:44 pm

DS Super Mario arrive in the post today and i've spend a few hours getting througth the first 2 worlds.

I can't say that i'm impressed with this game, mainly because its more like a Mario 64 flavored tart up of the NES era games rather then a legitimate progression of old style Mario. I don't doubt that this is exactly what allot of people want and that Nintendo specifically made it with retro selling appeal in mind, but I find it to be a somewhat retroactive step after Super Mario World and particulalry annoying having just seen what the DS can do with that sort of game in Super Princess Peach.

Story wise, its the same as usual except that Bowser's new kid has kidnapped the Princess instead of the big guy himself. Most of the regulars put in an appearence, Luigi in two player mode and the Toads dishing out wares from thier houses. Bowser has turned up at the end of one level so far and his standard minions populate the levels, but Yoshi only seems to be in the seperate minigames and theres no sign of the other Koopa kids, Luigi's Princess or the Mushroom King.

In terms of gameplay, its more or less a mix between SMB and SMB3 with some 64 elements throw in. Mario's move set is a mix of the later 2D games (jump, run, slide) and the newer 3D stuff (wall rebound, stomp). The basic power up set is present as well as some gimmicktacular new ones which involve Mario becoming increadably large to demolish everything in his parth and incredably small to fit througth tiny gaps to find bonuses. Theres also an almost completely useless one where he wears a koopa shell. There is no self-powered flying in this one, you have to steal a cloud from Lakitu if you want to do any of that.

The levels are almost entirely liniar and arn't particularly inventive so far, more in the style of SMB then any of the latter games. They are joined up by an equally pedestrian SMB3 style overworld, that has the odd toad house and a few hidden levels on it. Talking of hidden levels, actually finding the bloody things is probably the hardest part of the game. Unlike SMW where they were hidden but still findable during the normal course of play if you explored, allot of the second exits in the part of the game i've played so far are so obtuse that you probably wont find half of them without looking on the internet.

Sound and Music is about what you'd expect and the Graphics are mostly 3D objects in a 2D environment, which works about as well as that sort of thing usually does. I found the controls to be somewhat sluggish for my liking, more similar in responsiveness to the 3D games rather then the 2D ones.

Overall, milage may vary depending on your preference in Mario games. If SMB is your poison you'll probably love it, less so if your into SMB3 and not allot if your a SMW fiend like me. Althougth I probably shouldent admit this in public, I enjoyed Princess Peach allot more then I have this game so far.
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Postby Class316 on Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:39 pm

Wish there were DS emus.
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Postby Silverhaze on Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:11 pm

I got this game on the launch day because it got really good reviews. I was expecting it to be pretty easy and to not be much more than a little Mario revisited until I can get my hands on this new GC Paper Mario game.

Hopefully we can take this game as a good sign that they are paying more attention to the GC game. Perhaps. :?

I have to agree with most of what Yak has said especially the control responsivness and secret level locations. Some of them are in places you can see but have no clue how you could ever get there.

I suppose its good harmless fun for as long as you can play before getting DS claw hand and its a nice distraction. Maybe I'll give Princess Peach a try, I'll see if I can get the missus to buy it for her DS ;)
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