Forum Overview :: Reviews :: New Super Mario Bros.

[quote name="Horrible Gelatinous Blob"]New Super Mario Bros. is unquestionably a step backward. It's most accurately described as Super Mario Bros 3 1/2, but it doesn't even learn all of the lessons of SMB3. You've got a Mini Mushroom, which shrinks Mario to travel-size: kind of useful at times, but not really desirable. You've got the plain old Fire Flower, which got old by World 5 of SMB1, and you've got the Blue Turtle Shell, which is like the Hammer Bros suit from SMB3, only much crappier. Oh, there's the Mega Mushroom too, but it's basically the Star all over again, only with cooler visuals and less frequent appearances. There's no Tanooki Suit, no Hammer Bros Suit, no Leaf, no Frog Suit, no P Wing, no Cape, no Kuribo's Shoe, nothing that was in SMB3 or SMW that really added enjoyement and variety to the game. You're jumping on enemies or fireballing them (until you venture deep enough into the game that you start regularly encountering fireproof foes, in which case you'll just be jumping on them). The butt stomp from Mario 64 is included, mainly as a way to still jump on enemies as Mini Mario, who normally is too tiny to have any effect when landing on a foe. The odd part is, that for what actually is in the game, the level design is uniformly excellent. The challenge ramps up quite appropriately, lives are plentiful (which is good, since the controls are fairly unforgiving), and the distinct look of each world <i>feels</i> Super Mario-y. The juxtaposition of the inexcusable lack of variety and the stellar level design leads me to feel like the elements added by the different play mechanics were deliberately left out by the designers with the express purpose of adding them in for the inevitable sequels. In short: NSMB is the tech demo, and NSMB 2 or NSMB 3 will be the actual game. Gotta give it a negative. New Super Mario Bros is exactly what it claims to be: a new version of Super Mario Bros. Just like I never played SMB after getting SMB 2 and 3, I don't really want to play this when I could go play any of the Super Mario Advance series. Wait for it to come down in price to $15 or lower, or pick it up used. I have a feeling it'll be flooding used game aisles soon enough.[/quote]