Mario is back in yet another game. Yes, the pudgy plumber can’t seem to get enough of stomping on those goombas, and rescuing princesses from turtle-dinosaurs could be his only hobby (besides eating of course…). Mario seems to enjoy these monotonous adventures, and for some god-forsaken reason, so do we. Welcome to the *New* Super Mario Bros.!
This time, Mario is happily strolling with the Princess Peach, when she notices that her beloved castle is on fire! While Mario runs off to investigate, Princess Peach is kidnapped by an unknown monster! Witnesses claim the monster is Bowser Jr., who seems to think that Princess Peach is his mother. (Peach is evidently a promiscuous Princess….she must have had strong “mushroom goggles” to mistake Bowser for mustachioed Mario….) The story is…. you guessed it! Rescue Peach from Bowser Jr. and once again save the Mushroom Kingdom.
If you’ve played any Mario game in the history of gaming, you will immediately know how to play this game. The goal is to stomp, jump, and run your way through levels while collecting as many gold coins as possible. This time, just to mix it up, you also need to collect giant gold stars, which are the key to opening special routes on the world map.
There are three of these golden stars in each level, and they usually take a bit of thinking to get to. But we’re not talking brain science here, if you can solve simple puzzles, you win! Besides the ability to be large and on fire, Mario can now grow HUGE or very, very small with the aid of some different mushrooms.
Using these new types of mushrooms is handy for collecting those out-of-reach gold stars. Who knew mushrooms held such magnificent power? Also, Mario can jump into a blue koopa shell and go whizzing through enemies with ease! The shell isn’t effective for collecting stars, but is useful for disposing of enemies quickly.
However, I absolutely abhor the mega mushroom. Being large in size worked well for Super Mario 64, but here it’s a sure way to fall into a pit and die. Mario crushes everything he walks over, including the supporting blocks over large gaps. Don’t use this mushroom unless you’re sure it’s for a good cause. Kind of a stupid addition to the game, I think.
The shrinking mushroom works quite well, actually. Mario can run faster, jump higher, and squeeze through tiny gaps for hard to reach golden stars. Unfortunately, small Mario cannot kill any bad guys, he just launches himself off of them, so it is really easy to get killed in this form too. The blue koopa shell is really the only great addition to the selection of items, unfortunately. It is long lasting and doesn’t effect Mario’s form enough to make you want to switch immediately out of it.
The level designs are nothing new either. There are snow, pipe, desert, sky, and water levels. Let me be very clear, there is absolutely NOTHING new about the gameplay. In fact, this game bears a close resemblance to the SNES Super Mario World. The map ideas are the same, as are the castles. In the first “fortress”, you kill Bowser Jr., and then make your way to the large castle at the end where there is a different boss to kill off (usually jumping on him works well….).
In the meantime, Bowser Jr. is hiding in these castles and fortresses and then running off into different worlds once you’ve demolished the castle. So what does Mario do? Continue chasing him until he is cornered in World 8! The map does have some secret paths that you can open by using the gold stars you’ve collected. These paths are usually shortcuts or paths to Toad’s house, where you can win 1ups, mega mushrooms, or a reserve item (flowers, stars, mushrooms, etc.). Overall, these stars don’t do much but save time or give you the chance to earn as many spare lives as possible.
Unfortunately, there is no Yoshi in this game. Big disappointment. I live to watch huge, fat Italian plumbers ride around on baby dinosaur’s backs. Besides, who doesn’t want to watch Yoshi use that long tongue? Pay attention boys… you could learn something here….
Although there isn’t a ton of new content, Mario looks better than ever. The worlds appear crisp and clean, and there is a surprising amount of detail in the backgrounds. Fine lines appear vividly, and the monsters look great! Finally a goomba has a body instead of being portrayed as an odd-shaped block moving towards you. Also, Bowser really has spines! Spiny Bowser is much more intimidating than wee, turtle Bowser.
Again, the music is mostly the same stuff we’ve all heard before. There are some new overworld themes, but nothing spectacular. I will give kudos to the game for revamping some of the old themes, but largely they’re exactly the same.
The game is short too. There is only so many goombas to stomp or stars to collect. It does offer around five to seven hours of solid gameplay, but that’s if you’re headed straight through. The game does not demand that you finish all of the levels in the game to get to World 8, and on my first time through, I skipped two of the levels all together. If you are a perfectionist and want to collect all of the golden stars, you can go back and replay each level until you have every last one of them.
The stylus is not integrated well into the single player of New Super Mario Bros. The stylus is used only to tap your reserve item on the lower screen, but it’s a pain to hold your stylus while playing the game. If you’re not holding it, you’ll have to either hit the screen with your thumb (eewwww… greasy thumbprints!) or grab it out of the holder each time.
Access to the reserve items is necessary, and I wish it would have been left the way it’s been for years… when you downgrade in size or level, you get your reserve. I believe the selective reserve function was created so you could save those mega/shrinking mushrooms for a special time, but besides that, it’s a big pain in the ass.
New Super Mario Bros. does offer several great multiplayers! In a two-player, one person picks Mario and the other Luigi, and they each race through worlds while trying to collect more stars than the other. However, you can make your partner lose stars by jumping on him and then stealing them. Whoever ends with the most stars wins the match.
Also, as many as four players can compete in minigames utilizing the microphone and stylus. Players choose between one-on-one, puzzles, tables, or “action”. Pick one or several genres, and then choose either “shuffle” or “free-play”. Shuffle does exactly what you would guess, it shuffles between different levels.
Free-play works a little differently, as the loser of the match chooses the next game. Each participant needs a copy of the game (duh) and the built in Nintendo WiFi. Unfortunately, you cannot compete with people that aren’t sitting within a short distance from each other. It would be great if Nintendo could expand the WiFi to somewhere outside of the same frickin’ room.
Many people will be thinking at this point, “Well why the hell should I lay down $35 for a Mario game that is the same as the old ones?”
Don’t get me wrong; although Mario is mostly the same, it is fun to play. If you like the preceding games in the Mario genre, buy this one! Although monotonous, something about squashing goombas never gets old!
The multiplayer is innovative, and the single player makes a nice addition to the series. However, a more “outside-the-box” Mario game would be welcomed right about now…. this Italian flavor is getting a little stale.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||