New Super Mario Bros (Nintendo DS)
It’s about time there was a new Super Mario Bros game, and this one if just sheer genius. It uses 3D models instead of 2D sprites, but it’s very much a traditional 2D Mario side scroller. And thank god for that – Mario in 3D is great but 2D is where he really shines.
So, it’s the same old story. Peach has been kidnapped (oh no!) and plumber-boy has to rescue here. There’s the usual range of mushroom upgrades available, as well as an awesome uber mushroom which makes you ginormous and, well, allows you to just run across the screen destroying everything. One cool thing is that you receive one up mushrooms when it wears off, depending on how much damage you’ve done. This makes it very handy for stocking up on extra lives by revisiting earlier levels. Which you need, frankly, because NSMB is, in the usual Mario tradition, really hard (for me at least).
One of the nicer aspects of NSMB is the way the level is interactive – lifts to ride in (but watch out cos they collapse), bouncy platforms, wobbly platforms, exploding things as well as a whole horde of new baddies. It’s just ace. Sadly, I’ve only managed to clear the first area and castle.
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