New Super Mario Brothers

Platform: Nintendo DS

4 out of 5 stars

You probably hesitated in buying this game because you thought it wouldn’t be much different from the ones you played several years ago. You should definetly rethink that. The level design is incredibly creative, with many new terrain features and enemies to conquer. Instead of just fighting Bowser every time you enter a castle, you must first deafeat baby bowser about halfway through each world in a special tower level.

I’m very sorry to say that the wondrous magical feather has left the game, although in it’s place there are rare cloud-riding enemies. Kill the enemy riding the cloud and then you can use it to fly! Other new additions include the blue shell, which will let you zoom across the landscape with near invincibility, the mini mushroom, which will let you float with each jump and the ultra rare mega mushroom, which will let you destroy EVERYTHING in sight, while taking no damage! If you don’t get this game for the main event, you could very well buy it just for the mini-games. I have spent nearly as much time with the mini-games as with the main game!

So here’s the reason why it didn’t get five stars: In each level there are three rare coins which you can spend on extra lives and items. Nothing wrong with that. But once you beat Bowser for the last time, this shop pops up at the first level. Enter it, and you simply see five squares with a 20-coin icon under them. When you get 20 rare coins and hit a block, the background for your bottom screen changes. Poof! There goes an hour of frusturating gaming. Other than that score crusher, this is one of the best games I’ve seen on the DS. A must for fans of the series!

Ooh, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but at one of the screens, hold down L, R and B. Then you get to play as Luigi, lucky you.