Review: New Super Mario Brothers (DS)
Score: 76
They're bright, they're cheerful and they're colourfully brought to life in this latest Mario adventure for the Nintendo DS platform. Unlike Super Mario 64, its predecessor on this platform, the 3D graphics are much more restrained, with most of the gameplay being traditional 2D platforming at its best, nicely enhanced here and there with 3D effects.
Control in each world is using the d-pad and other buttons, which works well enough, even if it's not up to the finesse possible using the original Nintendo joysticks (remember them?). The touch-screen is used mainly to display status information and to play a variety of somewhat simple but amusing mini-games, with the stylus much more prominent.
Although this all sounds a bit bolted together, it works and there's a lot of carefully crafted gameplay (and thus fun) in New Super Mario Brothers. As usual, you can run, jump (off walls for extra height), throw fireballs and a variety of other unusual experiences, such as growing to fill the screen or become tiny enough to fit in a pipe.
(Image copyright
IGN)
You can even play multi-player over Wi-Fi in 'Mario vs Luigi', in which you compete (though you only need one gamecard) to collect stars, and there's multi-player gaming (up to four players!) built into most of the minigames.
New Super Mario Brothers certainly doesn't use the Nintendo DS Lite to its full potential, but it's still a good value purchase and an excellent diversion for any platform fans.