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The gampeplay in New Super Mario Bros. revolves around the concept of traveling through eight themed worlds - each of which contains numerous stages within them - and toppling the challenges they present to the player. Each of these worlds are set up just like previous Marios in that each stage is one space and branches off to one or more other stages. Some stages have secret exits that open up hidden paths, however there are only a handful which are actually hard to locate. Most of the stages see Mario travelling from the far left "entrance" to the flagpole at the very end to progress further along the next stage. Some of them, such as the stages that utilize swimming and many of the "castle stages", have Mario running around up and down as well as left and right to reach his goal. Unfortunately, a lot of the stages feel to short and design with a bit too much simplicity. The stages that prove to be hard are the ones that really define this game for me, and I suppose the easier stages would appeal to players who don't have as much experience as longtime Mario fans do. There's a definite balance in the difficulty; but it sometimes becomes a little too apparent when, after completing what felt like the easiest stage in the game, you are suddenly thrust into a frustratingly hard one.
There are some brand new gameplay elements beyond the traditional start-to-finish concept. In each of the stages are three larger coins that you can collect and spend to open up mushroom themed stages in each level (green ones let you play a 1-up minigame, red ones let you hit a block to get a random power-up, and the orange colored ones give you a Mega Mushroom). Some of these coins are especially hard to get, so expect a challenge from them occasionally. If you've played Super Mario 64 (N64 or DS) you'll recognize the Red Coins that are present in New Super Mario Bros. Whenever Mario passes through a red ring, eight Red Coins will appear nearby for a limited amount of time. If you manage to collect all eight before they disappear, you'll get a random power-up.
The multiplay modes available in New Super Mario Bros. are very entertaining. Mario vs. Luigi is my personal favorite (two players). In it, you play as either Mario or Luigi as you try to be the first to collect five stars. Each of the themed stages available (snowy, pipes, etc.) are full of items and coins that you can use to disrupt your opponent and make him drop stars. The multiplayer minigames (two to four players) are a nice touch as well. There are a lot of them ranging from action to playing cards; and all of them have stylus functionality. You may recognize quite a few of them if you've played the minigames available in Super Mario 64DS, though.
Controlling Mario (or Luigi if you hold L and R while selecting Main Game) is an instinctual feeling which is nearly identical to Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo. A and B will cause him to jump, and X and Y cause dash while he's running. Mario also has two new moves he can use: jumping up into the air and pressing down the directional pad makes Mario perform his famous ground-pound move; and pressing against a wall will cause him to slide down the surface allowing him to wall-kick off to higher areas. Adding some depth to Mario's skillset are the various power-ups he can pick up along his adventure. While some of them are returning favorites (the Super Mario mushroom, the Power Flower, and the Star Power that makes Mario invincible for a short while), there are a few all-new items. The Mega Mushroom will make Mario grow in size and allow him to destroy a lot of common objects found throughout the stages like blocks, enemies, pipes, and more. As you run about destroying things, a meter along the top of the screen will fill up. For every section of the meter you fill, you will gain an extra life when Mario returns to normal size. The Mini Mushroom has the exact opposite effect as the Mega Mushroom - Mario becomes tiny in size and capable of entering small pipes, running along the surface of water, jumping higher, floating through the air, and running in small openings through which a normal-sized Mario could not. The other new item is the blue Koopa shell which lets Mario glide around like a kicked Koopa shell for as long as you hold X/Y while he is dashing. Just as with Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) and Super Mario World (SNES), Mario can hold one item in reserve that can be used whenever it is needed by touching the item's icon on the bottom screen. The blue Koopa shell felt more like a gimmick item than the other two, which have convenient uses. For example, the only time I really found myself needing to use the shell item is when I found one of the very rare blocks that couldn't otherwise be destroyed. Despite my personal distaste for the blue Koopa shell it's still an interesting addition to the formula and does have its own affect on the resulting smooth and enjoyable gameplay that the game offers players.
All of this takes place in a sideview style within two-dimensional environments. There are various three-dimensional elements involved - such as all of the character models, rotating fence pieces, and spinning platforms - but, for the most part, they only appear to be two-dimensional objects unless closely inspected. There really isn't much to say about the graphics that the screenshots don't already tell you other than, in motion, they run smoothly and give a blurred effect. The underwater segments are especially impressive to see in action because of everything going on around Mario as he's swimming along.
The audio is more of what you would come to expect from a Mario game. If you've never played a Mario game before, you'll be amused with some of the tunes and annoyed with others. The classic beats make an updated comeback - the theme, the underground exploration tune, and the stage-completion track are available for your listening pleasure. The new tracks aren't as classic in feel as the series' trademark songs, but provide nice ambience as you run around stages. The sound effects is where the sound aspect truly shines. Every sound effect is spot-on accurate, and fans of the series will instantly recognize almost all of them.
New Super Mario Bros. will feel instantly familiar to anyone who has played Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World. The gameplay is nearly identical with some innovative new ideas that I can easily see being implemented in future installments. Without having to read a word from the manual, I was able to start playing and progress through the entire game. The controls are so intuitive that you don't even have to pause for second to think about how you're going to manage your button presses for a long string of moves. In fact, you can actually play this game like the Sonic the Hedgehog games from the Sega Genesis days - from the beginning of a stage, you can just run right and quickly adapt to what you see ahead of you until you reach the end. It will be interesting to some of the speed runs people perform in the future in their inevitable race to be the fastest person to beat the game. With so many shortcuts tucked away, it's sure to be long race. New Super Mario Bros. deserves to be in any DS owner's collection. It does have its faults - particularly the newer audio tracks and the fact that the game feels too small and easy compared to Super Mario World - but there are many more positives that make this game one of the best on the DS.
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Originally Posted by the4thnobleman 
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