It’s Super Mario all over again!

by Pramath Parijat

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy/Rent

New Super Mario Bros. shows us how to creatively revive old franchises using the same spirit that made the original games so great.

The Mario series must hold the dubious record of being the most milked franchise across any platform, ever. Nintendo’s famous mascot has appeared in over a hundred games, spanning genres as varied as kart racing, party gaming, golf, tennis, RPG’s, and of course, Mario’s bread and butter, platforming. And that’s without considering the titles which haven’t had Mario as their lead, but rather have one of the many colorful characters from the Mario world, starring in their very own adventures.



And yet through all this, Nintendo has somehow managed to preserve the sanctity and the aura that surrounds the main Mario games -- those platformers, originally 2D side-scrolling and now 3D, that constitute what can technically be referred to as ‘canon’ by series fans. However, after playing the umpteenth Mario spin off, that will inevitably show up on every Nintendo console, it becomes hard to be truly excited about the next one that is just around the corner, and is already being trumpeted by Nintendo as The Next Big Thing.

And so she’s kidnapped again...

The problem with New Super Mario Bros. that I initially faced was, I had no idea where to place it. I mean, what is it? Is it the next instalment in the main series? Is it a remake of an older Mario game, like the Mario Advance series? Is it an amalgamation of remakes? Or is it just yet another spin off, designed specifically to cash in on the Mario brand?

It turns out it is none of those -- New Super Mario Bros. is an altogether new game that has nothing to do whatsoever with the ‘main’ series of Mario games. Rather, with its quirky new gameplay design, and exotic new graphics that fondly invoke the nostalgia with which many gamers regard past 2D Mario games such as Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. is a fresh beginning for Mario in its turn, a reboot of an age old concept for a new generation of gamers, that still manages to remain meaningful to age old fans by invoking the classic formula that made Mario the household name he is today.

Mario veterans will instantly recognize the subtle nods to the classic 2D side-scrolling Mario titles, apparent almost immediately upon booting the game up: the intro cutscene depicts Mario and Princess Peach out for a peaceful walk, when Mario spots some kind of disturbance in the distance.



Being the honorable (and interfering) guy he is, Mario rushes off to see what the matter is. As soon as Mario is gone however, Bowser Jr. sneaks in and grabs Princess Peach, kidnapping her... again. Mario rushes after Bowser Jr., who immediately goes and bricks himself up in the nearest fortress, to reach which Mario will have to traverse three “worlds.” And that is all the narrative or manner of story that the game provides. For as everybody is supposed to know, Mario games have rarely had any manner of meaningful narrative, concentrating instead on providing the player with a meaningful gameplay experience. NSMB has that in bucketloads.

A perfect blend of new and old

The levels here are designed in vintage Mario style -- from the get-go, players are transported to the best of all the NES and SNES Mario games: a rather crazy blending of all the best levels in the old Mario games, rebuilt from ground up that still somehow manage to retain their distinctive identities. It’s the prime example of tribute coupled with innovation, fan service along with progression, and it makes the game feel so familiar, like an old friend, even as it feels like an altogether new experience.

The levels, which are typical Mario fare -- deserts, underwater, underground, ice world and a few forced scrolling levels that are enough to drive anybody nuts -- seem to, at first sight, command the same, rather limited gameplay that the 2D Mario games employed. However, just a couple of hours’ worth of play is enough to dispel that notion. The levels, which are designed in vintage 2D, are only one half of the story. What becomes apparent after only a few extended playthroughs is that the developers chose to rather ingeniously design Mario as fully animated 3D model -- think Super Smash Bros, and you get the general idea.

Of course, this lends itself to endless possibilities. Mario moves from his N64 adventure, like wall jumping for instance, are retained here, and they lead to intriguing puzzles and platforming solutions. Then again, developers do not have to redraw Mario in his various poses, rather his model can now be manipulated, and some crazy new experiments can now be carried out.




The best of these must be Mega Mario, a super invincible state that Mario finds himself in from time to time after indulging in a particular type of mushroom, that causes him to, quite literally, grow to the size of the DS screen. Nothing can really hurt Mario when he’s in this mode, except for maybe the oddly placed pit, and it becomes really fun to see Mario wading through wave upon waves of his enemies without the usual added onus of worrying about the consequences.

The developers have also utilised this technique for various objects in the environment -- giant trees, for instance, have always been a staple of the Mario series. However, prior to this game, they had always been static, just platforms for Mario to jump that were aesthetically dressed in a different coating. Now, however, trees can stretch, and squeeze, deform and mutate in a thousand other ways, sometime aiding Mario, sometimes impeding him. Again, trees are just one example; there are hundreds of objects scattered throughout NSMB that are just waiting to be manipulated by the player.

High quality effort

Of course, one might well imagine that this 2D/3D hybrid gameplay, which lends itself to interesting gameplay possibilities, might not provide the player with the best experience, as far as graphics are concerned. This perception would be wrong, however. While New Super Mario Bros. is certainly nothing groundbreaking, visually speaking, it is aesthetically pleasing. The graphics look nice; Mario now looks more detailed than he ever did in any of his past 2D side-scrolling romps; the environments occasionally do present stunning montages (like the ripples on the surface of water), and overall, the game looks as if it has a nice, glossy sheen, a coat of finish that reeks of high quality and effort on the developers’ part.

However, where graphics were treated rather conservatively, the developers went the full mile as far as the sound of the game is concerned. Not only did Nintendo bestow Mario with his usual assortment of (excessively irritating) grunts, whoops and shrieks, but they also remixed classic tracks in what sounds like a full orchestra (but is most likely only MIDI) splendidly, and created new tracks in turn, that harken the originals like so much of the games did. The developers even redid inane sounds, like that of Mario jumping, or stomping upon a goomba, so that it may sound more “3D.”



This attention to detail is one of New Super Mario Bros.’ greatest strengths, for not only does it lead to an overall more satisfying experience to newcomers to the series, or maybe gaming in general (a sizeable portion of the game’s target audience), but it also leads to veterans delightedly discovering their age old favorites in an all new avatar, maybe ingeniously concealed, thus lending the game with a sense of accomplishment.

That sense of accomplishment, however, is something that this game otherwise lacks. It simply is too easy, and as a result, almost unacceptably short -- determined players might be able to get through it in one sitting, in less than five hours. However, to be fair, such players would in fact be skipping over half the worlds that the game has to offer. To avail the full experience, players really should make an effort to explore every nook and cranny of the game.

However, in such a case, that might take quite a lot of time. You’d almost think that, what with the game being a flagship title for a portable platform, it would have a portable friendly design. But no, New Super Mario Bros. is bafflingly structured such that one can only save after one completes a world. As the worlds do increase in complexity as time passes by, the game demands an almost console game like adherence to its structure. It really is sad, because if the game had an anytime save feature, then perhaps more players would play it slowly, and thus be able to savour all that the game has to offer.

Summary

If players choose to rush through, it really is their own loss, because New Super Mario Bros. is a wonderful game that strikes a fine balance between the old and the new, the fresh and the nostalgic, that provides a meaningful experience to both veterans and newcomers. Few other companies on the market have been able to successfully recreate their past successes in today’s era of HD gaming, yet Nintendo emerge victorious yet again. Like all other DS games, New Super Mario Bros. is incredibly involving, is incredibly satisfying, and, most of all, is incredibly fun.