Having to attend university over in Cardiff and often work back home near London on weekends, I often find myself travelling a lot via train or coach. The journeys can often be boring and seem to last forever so in the hope of solving that problem I thought I’d try the new DSi. While it is an excellent piece of kit and a purchase I couldn’t be happier with, I wasn’t so sure where to begin in terms of new games for it. Being the typical Nintendo fanboy I am though I couldn’t resist when I saw a copy of New Super Mario Bros down my local at a very reasonable price. Would this help me with those long tedious hours on the train though?

New Super Mario Bros doesn’t try anything new in its approach and that is why I love it. It takes almost everything you loved about past Mario’s, gives it a nice gorgeous coating of pretty visuals and puts it into a form that you are able to take around with you. It is perfect for short bursts of fun and also caters for those who want to sit and enjoy a good hour or so of platforming.

Like nearly all Mario titles the game opens with Princess Peach being kidnapped (this time right before your eyes!). In typical 2D Mario style its then down to you to venture across varying worlds tackling increasingly difficult levels until finally you make it to the last castle and storm the boss. It’s a platformer and doesn’t rely on a lengthy story but rather lets the gameplay itself do the talking.

Controls are kept simple without much use of the touch screen at all which I definitely approve of. Having Mario handle with the stylus would have simply forced touch controls into a game that doesn’t need it. The only use of it is when you want to use a stored power up which could have easily been assigned to a shoulder button but it isn’t too much of a problem if I’m totally honest. Mario returns with his running, jumping ways but brings a few new moves to the party. You’ll also be able to wall jump and butt stomp which fit right into Mario’s 2D repertoire and are extremely useful for opening up new secret areas. Mario handles perfectly and given the simple nature of the game you’ll be accustomed in minutes.

You’ll run across sandy dunes, watery beaches, fiery underworlds and tall mountains. You’d expect this from a Mario game. You have your basic levels, towers, haunted houses and boss battles. You’d expect that in a Mario game. It’s all basic Mario 101 and it shows right down to the enemies and power ups. That’s right the mushroom and flower make a return with a few new ones that can shrink the plumber to the size of a few pixels or shoot him upward to take up the whole screen! Goombas and Koopa Troopas make an appearance as well as some new enemies too, so while fans of the series will feel right at home with everything, there are some new elements here and there to mix things up a little. Things are also broken up a somewhat with the neat mid tower stages that see you moving upward rather than left to right which often require a little extra patience and timing than usual. The adventure is nicely paced with each stage offering a new gameplay element you haven’t come across yet never once making you feel like you’re finishing a chore. Instead you’ll find yourself wanting to get further to see what comes next.

Visually the game looks great. The backgrounds are bright and colourful and the 3D characters fit in perfectly giving it a nice updated feel. The music too isn’t that bad, although not on par with past classic Mario games it is still pretty decent. It’s also a cool hearing occasional yelps and catchphrases from the portly plumber.
As far as how long this will last you, it isn’t the longest adventure. If there’s one thing that felt slightly off to me it was the length of the actual levels. While later ones are definitely tougher and longer, the levels found in earlier worlds feel a little easy and can be finished sometimes in under a minute! While you can’t argue with the quality of the overall span of the adventure I just felt that levels could have been extended a little at points. For completionists there are the two extra worlds that you may have missed and hidden pathways plus three star coins in each level making around 200 to locate and capture in total. You’ll also find a two player mode where you’ll try knabbing stars before your opponent. Nintendo have even thrown in a nice selection of mini games to play alone or even better with up to three friends wirelessly. These range from simple “Where’s Wally” style pointing games to having to draw trampolines with the stylus to keep Mario from falling. They’re decent and provide some extra hours of play to accompany the fun adventure mode.

New Super Mario Bros has not only made the minutes fly by on train journeys but has proven to me that while Nintendo are always trying to revolutionise their red plumbers’ games they haven’t forgotten his roots and how to make a truly awesome 2D platformer. Great fun and a brilliant start to my DS library.