New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo DS - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Published 2006-05-05 Platforms Nintendo DS, Wii U Genres Action, Platformer Themes Action, Cartoon Series Mario, Super Mario Bros. Multiplayer Simultaneous versus Distribution Commercial

New Super Mario Bros. is a 2D scrolling platform action game in the Super Mario Bros. universe developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS on 2006-05-05.

Like most Mario games, Peach has been kidnapped, this time by Bowser Jr., and you must rescue her by traveling across eight worlds. Worlds are divided into levels, mini castles, toad houses, and, at the end of each world, a castle of Bowser Jr. which houses a boss.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2018‎-05-27.

I remember seeing ads for this game when it was released and thinking the super mushroom looked like a fun power-up. Lacking a Nintendo DS of my own, I only played a little bit of the game on a friend's DS, then forgot about the game. Years later, when I found a working DS emulator, I tried the game again and played it to completion.

Review

5	5	6	6	7

Best Version: Nintendo DS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The mega mushroom was a nice new power-up. The mini mushroom, not so much.
• I like the conversion of the Super Mario 64 enemies and concepts into a pseudo-2D environment.
• The inclusion of the wall jump was nice and the designers did a good job of designing maps to benefit it.
• The graphic designers did a good job marrying raster backgrounds with 3D sprites.
• The environment graphics are pretty wonderful.
• Using star coins to unlock beneficial areas of the overview map was a nice way to encourage players to try to reach more difficult areas in the levels.
• The soundtrack composed by Asuka Ohta and Hajime Wakai is quite hummable, and I love how the characters in the game react to the "wah wah" of the above ground theme music.
• It was clever to make the screen shift from top to bottom when you go through pipes.

Bad

• The game is still a bit too similar to standard Super Mario Bros. For the most part, I felt like I was playing a level expansion rather than a new game.
• I don't like how the player skips every other world as part of normal play.
• I'm so tired of the damsel in distress trope. Sing us a new one.
• While I appreciate the addition of mini games, they're all pretty dull. And several of the Toad house "games" are entirely random, so they aren't games at all.
• While there were a few difficult levels, over all the game was so easy, I beat it on my very first attempt without ever seeing a game over screen.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

• 

  This is the North American and Australian box art. It has Mario benefiting from a mega mushroom and murdering some goombas. I like how the koopas are smiling gaily at the viewer, showing what a fun game this will be.

• 

  The European art is similar, but has a regular-sized Mario. This art focuses more on the 2-player element of the game. The Japanese box is similar to this one. I think I like this art slightly more.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Japan - Digital.

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Manual - UK.

• 

  Prima Guide.

Maps

• Maps

Graphics

• textures-resource.com/ds_dsi/nsmbds - Textures.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art by Beetle Moses.

Videos

Son of a Glitch.

Longplay.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The only woman is Peach who is a damsel in distress and reward.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is only one woman.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Everyone is white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	New Super Mario Bros.
Japanese	スーパーマリオブラザーズ	Nyu Supa Mario Burazazu	New Super Mario Bros.

Links