New Super Mario Bros.

Damn, does it feel good to go back to Mario's roots. Don't get me wrong - Super Mario 64 was an important and integral step for Nintendo's plumber hero to take, what with the company essentially being the trailblazer in the world of 3D platforming. But in moving forward, rising expectations pretty much dictated that Nintendo shouldn't look back, so the classic sidescrolling formula was simply relegated to "classic" status, only returning in retro repeats of existing games on current systems and, occasionally, as spin-off franchises for other Nintendo characters. An official Super Mario game would have to be something special for it to exist on a current Nintendo system, which is why the release of New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS is so significant: it absolutely is something special. This game marks a brilliant return to Mario's side-scrolling environments, with a look, feel, and play that feels unbelievably classic, with new elements that do a fantastic job advancing the design.

The timeline's a little scattered, but while Super Mario Sunshine was the latest game in the Super Mario series on paper, New Super Mario Bros. marks the first time in 15 years that Nintendo's created a classically-designed Super Mario game - Super Mario World ended the plumber's starring role in the 2D platformer series. Yoshi may have picked up the gauntlet in a labeled sequel a couple years later, but outside of a few nods here and there in spinoffs like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, Mario hasn't starred in this Plumber Saves the Princess role in a side-scrolling platformer since the Super NES launch title.

With this new game, the more things change, the more they stay the same: the basis for New Super Mario Bros. is, surprise, to save the princess. In this design, Bowser Jr. has snagged Peach right out from Mario's nose, and taken her to the closest fortress possible. This game won't win any awards in storytelling because there is none - Mario will simply have to bounce from level to level getting to each challenge's castle while collecting coins and stomping Koopas, Goombas, and any other oddly-named inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom. Anyone who's played the original Super Mario Bros. - and at this point, if you haven't, stop reading and find the nearest NES for a refresher course - will recognize the early nods to the original game design, from hopping on the flagpole to finish a round to Bowser protecting the end of the first castle.

So New Super Mario Bros. is a game that's been a long time coming. It's clear that a Super Mario game is a really big deal for Nintendo, and a game bearing the Super Mario namesake needs to be significant. It took the company more than a decade to advance the Mario mechanics in the side-scrolling design, but how much further can the company go without straying from the existing run/jump/bounce formula and becoming something not-so-Mario?

Obviously, a lot. The only reason why this game's on the Nintendo DS is because A) the handheld market's a lot more open to the idea of more limited game designs like side-scrolling action games, and B) the Nintendo DS has far more horsepower under its hood than the Game Boy Advance system does. A lot of the gameplay advancements are due to the capabilities of the Nintendo DS processor and not the system's more unique elements. In the main game, the dual screen and touch screen aspects are so basic and sparsely used that they're almost unnecessary to the game design. Honestly, they're not needed, either - it's the system's 3D capabilities that bring a lot of the new gameplay elements to light in this Mario sequel.