New Super Mario Bros DS (2005):
The first game of the New Super Mario Bros series, New Super Mario Bros DS delivers some brand new content designed for the Nintendo DS. As the first game of the series, it does a great job of presenting unique levels, music, and more. The plot of the game, well, is to obviously save the princess from Bowser. While traveling to World 8, you encounter Mushroom Houses, Bowser Jr, and more! The bosses in the game were very unique for that game; I enjoyed most of them like Petey, Mega Goomba, and the final battle with Bowser and Bowser Jr. HOWEVER, I kinda wished that the bosses were a bit tougher to beat, and the final boss was more than just Bowser and Bowser Jr.
Also, I enjoyed the extras New Super Mario Bros DS has to offer. It was one of the first DS games to have "online" multiplayer, which was a battle between two people, using items to defend yourself while collecting the most stars. Also, if you wished, you could select the # of stars you needed to win. The stages, however, were a bit bland. I wished they were a bit bigger with multiple, hidden routes, instead of one major route that was somewhat small. Overall, the idea of multiplayer was thought out well with some effort put into it. As well as multiplayer, there are these minigames you can play, with them separated in different categories. A few of them include dodging fireballs with a bob-omb, rolling a snowball to the finish, and bouncing on Shy Guys to get the most amount of points. These were very creative, but some of them were a bit boring and bland with little thought put into them. I thought Super Mario 64 DS did a better job of minigames not only because they put more, but because they showed more creativity and effort that was put into them. And perhaps the biggest extra of the game is Challenge Mode, where you press a secret code containing various buttons on the DS. The only difference in Challenge Mode is that you
cannot turn back, which I liked. However, the game still felt too easy with this. Maybe if the level in general was harder (like adding spiked enemies and more pits), it would be a more creative challenge mode.
Now onto the general things. The level design itself was okay, and probably the best thing about the levels was looking for the (easy) Star Coins. That demonstrated a little more value of replayability; I also liked how you could trade in Star Coins for hidden routes for shops and eventually, different stationery for the bottom screen. However, after collecting all of the Star Coins, there felt like there was no replayability at all. It felt like there was little purpose of playing the levels again except for speedrunning them and looking for secret exits if not already found. If there was co-op play with ANYBODY across the world, maybe it would be more interesting to play. Compared to the graphics, the content is the crumb of the pizza. The graphics of the game were very original, and generally, they were very nice. The sprites for all of the unique items/enemies were exceptional, especially for a DS game! I was very pleased with it. The music is also pleasing. The rhythm of the music is very soothing (probably because the game is a bit old lol), which shows originality. And, the remixes of it are also pleasing, such as the cave theme from Super Mario Bros (1985), and the sky theme. Both the graphics and music excel for a Nintendo DS game.
Overall, NSMBDS delivers various types of content. Even with the replayability lacking a bit, the graphics and music definitely meet standards. If you are interested in a DS platformer that you might want to play because of originality and creativity, get NSMBDS. However, I would recommend getting stuff like SMM and Splatoon first if not already...
Scores:
Creativity: 16/20
Originality: 19/20
Gameplay: 18/20
Extras: 16/20
Fun to play: 15/20
Final Grade:
84% (Good)
