New Super Mario Bros.

The Good
It's a fun little game. Naturally with the game being featured on the DS, the developers had to scale things back a bit compared to a console Mario release. The playing area is smaller, so this limits the amount of carnage that can occur on the screen. In short, the general feel of this game is a little different from previous Mario platformers. But under these constraints, Nintendo has released the finest Mario game since Super Mario World, which as you know was the flagship release for the SNES back in 1992. So -- the best Mario game in fourteen years. Not bad.

The first thing that comes to mind when queried 'what did I like about this game?' is the excellent use of 3D graphics is a 2D sidescroller. Beyond that, the bosses are very cool (if not a bit easy), the overworld map is very cute, the new Mario suits are cool, particularly Shell Mario, and the overall level design is top-flight.

The Bad
There's not a lot to nit-pick. The intrinsic difficulty of Mario games -- one or two mistakes and you're dead -- dictates that you can get very frustrated on a particularly difficult map, but this is the nature of the beast. The game is a good length, but I still would have been happier with twice as much content. But this is not a flaw -- I'm just greedy for more gameplay.

The Bottom Line
I bought a DS immediately after seeing a television commercial for New Super Mario Bros. This was a good decision. Although it doesn't have the replay value of Mario Kart DS, Tetris, or even Nintendogs, this is still an obligatory purchase for any old-school gamer who remembers the glory days of Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and the years when platformers were the bread and butter of the gaming business.