A nice old-school game to compliment the unforgetable classics.
Story: Mario was celebrating princess Peach's birthday until she unexpectadly (yeah right) gets kidnapped by Bowser Jr. As Mario its your job to head out and give chase to Bowser Jr and rescue the princess.
Game design wise there is nothing new here, as Mario you will be going through variouse levels, there are around 8 worlds, each with around 6 to 7 levels, around the mid point of every world you will face off with Bowser Jr and at the end of the worlds you will face off bosses of those worlds, the bosses are fairly easy to figure out.
Graphic wise the game is a 2D side scroller with 3D visuals, so yep everything is rendered in 3D, though the DS does not get much credit for its graphical performance the visuals look pretty amusing to say the best.
Most of the time you will be runing towards the right direct stumping and burning things along the way.
You can also pick up power ups in order to increase your chance of survival such as picking up red mushrooms to grow and fire flowers to enable mario to shoot fire balls, there are also new additional power ups such as the giant mushroom, blue shell costume and perhaps some other that I might have missed out, those power ups does make going through levels easier, and if you pick up the same power up twice the second one will be stored on the bottom screen so that you can take it out and use it when ever you want, making the game less frustrating and a breez to go through.
Speaking of bottom screen there are hardly any stylus functionality during the main game, however the game also includes a variety of mini games that use the stylus and other functionalities, the mini games are pretty fun and are good for time killing.
The game also features online which will let you compete against other players, though because I don't know anyone else with a DS i was not able to try out wireless play but so far i can tell you the game warrants purchase just through the single player experience alone and THATS a sign of quality!
New Super Mario Bros is a refreshing side-scrolling that anyone with a DS should own, its got the nice 2D side scrolling action and much content to enjoy, though some new comers might think this game is a bit to old school for its own good, there is no story in the game or cut scenes or anything like that, just Mario with his awesome mustach stumping things in his way, of course Mario games were never about high production values but still its something to look into, also saving is a bit of an issue, you can only save at the mid point and end of each worlds, you can't save anytime you want so some might find themselves going through the same 4 to 5 stages again because they kept losing lives, otherwise the game is pretty solid.
Veterans will feel at home with the classic gameplay while new comers will have plenty of fun enjoying the toned down difficulty and mini games it has to offer, I say get the game.