New Retro? Could that really work? NSMB proves that it does.
There are many, many familiarities from the original titles in this game: Koopas, Goombas, Mushrooms that turn you big, The easiest boss fight known to man, Stars that make you invincible, End of level flagpoles and so on. But that doesn't mean NSMB is just a collection of used parts.
The world map can be considered unoriginal, but the only real similarity it can be compared to is either SMB3 or SMB world. This time round though, you follow a much linear path.
The levels are genius design, as you would expect. Not to mention that there are plenty of them. A strange thing to have in the game that is similar to the original Mario Bros is the warp cannons that transport you to worlds further on the game which can skip several hours of gameplay. Therefore it is actually possible to defeat the last boss with only 50% of the levels completed (That's not even including the secret levels).
Multiplayer has a lot to offer, but is still flawed and is certainly not the best multiplayer game the DS has to offer.
I think that calling the game "Over-rated" may be going overboard. But although the Gameplay has the quality of every other Mario bros title (If not greater), I'm afraid that it just doesn't last as long.