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Posted on July 29th, 2005 - 5736 Reads

New Super Mario Bros. Nintendo DS Preview

-- Written by Justin Joseph

Mario platformers rejoice! For those of you who've been waiting for any kind of new epic 2D side scrolling Mario Bros. adventure, your wait is now OVER! The Nintendo DS will be the first system to feature a new Mario Bros. 2D platforming game since the days of the NES, SNES and GBA ports! Now while the actual look and feel of the game may not be anything revolutionary or new, just the fact that it is a TRULY brand new adventure featuring Nintendo's infamous mascots is enough to make any Mario nut go.....well.....NUTS!

But the beauty of this iteration coming to the Nintendo DS is it's allowing the developers to bring Mario through worlds constructed in both 2D and 3D interfaces! So any and all characters, enemies and objects can now be created with much more fluid animation and detailed design!

During the days of the NES, SNES and GBA ports, developers were always limited to creating models with the restrictiveness of tile-based sprites and background designs. But now with the features of the Nintendo DS at their disposal, many more new gameplay mechanics can be realized! Just what kind of gameplay mechanics do you ask? Well let's see. When Mario jumps on any kind of tree platform, it will actually tilt and teeter due to Mario's big butt landing on them! Mario can now also turn into a gigantic freak and use his newly constructed body to tear through whatever level you may be bringing him through! The camera is also far more intuitive now, with it automatically controlling the zoom level depending on the in-game situation.

New abilities available to the Mario Bros. include a rather nasty butt stomping maneuver that is executed by the simple pushing down of the D-Pad! Yes this move has been in countless iterations of the Mario franchise, but not in the way it's presented in the 2D New Super Mario Bros.! Mario has also been given the ability to wall jump in order to access hard-to-reach platforms that he needs to get to!

So just how does New Super Mario Bros. utilize the touch screen? Well, it serves two main purposes, as a score indicator/keeper and inventory! Just like in the past infamous title Super Mario World and the forever famous Super Mario. Bros. 3, all players of this game will be able to hold onto the power-ups that they collect! In New Super Mario Bros., the simple tapping of up to three different power-ups on the bottom screen will cause their activation in the actual game!

New Super Mario Bros. also puts the DS' wi-fi capability to use by having stiff two player competitions! Obviously in this mode, one player will take control of Mario, and the other Luigi. They will then be pitted in a race going through three separate 2D side scrolling levels. Then to take a little bit from the Mario Kart franchise, there will actually be readily available items for you to use on your opponent to increase your chances of victory! Whether it may be the much hated lightning bolt that will obviously shrink your opponents to some kind of blue blocks that when hit, will bring your opponent to your position, they are there to keep the action interesting! That little feature can be a win-lose situation. If you're behind in the race, it will be a godsend, but if you're way ahead, you'll end up screwing yourself! A series of rings placed within the race will keep track of your progress during such in the case of a tie.

Now the game still has a ways to go in development, so hopefully the seemingly bland environments that are in the demo right now will be given a nice "spice boost." Because of the mix of 2D and 3D elements in this game, some of the levels seem a bit uninspired compared to past 2D side scrolling Mario iterations. So the game does seem like it will end up turning out solid, but we shall wait and see whenever it eventually releases later this year!

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