The first game in the New Super Mario Bros series, and it certainly sets the standards for the series. The controls are pretty good, with me only having trouble at a few points with the wall jumping. But other than that, the controls are pretty solid for being a game on the DS.
The level design is pretty good with a large range of concepts to play through. The star coins and secret exits are generally hidden pretty well and a lot require the usage of a certain power-up. Speaking of which, the new power-ups in this game are all great to use. The mega mushroom is really fun to just destroy everything with, the mini mushroom is useful for getting secrets with, and the blue shell is by far the most fun to use. If you are on a level that favors it, you can just breeze through the level with the shell and trying to control it is fun.
The bosses are all interesting with each one having a different mechanic to master. Also, some of them almost require you to defeat them with the mini mushroom in order to access different worlds after it, which is a nice challenge.
I forgot how good the music in this game is. A large portion of the soundtrack is great to just listen to independent of the game, and I personally think this game has the best castle theme out of all the Mario games to date.
Moving on to other game modes, the Mario vs Luigi game mode is very intense and can be chaotic to play, which makes it extremely fun to play with a friend. Not really much more to say on that.
Finally, the minigames here are so much fun! There is a huge variety of games and types of games, so you are guaranteed to enjoy playing at least one. It can be fun to try to get the high score, or to play against friends with local play. These games can drive the party crazy if you play the right games, but they are still worth playing.
Overall, great Mario game with pretty good alternate game modes. Worth a play or replay if it has been a while.
The level design is pretty good with a large range of concepts to play through. The star coins and secret exits are generally hidden pretty well and a lot require the usage of a certain power-up. Speaking of which, the new power-ups in this game are all great to use. The mega mushroom is really fun to just destroy everything with, the mini mushroom is useful for getting secrets with, and the blue shell is by far the most fun to use. If you are on a level that favors it, you can just breeze through the level with the shell and trying to control it is fun.
The bosses are all interesting with each one having a different mechanic to master. Also, some of them almost require you to defeat them with the mini mushroom in order to access different worlds after it, which is a nice challenge.
I forgot how good the music in this game is. A large portion of the soundtrack is great to just listen to independent of the game, and I personally think this game has the best castle theme out of all the Mario games to date.
Moving on to other game modes, the Mario vs Luigi game mode is very intense and can be chaotic to play, which makes it extremely fun to play with a friend. Not really much more to say on that.
Finally, the minigames here are so much fun! There is a huge variety of games and types of games, so you are guaranteed to enjoy playing at least one. It can be fun to try to get the high score, or to play against friends with local play. These games can drive the party crazy if you play the right games, but they are still worth playing.
Overall, great Mario game with pretty good alternate game modes. Worth a play or replay if it has been a while.