Now that I have this new sexmazing DS Lite, I needed a good game to break it in. What can be better than an old-fashioned Mario game? How about an old-fashioned Mario game with TWO SCREENS! I was pretty excited about New Super Mario Brothers (NSMB) and snatched it up the day it was released.

The story is still the same, Peach has been kidnapped and Mario has to go save her as it has been since the beginning of time. You want a story, go buy Paper Mario. You can play single player, touch mini games from Mario 64 and a two player versus game. The versus game is a load of fun and you only need one copy of the game. You basically run around levels trying to get more stars than your opponent and you can use all the conventional items such as mushrooms and fire flowers. The touch games are nothing new if you played Super Mario 64 on DS, but they were a nice addition.

The first thing you will notice (especially on the Lite) are the bright vibrant graphics. While the game is a sidescroller, Mario and company are rendered in 3D. It blends in well together and looks awesome. While not as whimsical as say, Yoshi’s Island, it still looks very nice. The music is the usual happy-go-lucky Nintendo fare and none of the tunes are very memorable. They of course throw in some of the retro tunes to up the nostalgia factor but the new music just doesn’t have much zing to it. As a funny aside, the Koopas like to dance to the BGM while you are playing which can really screw with your jump timing.

Speaking of jumping, the controls in the game are top notch. At first Mario seems a bit “floaty” but after about ten minutes you will be smushing Goombas with the best of them. The touch screen really has no purpose, it shows your progress in the level and you can keep one power up in reserve which you can touch to use if you need it. There are three new power ups in this game, Mini Mario, Ginormas Mario, and Blue Shell Mario. Mini Mario is my favorite, he jumps very high and can be hard to control and can fit into tight spaces. He can also run on top of water, how cool is that! Ginormas Mario can just rampage through a level, taking everything out in his path and Blue Shell Mario can hide in his shell for protection and also spin around in it to take out enemies.

The game has eight worlds and is a little on the short side. Each level has three gold coins to collect, some of which can be pretty hard to get to. Some worlds also have alternate exits which can lead to a bonus level. There is a nice mix of levels including snow, water, spinney trampolines and the like. While not as diverse as Super Mario World, there are a few surprises along the way. The only thing that is rather annoying about this game is the saving process. You can only save after beating a fortress, a castle or at mushroom houses. You cannot save wherever you want which seems counterproductive for a portable game. After you beat the game once you can save anytime but that should be available from the start.

I have beaten the game, which took me about two weeks of casual playing. I am still trying to collect all the gold coins and find all the extra levels which has added a few hours to the game. I would say it is about a 7-10 hour game depending on how much you try to collect. Nothing really special opens up after you find all the stuff, so the replay value isn’t that great. It is definitely a good solid game for DS though, especially if this is your first foray into the awesomeness of DS.