May 24, 2006
New Super Mario Bros.
On the eve of the release of New Super Mario Bros. here in Japan, I present to you visual proof that I am a certified Mario dork:
That's three stars, baby. All the star coins, all the exits, all the everything. I managed to get an early copy of the US version back on May 6 thanks to a superfriend at NOA (my new Favorite Person in the World), and I've been playing through ever since. Finally, tonight, I found the last missing bit I was looking for, and that was that.
In the end, I'd say it's about a 9 out of 10 on the EGM scale. For better or for worse, it doesn't really mess with the formula of the original SMB--which is understandable, given producer Takashi Tezuka's recent comments about wanting to keep things simple and appeal to a wide range of consumers. My only real complaint is that the new power-ups are disappointing; the Mega Mushroom is actually pretty cool, but the Mini Mushroom and the Blue Shell both pale in comparison to old-school favorites like the Tanuki Suit (Super Mario Bros. 3) and the Cape (Super Mario World). The old Mario games got about 100 times better as soon as diagonally-scrolling stages entered the fray (i.e. as soon as Mario got the ability to fly), so it's kind of a bummer that the exploration in New SMB is (mostly) limited to the ground.
That said, it's still an absolute blast to play and definitely one of the best DS games yet. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 16 years for the next one. :)
In other news...E3 rocked. I'll try to have more on that soon. How 'bout that PS3 price announcement, eh? I'm gonna go apply at Yoshinoya tomorrow for that second job Kutaragi warned me about.
Posted by john tv at May 24, 2006 09:01 PM