Out of the way! Giant Plumber coming through!
New Power-Ups. New Moves. New Bosses.
Welcome to the new Mushroom Kingdom. New Super Mario Bros. is a
platform game released in 2006 for the
Nintendo DS,
deliberately modeled after the side-scrolling games in
Nintendo's
Super Mario Bros. series, but featuring
polygonal renderings of some characters and objects to give it a 2.5D look. It's also the first original side-scroller in the series since 1992's
Super Mario Land 2 Six Golden Coins *.
The plot is rather simple. Bowser Jr. kidnaps Princess Peach, and Mario gives chase through eight worlds, each with at least one fortress and one castle. Each fortress ends with a battle with Bowser Jr., who retreats to either another fortress or a castle when defeated; meanwhile, the castles end with a unique boss fight. The castle of World 1 sees Mario confront Bowser, his arch foe and the series'
big bad, in a fight that
homages the original
Super Mario Bros. Mario runs to the opposite side of the room and pushes a switch, causing the bridge to collapse and Bowser to fall into the lava pit below, reducing him to a skeleton. Before Mario can rescue Peach, Bowser Jr. nabs her and runs off to the next world,
which is gonna happen a few more times.
The quest to save Peach leads Mario to a giant castle in World 8, where Bowser Jr.
successfully revives Bowser (after a botched attempt resulted in the still-skeletal Dry Bowser), albeit several feet taller, and the final battle ensues.
In addition to the series' usual
power ups, NSMB introduced some new ones. The Mega Mushroom turns Mario into a giant à la
Super Mario 64 DS, allowing for some massive property damage. The Mini Mushroom shrinks Mario to the size of a mouse, enabling him to get through very small passageways and run on water at the expense of
death in one hit. The Blue Koopa Shell allows Mario to protect himself while crouching; when running, he can knock enemies away just like the koopa shells he kicks. Finally, Shell Mario can swim better underwater.
From both a financial and a critical standpoint, the game was a hit, delighting players with its channeling of the series' roots. It eventually gave rise to
an entire subseries of Mario platformers dedicated to 2D platforming goodness.
This game provides examples of:
- Avenging the Villain: Bowser Jr.
- Back from the Dead: Bowser in World 8.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Ghost Houses.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Closing the DS without turning the game off will result in Mario saying "Ba-bye."
- The Chase: Pursuing Bowser Jr.
- Credits Montage: The top screen shows all the levels you've cleared (even the cannons that you used). In the cases of the towers and castles, it will show the level itself first before the boss, while the final castle shows the level, the boss, and the princess being rescued.
- Damsel in Distress: Peach gets kidnapped. Who saw that coming?
- Dem Bones: Dry Bones and Dry Bowser.
- Demoted to Extra: Bowser, of all people. His only appearances period are the first and last boss fights; otherwise, it's Bowser Jr. and a bunch of Giant Space Fleas from Nowhere running the show.
- Aside from Petey Piranha.
- Dual Boss: The final boss is Bowser Jr. and an enlarged Bowser.
- Family Unfriendly Death: The apparent demise of Bowser in World 1
mentioned above might be a little unnerving for some. He doesn't stay dead, however, as he shows up in skeletal form in World 8, and Bowser Jr. revives him properly for the final battle. - Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Most of the game's bosses are original, barring Recurring Boss Bowser Jr. and his father. Then, by World 5, when you're getting used to it after fighting probably around two or three of them, the game throws Petey Piranha at you. THEN you get back the the original bosses again.
- Grimy Water: In the forest levels.
- Gimmick Level: Bowser's Castle in the DS game was this, unlike the one in the Wii game, which was filled with tough platforming.
- Ground Pound
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Can happen to Mario in certain levels if the Mega Mushroom is not used with care. One level is made up of nothing but pipes and the majority of them can be broken with the Mega Mushroom. Break too many of them and you'll fall into the Bottomless Pit you've created.
- Homage: Several, to the original Super Mario Bros. For instance, many sound effects from the original game are intact, such as coin collecting, enemy squishing, and block bumping. In addition, the Mega Mushroom Power-Up is colored just like the Super Mushroom from the first game.
- One of World 7's levels from NSMB is extremely similar to 7-1 from Super Mario Bros. 3.
- Infinite 1-Ups: In homage to the original Super Mario Bros., the "Koopa Shell Bounce" trick was shamelessly recreated.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: The point of the tower levels.
- Knight of Cerebus: Bowser. He falls into lava and his skin is burned off after his first fight with Mario, is in his skeletal form Dry Bowser in the second fight, and is revived but grown larger for the final battle
- Lava Pit
- The Merch: Take a look at how much Mario merchandise in recent history is branded with this game's title.
- Mythology Gag: The game starts with a homage to World 1-1 from the first Super Mario Bros, and there is a Bowser battle that can be defeated simply by breaking the bridge and dropping Bowser in the lava (or down a pit ala Super Mario Bros 3), replacing the axe with a button.
- Petey Piranha is sleeping before his boss fight and attacks when woken up. His very first appearance was Super Mario Sunshine, and the second fight with him was triggered by waking him up.
- Then there's challenge mode, which is available after you beat the game, and enables Ratchet Scrolling like the original game.
- The New Adventures
- No Ending: Unlike the Wii game, Mario and Peach are never shown actually leaving Bowser's castle.
- Papa Wolf: Should you defeat his son first in the final battle, Bowser will go apeshit and barrage the boss lair with a spiral of fireballs.
- Reconstruction: Of the original 2D Mario sidescrollers.
- Save the Princess: That's pretty much the whole plot, folks.
- Space Filling Path: That block train in the second World 8 tower goes an extremely long way around the room in a ping pong path fashion...
- Springy Spores: A lot of levels, beginning with 1-5.
- Super Not Drowning Skills: Present, despite being absent in the 3D Marios that separated NSMB and its 2D predecessors and the one that separated the Wii version and the DS one.
- Suspend Save: You can only save at castles or by using star coins, though you have the ability to save anywhere on the map after you finish the final boss.
- A Twinkle in the Sky: Using a cannon on the map.
- Unexpected Character: If you decide to go through every world in order, then besides Bowser and Bowser Jr., the bosses were all new. In World 5, the boss is, of all people, Petey Piranha. To top it all off, he's a Warm Up Boss in almost every other game.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: There's no mistaking it.
- Walk on Water: With Mini Mario.
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