YMMV / New Super Mario Bros.

• Angst? What Angst?: Mario (or Luigi) certainly doesn't have any qualms seeing Bowser get Stripped to the Bone after the first boss battle; they just say their end-of-boss phrase cheerfully and move on.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Overlapping with Cheese Strategy — bringing a Mega Mushroom to any boss will squash them in a single hit. Even the final boss can be defeated in two stomps!
  • In 5-Castle, there's a Super Star that you can grab shortly after midway point. If you're quick enough at rushing to the end with the Super Star still active for the boss fight, you can one-shot Petey Piranha.
• Awesome Music: This game's soundtrack stands out because none of it was reused directly in later New Super Mario Bros. installments; the vast majority of tracks from this game were dropped entirely, and the few that did get reused were rearranged and remixed starting with NSMBWii. A shame they haven't gotten as much attention, because there are many great tracks in this mix.
  • The original mix of the Overworld theme is pretty catchy; bonus points for starting with a mock-chiptune theme harking back to the NES-era titles before quickly switching to more modern sequenced instruments. It was one of the few tracks to return remixed.
  • The Underground theme. While it did make it back to the sequels, its instrumentation at the second part deserves special mention for sounding very Hazy Maze Cave-y, something the remixes haven't replicated at all.
  • The Athletic theme Which is a great playful track that perfectly fits the stages where it plays and features a completely different instrumentation compared to the sequels.
  • The Beach theme! Which wouldn't sound out of place in Super Mario Sunshine.
  • The Tower theme. While the initial part of it did return remixed later on, its climax remains unique.
  • The Castle theme. Which is an extremely chilling and eerie piece while at the same time epic and foreboding beyond compare.
  • This remix of the Super Mario Bros. 3 boss theme.
  • The Volcano theme, used only in the levels taking place inside one on the latter half of World 8: 8-5, 8-6, and 8-8, and not carried over to any of the later NSMB titles (or any Mario title, for that matter until Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker called back to it in its mine-cart theme). It wouldn't be until Super Mario Bros. Wonder that another theme evoking the same vibes (instead of only a Lethal Lava Land) would appear.
  • The Platforms-a-Plenty theme from Super Mario Sunshine returns slightly arranged as the music for the Trampoline Time minigame.
  • The Final Boss theme is quite epic sounding and truly showcases the Dual Boss team up nature and the finality of the encounter.
• Breather Boss: Dry Bowser comes after Monty Tank/Lakithunder (both of whom can be somewhat annoying) and after the second most difficult castle in the game. Dry Bowser simply plays like Bowser except he throws bones (in place of hammers as in old titles); the strategy to beat him is very much the same. Probably invoked since, after beating him, the second half of World 8 (and the path to the Final Boss) is revealed.
• Best Boss Ever: Instead of the bosses of each world being one of the Koopalings/Bowser like in prior and following 2D Mario games, here every boss besides Bowser (including the Final Boss Dual Boss) is unique; being completely different from each other and requiring a different strategy to beat (as long as you don't cheese them using a Mega Mushroom). The unique bosses is one of the reasons fans consider this game the best.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Snailicorn enemies have been moderately popular due to their interesting designs, despite never showing up in the series again.
• Fan Nickname: Due to the home console games having Super Title 64 Advance styled names, people have nicknamed this game New Super Mario Bros. DS, often shortened to NSMBDS.
• First Installment Wins: Many fans prefer this game to its later sequels, particularly for its Early-Installment Weirdness, including its creative unique bosses and enemies/power-ups/obstacles introduced in this game, which they feel makes the game unique and allows it to stand out far more when compared to its sequels, with a sizable number of fans considering it a worthy successor to the classic games.
• Franchise Original Sin: The original big selling point was that this would be a game to bring back the classic Mario gameplay from the NES and SNES games with a new twist in the form of new enemies, unique Bosses and new Power-Ups/obstacles. This was actually worth talking about at the time; mainline Mario games had solidified their transition to being 3D platformers due to Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine was a deliberately experimental entry with unusual redesigns of returning enemies and little iconography from the previous games, and 2D platformers in general had been greatly deemphasized in the industry as a whole outside of smaller projects. A new, high profile 2D Mario platformer by Nintendo was a big deal and welcomed with open arms. It revived the 2D side-scrolling game scene single-handedly and also helped to bridge the gap between both game genres by introducing gameplay elements introduced in 3D Mario games to 2D Mario games. New Super Mario Bros. Wii followed and further improved the gameplay by introduced four player simultaneous multiplayer along with a new Spin Jump move and bringing back Yoshi and the Koopalings. However, the latter two games in the franchise, mostly spurred on by the success of the New series, continued the trend of featuring exclusively the classic Mario gameplay, without further improvements, and considerably fewer new ideas besides introducing a few Power-Ups (particularly on New Super Mario Bros. 2), now recycling the soundtrack and Video Game Settings from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, creating an overall sense that the franchise had become stagnant and homogeneous.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The Mega Mushroom will destroy almost ANYTHING on its path. Even bosses like Bowser on all of his boss fights. Utilizing a Mega Mushroom against bosses will always one-shot them without Mario or Luigi taking any damage in the process. Toad Houses that provide you one also exist in this game, so... have fun! The only thing it is unable to break is blue steel blocks, though for justified reasons.
  • The Fire Flower against bosses. With all of them but Dry Bowser being weak to it, bringing one to the boss' door is essential.
  • The Ground Pound deals double damage to bosses, reducing the number of jumps required to defeat them from three to two.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: A lot of people feel the game is too easy compared to the NES/SNES 2D Mario games. Even Miyamoto stated when asked if he had any regrets about the game that his only regret was making it too easy, hence the Sequel Difficulty Spike for New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• It Was His Sled: You can play as Luigi by holding L and R while selecting your file, and the game tells you so after the credits (though you can already do it before beating the game).
• Jerkass Woobie: Bowser goes through a long Humiliation Conga line in this game. First, he gets a Family-Unfriendly Death by A Molten Date with Death/Stripped to the Bone. Next, he's beaten Deader than Dead as a skeletonified version of himself. He then comes back strong... just to get his scaly rear kicked a third time (even worse if you beat Jr. first - and get a Papa Wolf rise from him). Lastly, in the credits, he's dragged off by Bowser Jr. while he's unconscious. Sure, he takes all of that like the champ he is, but when you think about it, this is one of the games where Bowser gets abused the most.
• Memetic Badass: Bowser. Not even death and Deader than Dead can keep him down, apparently.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The World 1 boss. When you jump on the button, it sends Bowser down to the lava, then swimming upwards, and burning alive to the bone.
  • The Ghost House levels replace the progress bar on the lower screen with two eerie Boos right at you.
  • World 8 in general. A Lethal Lava Land Mordor that may as well be Hell itself, and the eerie music (especially after the second half of the world is unlocked) reflects this.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Though New Super Mario Bros. Wii reintroduced it as part of Mario's moveset alongside a newly added mid-air variation, the Spin Jump also reappears in this game, but is performed by jumping on the appropriately named Spin Blocks found in various levels.
  • The player character turning giant and destroying everything in their path first appeared in Bowser's sidescrolling level intermissions in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door if he got enough meat from ? Blocks.
• Once Original, Now Common: At the time of its release, New Super Mario Bros. was actually new. Nowadays, however, it's most often than not lumped together with its successors and seen almost as rehashed in spite of the fact that the game single-handedly revived the 2D platform game scene and was Mario's — and the video game industry in general's — grand return to the 2D Platform Game scene^note as Mario games — and platformer games in general — had transitioned to being 3D platformers, helped bridge the gap between both game genres by introducing gameplay elements introduced in 3D Mario games to 2D Mario games, and still introduced plenty of new power-ups, locations, obstacles, enemies and bosses to the franchise.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: While the base gameplay is incredibly fun, if same-y following the releases of its sequels, many fans find themselves coming back to this game more for its side content. Of note are the minigames, some returning from Super Mario 64 DS and some brand-new, and the 2-player content, including multiplayer-exclusive minigames and an incredibly hectic Vs. mode involving grabbing Stars and beating up other players to nab their Stars.
• That One Boss: The World 2 boss, Mummipokey, is this when it comes to needing to defeat it in Mini Mushroom form in order to unlock access to World 4. Being in Mini Mushroom form requires the player to line up a ground pound at the exact spot Mummipokey is standing to land hits on its head, which becomes a lot more difficult after the first hit as Mummipokey will start to burst in-and-out of the ground a lot quicker, and will wiggle at times to make the ground pound hits to the head a lot harder. And lining up the mini ground pound to hit Mummipokey's head has to be so precise that a slight error makes it very easy to miss the head, and die due to landing on the sides of Mummipokey's spiked body. Worst of all is that there's no other way to get to World 4. By contrast, defeating World 5's boss with a Mini Mushroom to access World 7 is only optional, and needless to say, players struggling with the Mini Mushroom against bosses are glad to go with the other method^note Find the secret exit in World 4's Ghost House.
• That One Level:
  • 8-6. Vertical level with lava rising constantly. And the midway point appears early in the level.
  • 8-Tower 2. This one has you riding a snake block with almost all the way. But there are so many obstacles in the way, and it can particularly get annoying when you are trying to grab all three star coins. Of course, you have to ride the snake block, or else you will die.
• That One Puzzle: Some of the Star Coins can be a bit annoying to obtain.
  • The final Star Coin of 7-Castle requires the player to time a jump perfectly right as the snake block you're riding on is falling off the map after it reaches its path's end. Jumping too early onto the end platform makes the coin unobtainable, and jumping too late results in falling to your death. Both of which result in having to play the level from the midway point all over again.
  • The final Star Coin of 8-Castle 1 is actually a rare case where the midway point is detrimental to the player as said coin becomes unobtainable after the midway point if you ended up dying. There's switches throughout the first half of the level that changes up the track platforms to ride them on high or low tracks. To reach the final Star Coin requires the ride platform to be set to the low tracks, but if you died after the midway point, the low track platform is gone, and there's no switches beyond the midway point to change it. You can't even go backwards from the midway point to flip one of the switches further back due to a large lava gap. Thus, you're forced to reset the entire level.
  • There's also the Star Coins that force you to use a Mini Mushroom for in levels 8-4 and 8-8 as both these levels require you to dodge objects that drop in on you from above (Scuttlebugs in 8-4 and lava rocks in 8-8). It's rough for first timers, but it gets easier once you know certain tricks surrounding these Star Coins, like how there's a hidden Super Star block by jumping straight up from the 8-8 mini pipe exit.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • The Blue Shell is fun to use due to its unique defensive capabilities and shell dash/slide (also, nice to have the Blue Shell not be the object of fear and hatred for a change), but it appears far too infrequently (it isn't found in any of the normal ? Blocks in the game, it can only be obtained by defeating a Hammer Bro in the World map or a Blue Koopa Troopa found in the multiplayer mode, hitting a Flying ? Block, visiting a Red Toad House, or in a Roulette Block). Once obtained it can be brought back to any other level though, although none of the stages are really built around using it as it is used like a Bonus Material of sorts. It can however be used everywhere a normal Koopa shell can to perform its actions without actually needing one. Notably, it's one of the few powerups that hasn't appeared in any other of the ''New'' sub-series games, the Penguin Suit is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute although it works significantly different on land, lacking the Koopa-like dashing/sliding.
  • Holding onto a Koopa Shell while swimming along the surface of the water keeps you afloat and allows for defending against an enemy that may try to hit you while swimming, such as a Spike Bass. Unfortunately, there's no level or puzzles to truly take advantage of this mechanic, and it's very easy to play through the game and never come to realize that this mechanic actually exists.
• Unexpected Character: If you decide to go through every world in order, then besides Bowser and Bowser Jr., the bosses are all new. In World 5, the boss is Petey Piranha. He's a Warm-Up Boss in almost every other game, and is the ice world boss, which makes it all the more unexpected, since plants and ice usually don't go together. That being said, he makes the most of it, as it can be rather tough to hit him when you can't keep your feet steady on the ice.
• Win Back the Crowd: Up until the release of New Super Mario Bros., 2D platforming games were mostly relegated to indie PC games. With console gaming, platformers in general were starting to fall out of fashion. 2D platformers were all but dead and the number of 3D platformers considerably shrunk. NSMB was such an unexpected success that Nintendo decided to release a Wii sequel. That one was also a huge commercial success and led to 2D platformers returning to the mainstream in the console market.

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