Mario in a new avatar

The original and ultimate casual game for many —Mario — dons a new avatar in the New Super Mario Brothers 2 and brings back a lot of nostalgia. Mario, perhaps, is one of those iconic virtual characters that will easily make it to the video game hall of fame, if one ever gets to that.

And, while most of us might have moved on to complex gaming platforms like the Xbox or PlayStation consoles, revisiting Mario on a Nintendo hand-held promises to be a highly satisfying experience.

Gameplay
The New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS brings back the traditional side-scrolling adventure game featuring Mario, Luigi and other favourite characters from the popular Mario series.

Though it is a sequel, New Super Mario Bros 2 mimics the titles before it. Bowser steals the princess from under Mario's nose, sends his kids to take out Mario, who tries to find and save the princess. Jumping on enemies is the standard line of attack, the mushrooms will make Mario grow bigger, flowers bring the ability to shoot fireballs, leaves lend the ability to fly, and gold coins are the currency to really up your ante on points and a variety of added options.

This 3DS game, it seems, has a serious focus on collecting of coins. In the previous Mario games, 100 collected coins meant an extra life for Mario. In New Super Mario Bros 2, while 100 of them still get another life, they also give the ability to unlock some bonus stages.

With coins strewn across levels, we felt it adds almost nothing to the gameplay beyond granting more extra lives and making the game even easier than it already is. Some of the star coins are well hidden and will require some serious exploring to discover them, and this may please hardcore gamers who can diligently put in hours finding every single star coin on a particular level.

Some new tricks
Gold begins to overpower the screen with new power-ups like golden flower that turns all the enemies golden for a short time. Hit a turtle and launch it in a direction, and this will leave a trail of golden coins. The other new powerup is a coin block head. If you bash a block with coins, the block gets stuck to Mario's head until you hit an enemy again. As Mario moves about, the coins fall out of the block and can be collected.

One also has the choice to take the mustachioed plumber on a Coin Rush mode, where a gamer attempts to speed through levels while collecting as many coins as possible. The new co-op mode allows a gamer to play against a friend (only wirelessly), but the two will have to own a copy of the game.

From running, jumping, stomping to floating in the air or swimming through water, controls are spot-on, and as good as any 2D platform game gets. Given that this is a 2D-based game, the 3D slider (on 3DS models) adds depth to the backgrounds. The game is enjoyable with or without the 3D slider on. It can be played in both the modes and both look decent.

New Super Mario Bros 2 doesn’t take the earlier 2D Mario games to a new level, and is certainly not as disruptive as last year’s Super Mario 3D Land, but that does not mean we should be writing it off the new version. New Super Mario Bros 2 is as good as Nintendo’s finest 2D platformers, but doesn’t give the desired highs.

Availability: The suggested retail price across online stores is about Rs 3,500. The game is available on the Nintendo 3DS platform (to be purchased separately).