The best way to explain this new title is to think of Super Mario Bros. 3 meets Super Mario 64. While this is a traditional 2D platformer, the game is made of many 3D elements - including Mario himself. This adds a fresh twist on the style of the old games, and allows Nintendo to make slight camera zooming and scaling of characters without creating blurry pixels in the process.

So after 10 years, what has Nintendo done to add new life to the Mario Bros. series? To be honest, they haven't added very many "new" things as the title implies. If anything, they've gone back to the basics. There's two main items, the mushroom and the fire-flower. On top of that, there's the mini-mushroom which shrinks you down to a tiny proportion, allowing you to run on water and fit through tiny pipes.

The Mega-mushroom is huge, and makes Mario grow and cover up the entire DS screen, smashing everything in his path and breaking pipes along the way. Then there's the Blue-Shell which Mario wears around his body. He can hide inside it and not take damage, or spin along the ground taking out enemies like a normal spinning koopa shell would.

While there are some new items, you really stick with the Mushroom and the Fireflower for the majority of the game. This is kind of nice because the Fireflower has lost its power lately. Ever since awesome items like the Tanooki suit, the yellow cape, and the Hammer Bro suit came around, and riding Yoshi, the Fireflower has felt like a useless item.

On the other hand, it really sucks because there's no flying items. For as many items as Mario has had over the years, they seem to have limited us to only a handful. It all makes sense though. The levels in this game are really not made for very much flying. Unlike Super Mario World, in which the levels were quite large and full of exploration, this game is much more in the style of Super Mario Bros 3. The levels are very short and very quick to blast through.

The world-map also has mushroom houses that award you bonus items, and Hammer Bros travel from space to space - much like the ones in Mario 3. The world-map is nice (reminds me a bit of a Mario Party board) but it lacks the depth that Mario World had with its massive Dinosaur Island.

The Mega-mushroom is a really fun power-up.

The world map is also 3D, and shares some similarities to a Mario-Party style board.

If you didn't know already, Super Mario World is not only the greatest Mario game for me, but also my greatest game of all time - so this one had a lot to live up to. Thankfully, much like all the Mario games, none of them are really made to be better than a previous one - they're just made to be different and unique in their own way while still retaining the same basic gameplay elements.

This one is certainly unique, but by using elements from Mario games already released that weren't of the 2D style. For instance, a lot of the enemies you see are ones you've seen before, but not from the 2D games. There's the blue swimming dinosaur and the Eel from Super Mario 64, Petey Pihrana from Super Mario Sunshine, even the annoying spiders from Paper Mario. It's ironic, because normally you enjoy seeing your favorite 2D characters in a 3D game, but now its the other way around.

New Super Mario Bros. doesn't really add many brand new things never seen before, but certainly adds a lot of new things to the 2D world. A good example of this is Mario's moves. He can now do wall jumps and even the acrobatic triple jump just as they were introduced in the 3D Mario titles. See? It's not anything "new" - but adds a new quality to the 2D gameplay.

So many previous elements that worked so well before are back. Ghost houses, castles, water levels, warps, the list goes on. Bowser Jr is the one you're after, and you fight him at least once in each world. These play out much like the Koopa Kids did in Mario 3 and World - but I like them a whole lot more since they're all different and much more interesting than Bowser Jr is.

There are some interesting boss fights that ar,e thankfully, all different enemies, but these are still really easy, much like previous Mario games. Come on Nintendo - you can stand to make them a little bit more difficult. Seriously. Simply jumping on a boss that's practically walking around the room is just not good enough anymore.

The levels are clever and fun, but don't stray too far from what you've seen before. This is good and bad.

Also included is a vs mode for two DS users that involves running around as Mario and Luigi trying to collect Power Stars and beating them out of each other by jumping on them or throwing fireballs. This mode is pretty fun, but I prefer the mini-game versus mode. These are all of the touch-screen games included with Super Mario 64 DS but instead of being single-player as they were before, they have been adapted for competitive 4-player battles. These are a lot of fun, and takes away how cheap it would have been without the included 4-player addition.

I was able to beat the game in one day - which is not uncommon as I've heard. Blasting through the game without caring is easy. In fact, you only have through play six of the eight worlds to reach the end. However, collecting the three special coins located in every level, and finding the secret exits to some levels, make it a pretty lengthy play if you really set out to accomplish it all. On the surface it seems far too easy and standard of a Mario game, but really trying to collect everything reveals a level of challenge and creativity that sometimes feels absent when just playing through the game normally.

Nintendo really went back to the basics with this game. The simplicity of it all feels nice and sweet, but also cries out wanting to be so much more. I have a hunch that Nintendo's starting small so that they can really build up higher and higher with each sequel. At least, that's what I hope they do. They better not let this one sit alone for another ten years. There's so many things they could add to this.

Nintendo, I love this game. However, I really challenge you to really make the best Mario game ever - lots of items, lots of depth, tons of levels, and of course lots of fun. You've got the basics in, now you just need to really expand with it and make it something amazing. I know you can - you've just got to get the creativity to really flow on the next one, instead of relying on all of your old tricks. Don't get me wrong, this game rocks, but you know this has to be a set-up for everything you've ever wanted a Mario game to be. Now it's time to make it.

Verdict: A very good game. Hopefully just the beginning...