Before I get to the review, allow me to give a plug for our sponsor GameHQ. I purchased a Nintendo DS Lite for my wife for Christmas, and GameHQ was amazing. The bundle that they have is for a system, carrying case, extra stylus, free game, and screen protectors. All of that was well worth the price, and add the fact that I got it before Christmas, made the deal even better. Everyone should check them out for all of your gaming needs.

Now on to the review. This game is for all of you out there looking for that original Super Mario Bros. feel. Remember the side scrolling fun, remember powering up with mushrooms and flowers and stars. This game brings all of that back, and adds many features from later Mario titles. You venture from world to world just like in Super Mario Bros. 3, you can get power ups that make Mario as large as the screen or half the size that you are when you’re small. I’m not a Nintendo fan at all, but I genuinely had fun playing this game. It brought me back to my youth a little, reminding me of the first game in the series, and I enjoyed being able to play the versus by connecting to DS’s together. The ability to lay the pwn my wife made me feel good.

I believe the best feature of this game is the mini-games. Who knew you could have so much fun playing the dumbest little games. This being my first experience with the DS, I have to say that again I had a surprising amount of fun using the stylus to play the games. The mini-games are split into four different categories, with a total of 18 games. The first category is titled action, and it’s pretty much games that consist of you using the stylus to touch the screen as fast as you can to do different things. The Whack-a-mole game is by far my favorite. My wife and I have spent a good amount of time trying to beat each others’ high scores.

The other categories are Action (poker, matching, and “Bejeweled” like game), Puzzle (memory type games) and Variety which is obviously a variety of games involving Bob-ombs, piranha plants, and catching stars.

I’ve always been of the frame of mind that if a game doesn’t have online play to sustain it, it will never be worth a buy. This game has changed my mind. You can sit down with this game and have fun for hours just trying to make it to the next level on a lot of these mini-games. Were it not for these, the game would definitely not be worth it, but the mini-games are the redeeming quality. The $34.99 price tag may be a little steep for the DS community, (I don’t know, I’m new to it all) but it is well worth it for me. I suggest this game for all Mario fans and for all families looking for something to play together.