New Super Mario Bros

The many mini-games will keep you occupied for a long time. Some of the mini-games you will like so much you may find yourself playing them over and over again just to beat your own highscore. I know I did. There are, in total 18 mini-games split into 4 categories. You may find yourself better at the puzzles than the action games. It's nice to see Nintendo catering for gamers with different tastes.

The multi-player modes are brilliant. All you have to do is sit next to someone else with a Nintendo DS and you're off. In multiplayer 2 players, as Mario and Luigi battle it out to gain as many star coins as possible. These stars can be stolen from the other player also, keeping the game alive and competitive.

The wide variety of colour is truly amazing. Despite being 2D it is still one of the best looking games on the system. How Mario looks has really evolved over these 20 years and now he's surely reached his pinnacle. Everything is so vivid and colourful. The sky, the grass the clouds. It's all done with a beauty that could put the Sistine Chapel to shame. But maybe that's just my opinion.

However, once you've completed the main story all you have to do is find all the star coins. It isn't apparent if there is a reward for this or not, but for some reason it feels like it needs to be done. You will bore yourself to near death looking for these. There are 3 in each level, tucked away of the main road. There are over 160 to find in the game and it will take you a long, long time.

After a while at the mini-games it becomes evident that many are simply the same in disguise. This is quite the let down. When you first hear about the number of mini games it really lifts your hopes up, at least it did in my case. After playing two mini-games basically the same it's quite depressing.

I think it's terrible that you aren't allowed to save at any point you want. Having to work to the next castle or tower isn't really that fun when all you want is to have a break and sit down. It really detracts from the point of the game, a light-hearted side-scrolling platformer.

In conclusion, I would definatly recommend New Super Mario Bros, but anyone who says it's perfect is quite simply mental!