New Retro Mario BrosWhat do you think when you hear the words New Retro Mario Bros? Do you think of New Super Mario Bros? As in the largely successful game for the Nintendo DS that was later more or less ported to the Wii? Well I am sorry because this is not that game. This is more or less a graphical overhaul of the first Mario game (Mario Bros.) to look in the same way that the games on the DS looked. Overall they did a pretty good job. The graphics actually look pretty good.
The game looks really good and almost the same as the DS game. The only major difference is the fact that the character models are not polygons. Though I am glad that they did not try to go down that route just because Super Nintendo plus polygons typically makes the game look really bad, case in point Star Fox. If they would have made the characters polygons the game would have ran slower and looked messier. So instead they went with what I believe are their own sprites. They look pretty good too; Mario resembles what he does in New Super Mario Bros, as well as every other sprite. The backgrounds look exactly the same. They lack the same depth that was in the original New Super Mario Bros but they are a far step up from the original NES game. The graphics look nice and they do look like what I would think of the New Super Mario games if they were to be put onto the Super Nintendo. I just do not like how Mario sprints but that is not something to get down about.
The game has the same game play for the most part. Except for the controls are not as tight as I would have hoped. They feel almost loose; which is not a good thing for a precision based game. I am not saying that the game is broken with the controls by any means but they do need work. I would have either liked them to try to make it just like the original in terms of control; rigid, precise, and also easier to do pixel by pixel movements. Or do it like the new one; a little bit slippery, still very tight, does not allow for pixel to pixel because there is not any. Though they tried to go some where between the middle as well as making it up as they go. This did not really work for me because it is kind of like you are on ice, neither of the games control like that. I know because I played them a lot and they did not feel like they were on ice aside from the ice level. The game play is still Mario it is just more of his mutant cousin from the past and future. I just do not like where they took it in terms of the game play.
Just because the game has a little bit of a control issue does not mean that it is not worth playing though. It also does not mean that it is not classic Mario anymore. You just have to dig a little deeper to see that Mario is still very much alive in this game. Once you get into the new control and play style I guess I will call it then you can actually start to more or less enjoy the people’s hard work on this. They tried to make it as true as they could and the addictiveness (after you dig a little deeper) is there. It has all the fun of the DS game as well as all the fun of the original. The same feeling you get after you die in the original is there in this one as well. JUST PRESS START. You always want to keep going and once you get into it, it is hard to put down.
The game sounds good still. They more or less ported over the music from the DS game and put it into this one. This means that you will not hear any remixes of old favorites in a new style. Which I think is good because that could have given them another place to slightly mess up the game and I would not enjoy that. They also used a mix of Mario World sound effects along with the ones from the DS game. This gives it it’s own kind of flavor that is actually pretty good. I liked it a lot more than I thought in the sound department. That is one of the places that I am glad to see the job that they did there. Really it is good, the game is worth playing almost just for that.
The game is un necessarily hard because of the control issues. You will be sliding around a bit more than you should which can send you too your demise really easily. When you land you scoot forward a bit and that killed me off too many times to count. I dislike that. The game is also hard because that is how the original Mario was. The game was not made to be an easy game to run through in a few minutes, though the difficulty is upped a notch when you can barely get on the right path. That makes it go from fun and anger. To just you are mad because you died and it’s the games’ freaking fault. It makes it frustrating to play and that is not something that I want out of Mario. There is a game made for that. The game’s difficulty is yet another problem there is with the game, I wish that it were not so.
The game is as deep as ever though. Too bad that it is mucked up by all the other problems the fact that you will not want to experiment with how high you can jump, how fast you can beat a level, or how many enemies you can kill in a single bound is sad. Since really that was half of the fun of the two games that it is copying. The depth like the addictiveness is down there but you have to dig a lot deeper to find it. There are still the fun glitches to play around with and there is still those few moments where the game just does not seem fair. These used to be fun in the old game but it is not so here. The game seems shallow, especially without the addition of triple jumping or any of the New Super Mario Bros staples it just seems like they could have taken it further but they just did not. This part feels more or less half done.
There you have it, if you want to have a fancy looking game that is the same as the one it is copying but with bugs choose this one. Though if you really want something that is worth your time choose super Mario Bros all stars. The game is on there and everything is better. This game is sad to say more or less a lame excuse. Everything seems to be lacking in some small or major way. So here is the rundown.
Graphics: 10 – The game is sharp and really they did do a good job of making everything look like it does in the DS game. Though the backgrounds look significantly better than the actual characters and there are a few graphic glitches here and there, it still looks a head over the original.
Sound: 8 - The music is more or less the same as what you hear in New Super Mario bros. Which I do like but the thing is I would like to hear them at least try to make a new sound out of some of the old beats.
Addictiveness: 6– Controls. That is the main reason that this area, as well as all the other ones regarding the guts of the game are low. The game just does not play that great which makes it hard to really jump in and play.
Depth: 5 – The game is still as deep and full of secrets as the original it is just that chances are you do not want to find all of them because really the controls hold you back. I did not really want to play this game to death because of that fact.
Difficulty: 10 – The game is harder than it needs to be because of, well everything. The new art mixed with the controls just ruin what could have been a solid over haul. Not a good match with the game
Overall: 5 – Yuck. That is all I can say the game looked like it had a lot of promise but in the end it was weighed down by bad controls as well as slippery characters. The game seems like some of it was not really a focus and it shows. I wish that they would have taken more time and put in a little more love…
Graphics
10 Sound
8 Addictive
6 Depth
5 Difficulty
10
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