New Super Mario Bros.
System: Nintendo DS, Wii U Virtual Console
Original Release Date: May 15, 2006
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Play Time: 7 hours 24 minutes
I first played New Super Mario Bros. sometime back around 2008 on Conklederp's DS. I remember being excited about a new 2D Super Mario game and I recall feeling that the first level highlighted everything that I felt was missing from the 3D Mario games. I wanted 2D platforming, I wanted the feeling of a Super Mario Bros. game akin to Super Mario World but with updated mechanics, and I wanted to have fun. I realize that the last one is subjective, but that first level, introducing the new Mega Mushroom and utilizing the bottom screen of the DS when you enter pipes was a simple, yet brilliant use of the dual screens on the system. I only played the game once and in that single sitting, I completed World 1 and played the first two desert levels in World 2. 
Like a lot of games in the Game Boy Advance and DS era, I did not pick up a copy of New Super Mario Bros. for my own, knowing that Conklederp had her own copy, (or it might have been Beardsnbourbon's copy because Conklederp doesn't recall what happened to the game and I know we have combined our games during one of our last four moves) and generally waiting for a sale that either never happened or I did not notice until the game stopped regular production and the price skyrocketed. So when I got the Wii U, I knew that this was going to be a game that I picked up for the Wii U's Virtual Console. One potential worry I had though was how the Wii U's gamepad was going to handle the dual screens of the DS as I was not interested at that moment because I was playing exclusively on the gamepad while not hooked up to a TV. Thankfully, Nintendo gave a variety of options when it came to the display settings. I ended up going with the "Upper Screen Focus (Right-Handed)" because it made the most sense as most of the action happens on the top screen and the smaller bottom screen was still accessible for activating the stored item or collecting coins in an underground bonus room. I did like the aesthetic of having an original DS mockup on the screen displaying both screens, but again because the majority of the action happened on the top screen, it just made more sense to have that be the focus.
Now, because this game has been out for 15 years, a full review is not necessary, but there were a couple of aspects that I wanted to discuss. The first is the Mega Mushroom and item storage. Obviously, I loved growing to over 50% of the screen, and being nearly invincible was a kick. I loved that a number of the pits were just narrow enough that you would not fall into them if you did not jump over so you could just focus on your linear destruction of the environment and the enemies on-screen. However, outside of the first two worlds, being massive seemed more of a hindrance than a bonus. It could have been that there were worlds in 3 - 8 where being large for the section would have made the level significantly easier, but I did not always have a Mega Mushroom in my item storage.
That being said, towards the end of the game and at least in the last three worlds, I did make sure that I had a Mega Mushroom that I could call upon during the boss fight against Bowser Jr., who I found could be defeated with a single stomp. I did strategically have a Mega Mushroom in my item storage when I went up against Bowser Jr. and Dry-Bowser-Reincarnated-Bowser at the end of the game, which did kind of make the final fight anti-climactic, but at the same time, a lot less stressful and if the developers had not wanted the player to be Mega Mario when the beat the game, then they would have made Dry Bowser resilient to Mega Mario's stomp.
An item that I found nearly useless every time I came across it was the Blue Shell that seemed to only come up when the floating ?-Block hovered over a random level. From what I could tell from the three times I used the Blue Shell was that it turned Mario into an invincible object that rocketed across the screen killing everything it came into contact with. Not unlike the Mega Mushroom, but this seemed a lot more dangerous for Mario than it was for the Koopa Troopas. I feel like I was probably not using the Blue Shell correctly as I always seemed to speed across the screen and into a pit, or it would appear from a floating ?-Block in a platforming-heavy section of the level. Eventually, I just avoided them altogether since you could not store them in your item storage like the Fire Flower or Power-Up Mushroom.
Lastly, it was not until I was in World 5 that I discovered that I could travel back to previous worlds simply by tapping the world icon on the bottom screen while you were on the overworld map. I had thought that this map was just informational and not actually functional. It was then at this point that I traveled back to World 1 to farm lives in Level 1-1 because I did not want to find out if I reached 0 lives, especially after reaching a checkpoint in either the mid-castle or the final stage in a world. Likewise, I have mixed feelings about having access to World 4 and 7 be cut off and only accessible if you were Little Mario and used a specific small pipe in a specific level. I guess it is more of an inverse of skipping worlds in Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3, where here you have to gain access to worlds instead. By the time I made this discovery, I was already set on beating the game so to date, I have not played either of the two optional worlds, which does make me kind of sad, and perhaps I will go back to the game and find the best way to be Little Mario in that specific location.
My biggest critique is that while I loved the Mega Mushroom, outside the first stage, I never felt that there was a great level that felt designed to use this item in and that was a real missed opportunity. Maybe have there be an area leading up to a battle with Bowser Jr. where you have to get a longer-lasting Mega Mushroom and sprint through barriers that Bowser Jr. is erecting to try and block you. Kind of like how the giant eel chases Mario in World 8-3, flipping the mechanic of the invincible enemy chasing the hero. For all I know maybe there is something like that in Worlds 4 or 7. I get that when you can bring in your own items from outside the level that there is the risk of breaking a level (like using the Mega Mushroom to take out both Bowser Jr. and Dry Bowser at the end of the game)... actually now I want to go back and try using a Mega Mushroom in an underwater stage. 
This really was the most fun I have had in a Super Mario game in a long time and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, which I am playing when I am not playing Metroid Dread, does feel like a souped-up version of this game although I do wish that the Mega Mushroom had been kept through the series, I get that each game needs to feel like it has new items, new variations on familiar enemies and mechanic to keep things feeling fresh, otherwise, it is just the same rescuing Princess Peach game over, and over, and over.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
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