Although I have played plenty of Mario games. Nostalgia still reigns supreme as an excuse to play more. By this I mean, if you are going to pick this game up expecting a whole new world, don’t get too excited. Don’t get me wrong, the levels are enticing and the gameplay addicting, but you are still fighting the same old enemies, and your princess is STILL in another castle. One feature of this game that has even me wondering if Nintendo is trying to be creative or just becoming lazy, is the new focus on coins. Yes, you still earn your beloved 1-ups from collecting 100 coins, but that is just way too easy to do in this new edition to the franchise. The main reason for this is the fact that you have to earn 1,000,000 coins to unlock a prize that, in my opinion, is just not worth the hours of coin grindage. I would have rather simply played the game as I did all of the others and just saved the princess.
There is also a Multiplayer option, but it is only available via “spot pass” (DS WiFi). This addition to the game was a good idea but the execution is somewhat crap. The screen has a limited focus on the players, tying them both to the same screen, and only focuses on the player closest to the front. The other unlockable feature in this game is called coin rush. This feature allows you to compete with your friends in a time trial through some of the already played levels and see who can collect the most coins.
But don’t let all of this defer you from the game. The price of the game at release was reasonable, the play style is the same as it ever was, and it still has that old style Mario feel to it (if you can ignore the buckets of coins being thrown at you from every which way). So in the end I would have to say if you are thinking about picking this up because you need something to occupy your time, go right ahead. If you are looking for a new Mario adventure that will leave you challenged and at the edge of your seat, you may have to wait a little bit longer.
