There are only a handful of truly giant franchises in the video gaming industry. Those rare game series that stand the test of time and can sell themselves simply on the name. They manage this feat by being cared for and nurtured by their parent companies. Never a bad game escapes from the development studios with the name of the cherished franchise attached to it. Like the monks who destroyed any St. Bernard puppy that showed aggression to maintain the gentleness of the breed, any weak game was ruthlessly terminated. And the most carefully cultivated and protected franchise of all is Nintendo’s Mario. With New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, Nintendo has done what many have longed for – updated the games that made Mario a household word back in the days of the NES. This 2-D, side-scrolling adventure game retains all the elements that made the original games so popular while adding new elements and pumping up the graphics to take advantage of the new hardware.

It has been a good 20 years since Super Mario Bros. first came home on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The reverence that many hold for this pivotal title is almost spiritual and vast numbers of the most serious gamers count it as a turning point in their love for games. New SMB offers the nostalgic gamer the chance to once again guide Mario in a classic 2-D adventure and relive that simpler time.

For those that are just returning after their 25-year-alien-abduction ordeal, the back story to every Super Mario Bros. game is about the same: Mushroom Kingdom’s Princess Peach is grabbed by Bowser and his henchmen and it falls to the stereotypical Italian plumber to get her back and save the day. As many times as that happed over the course of the entire franchise, you’d think they would have implanted a GPS locater in that chick by now.

To rescue the princess you’ll have to jump and run through the different levels that make up the worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom and defeat the boss characters that guard the end of each world. Along the way you’ll be collecting coins to increase your score and find power ups to change Mario and give him new abilities. Along with the standard red mushrooms that turn Mario into Super Mario and the flowers that turn him into Fire Mario, there are some new items to find in New SMB that change Mario’s appearance and skills. A mini mushroom makes Mario tiny, allowing him to enter areas he could not normally access at his normal size. The downside of being mini is that anything hitting Mario will send him to that great latrine in the sky. The mega mushroom will make Mario grow big and give him a limited amount of time to go crashing through the level like a Toho movie monster on PCP.

As a veteran of the early Mario games you might be saying, “That sounds good, but how do you really integrate the touch screen into the game play?” Well you don’t. Controls are really just the directional pad and buttons. You’ll track your progress on the lower screen, but as far as using it as a controller in the main game, it is limited to a few option picks.

To make this a true DS game, Nintendo apparently figured it had to do something with the touch screen, so they threw in 18 fun little mini games that you can play alone or with friends. These games include everything from games inspired by classic arcade games like Amidar to card games like concentration.

There is also a multiplayer game called Mario vs. Luigi that allows two players to compete for the most stars collected using the DS’ wireless capabilities. There is no WiFi support for any of the multiplayer games, but there are games that can be played with a single game card or with multiple cards.

From a presentation point of view the game is a vast improvement over the mid-‘80s games that inspired it. The world is still definitely 2-D, but the characters are rendered in 3-D. The game feels so authentically SMB in its play mechanics, the first time Mario completes a level and turns to the camera and tips his hat, it really takes you aback a little. Sound is very authentic to classic Mario games.

With summer here there is going to be more gaming on the go as handhelds get taken on road trips. And just in time, Nintendo has given us a blast from the past to take along and relive the fun of our wasted youths. The game mechanics show a bit of their age, but it is still a lot of great, simple fun. - Will Jayson Hill .