New Super Mario Brothers

Company: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Side Scrolling Adventure
Platform: Wii
ERSB Rating: E for Everyone
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Premise:
The premise of the game is for Mario and his friends to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.

Characters:
Within “New Super Mario Brothers”, there are 4 characters that the player can control: Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad.

Play:
The games pacing is all platforming and minor puzzles. Within each level, the player has to run through the level jumping on enemies or jumping over obstacles. The minor puzzles are secret areas that the player can uncover by finding a hidden block within the level. The game has two control schemes: wii mote only or wii mote and nunchuck. The wii mote control scheme uses the d-pad to to move, the 2 button to jump, the 1 button to run, and the + button to pause the game. The wii mote and nunchuck set up uses the c button to run, z button to jump, and the analog to move.

Engagement:
Played alone, or in a group, this game is engaging and fun. For solo players, the challenging platform, combined with nostalgia from other Mario games, makes the play captivating. Playing Multiplayer, the engagement comes from players helping or competing against each other.

Story:
Mario games tend to have basic stories that are easy to follow. The story starts off with Princess Peach having her birthday party. Suddenly, the party is crashed by Bowser, Bowser Junior, Koopa Brothers and Bowsers’ minions who kidnap Peach. Mario and his gang then give pursuit in order to rescue Peach and defeat Bowser.

Resources:
There are many different resources in the game, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes. For example, there are several kinds of mushrooms: Red, Green, Blue, and each has it own function. Red Mushrooms make Mario grow bigger, blue mushrooms make Mario shrink, and green Mushrooms give Mario extra life. The next resources are power ups: fire flower, propeller mushroom, ice flower, penguin suit, and the star. The fire flower allows Mario to shoot fire balls at enemies, the ice flow allows Mario to shoot ice balls to freeze enemies, the penguin suit allows Mario to slide on ice and shoot ice balls, and the star makes Mario invincible. The resources can only be found by hitting yellow blocks within levels.

Challenge:
Mario games are known for their incredible simplicity in their controls combined with an unrelenting challenge in play. The first levels are very easy, but they’re to let the player get used to the game. Once the first world has been beaten, the game gets much harder as the levels start to throw more environmental hazards and enemies towards the player(s) while power ups show less frequently.