Did the New Super Mario Bros. have to be made for the DS? After all the thought that went into the handheld’s features, is a simplistic, side scrolling platformer really what it needs? Short answer: yes.

Now it’s time for the long answer.

Accessibility is important for anything to be popular, and therefore profitable. That’s why games have been on a downward spiral since the Playstation (mass generalization of course). Developers and publishers trying to capitalize on proven designs, sequels, and generally lowbrow gameplay have been steadily growing the games industry for the last 10 years. And yet a game like New Super Mario Bros. comes along as a fitting reminder of what got me into games, and why accessibility really is important – but also that it does not mean it results in a game of lesser quality.

A game like this could have easily found its way onto the Gameboy Advance. There are still games being released for the platform, after all, and aside from the multiplayer minigames that were repeated from Super Mario 64 DS, New Super Mario Bros. doesn’t go out of its way to use the DS’s features. But it was important to release New Super Mario Bros. on the DS because it will sell units. This is a game that is immediately recognizable to anyone who’s even touched a video game console. It will lure in the people that have long been considering the DS as a distraction. This game was made for them.

At first inspection the game reminds me of what Donkey Kong Country did for 2D platforming, but the rendered sprites on subtle 3D backgrounds of New Super Mario Bros. gives the series a more rejuvenated look. In fact, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this approach to 3D backgrounds is what we can expect in the upcoming Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. Having this adventure in two dimensions was as important as making it a Mario adventure. Asking a player to struggle with a camera while trying to jump on things that aren’t visible are grounds for any beginner to put the game down permanently. The difficulty in this case hinges on the available technology – not the game itself. As a result the player feels stupid. Not for lack of skill, but because they have allowed themselves to be led along by a camera system that gives the impression that it operates separately from the action on screen. The 2D plane is more managable.

There are some new additions to the Mario canon – but nothing especially world-changing. New power-ups include Mega Mario, which lets you destroy everything in your path – though it doesn’t do much good in lava levels where you often break the bricks you’re supposed to be running across. Mini Mario fits into smaller places and has a longer lasting “floating” jump. Shell Mario can be as powerful as Invincibility in levels where there are a lot of ramps and slides. You can ground pound and wall jump, opening up some avenues that in the past would have only been accessible through a well-kicked shell. Though there isn’t any flying in the New Super Mario Bros. – triple jumping is the closest you’ll get. With this game’s focus on finding secrets and harder to reach Star Coins, it’s an unfortunate shortfall in the game’s design.

And so New Super Mario Bros. feels conventional. But that sounds too negative. I’d settle for “classic”. Every experienced gamer has seen these worlds before, just maybe not as vibrantly colored. The core set of power-ups and their behaviors are the same. There are the basic concepts for the player to master: jump, dodge and don’t fall off the screen. And yet they are still challenging in the way that a shoot ‘em up is challenging: the way it forces you to learn through repetition and pattern recognition. The frustrations return. Timing is everything: no matter how much you scream at the screen for losing Super Mario right after you got it because you swear that Koopa wasn’t walking there before, the game is never to blame. Player skill is back at the forefront of gaming, where it belongs.

This isn’t a game that has health meters or multiple weapons or combo attacks. It gives you a single serving enhancement, and when you lose Fireball Mario or Super Mario, it really feels like you’ve lost something. There are levels when everything depends on having fireballs to clear off floating platforms. One slip of the d-pad and you’ve lost it, and then there’s the feeling of hopelessness – there is no point in continuing forward. But you can and do and triumphantly raise your fist upon jumping on the flag at the level’s exit. That is the reward for playing Super Mario Bros. Not experience points or shiny new weapons. To say that you’ve actually beaten the game.

Though the prospect of beating the game isn’t as hard as it sounds – it practically throws 1Ups at you at every turn. The game is based around an overhead map, similar to that seen in Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. There are a total of 8 worlds, but you really only have to play through five of them to finish the game. That’s because at the end of each World there are alternate exits from the Boss castle. There are also alternate pathways through each world, which can be accessed by opening them up with Star coins on the world map, or finding the secret exit to one of the levels. This does a fine job of adding replayability to the game, because of the apparent lack of difficulty that shortens its overall length.

There’s nothing new about New Super Mario Bros. It’s actually a game that feels very, very old. Yet if it was any other game, I’m sure this would be one of its biggest criticisms. But nostalgia plays a large part in the reviews that this observation is strangely absent from. Aside from the game’s length, the only real complaint that I have is the lack of flight – it makes the worlds of New Super Mario Bros. seem a little smaller, and almost a step backwards from what we’ve already seen as being possible. It’s a tough feeling to describe, but when you’re running across the bottom of the screen, and all of a sudden you’re not running – you’re flying beyond what you thought were the limits of the game world and shedding the constraints of having to find a higher block to leap to. It feels like you’ve reached some uncharted territory where you’re not supposed to be, but it was put there for you, for a reason – to explore. And yet somehow New Super Mario Bros. limits its exploration to things you see on the screen, whether it’s small pipes or obvious gaps in walls. But this game wasn’t made with me in mind, because I’ve done it all before. To the average person, this game will pose a challenge, and there will be enough new material to explore and for it to seem fresh and exciting. And that’s why it works. Because when I stop thinking about the past and enjoy the game for what it is, the details don’t matter. I just try to make it through with Fireball Mario.