Mario reclaims his glory days

The 2D Platformer is dead, and Mario is the one who killed it. But after two trips into the third dimension, Mario tries to resuscitate the genre with "New Super Mario Bros."\nDon't be confused by the title, "New Super Mario Bros." isn't so much new as it is nostalgic. The game basically takes attributes from all of the Mario games and combines them into something that plays more or less like "Super Mario World," from the Super Nintendo. My favorite inclusion: killing Bowser the old school way, by taking out the bridge from beneath him a la the original "Super Mario Bros."\n"New Super Mario Bros." is a solid game even if it is basically a sequel to a 14-year-old game. The only real problem is that it is probably a little too easy for any Mario vets out there. If you are heading straight for the goal, you can probably finish this game in about 4-5 hours. However, if you are just in it to beat the final castle, you are going to be missing a lot. In fact, two entire worlds are only accessible as secret levels.\nAs any real Mario vet would expect, the real fun in this game comes from trying to beat/find everything, and therein lies the challenge as well. There is a myriad of secret levels, and every level, secret or not, has three gold coins you need to find. Some might claim that getting all of the coins is optional or even pointless, but trust me, when you see that gold coin in the middle of a stage, virtually inaccessible, laughing at you with its stupid high pitched gold coin laugh, optional quickly turns to obsession. \nYou will be shocked at the obscenities that will escape your lips as you fall into the lava for the twentieth time while going after that little gold coin. After a while I started making up bad words because the traditional fare didn't seem to capture my frustration. "Fusht" is sort of a combination of two bad words and should be used after five or more deaths in a row at the exact same point. "Shpeku" means "if that stupid giant eel eats me one more time I am going to drown a puppy." And of course "Belgium" is the most grievous of curses and should only be used in the direst Mario situations.\n"New Super Mario Bros." is definitely worth your time and money, but it gets points off for basically being "Super Mario World: The Lost Levels." Good job Mario, but let's try and show a little more originality next time.