OK, so New Super Mario Bros is out. There’s not much to say about the execution of the game that haven’t been said elsewhere, with the appropriate superlatives: 80 new levels, which are both longer than in any previous 2D Mario game, and more diverse; gorgeous character animations; superb backgrounds literally brought to life with subtle touches of 3D effects. And an entirely new multiplayer mode. And dozens of Mario-themed minigames.

Instead of raving on how good that game is forever, let’s look at three aspects of NSMB. First, multiple levels of gameplay. NSMB is a textbook example of a game which can be enjoyed by casual and dedicated players. Second, Mario fair play, illustrated by choices in level design. Finally, let’s ask ourselves if there can be a newer Super Mario Bros.?

Two Mario games in one?

For some of us, Mario gameplay is just too familiar. Jumping over the top of the visible screen to reach some secret passage or exploring green pipes to see which one leads to that alternate exit is almost in our genes. But for the billions of people who didn’t have a NES or a SNES, this would be the first Mario experience. Because of Nintendo’s policy, the game had to address both audiences. How?

Each level has two parallel layers. Beating the level, that is crossing it from left to right within the comfortable time limit and without dying too much, is usually quite easy and an accessible challenge to all. This doesn’t require collecting special power-ups, using advanced moves or the like. Finding all the secrets can be another challenge. Each of the 80 levels has 3 star coins to collect, and this can be quite tricky. In addition, some levels have secret exits, which are usually even harder to find. In order to win, the player may have to get the elusive powerups, mini-Mario or Shell Mario, which can be hard to obtain, and which put them in a less favorable position as Fire Mario for instance. And, of course, this is where the player’s mastery of special moves will be truly tested.

The 240 coins challenge doesn’t exploit all the potential skills of a player. Some moves, which are hardly ever required, are mostly here to impress (such as the triple jump). Hard-Core players could therefore try extreme challenges, like speed runs or constraint runs (for instance, doing the whole game as mini-Mario).

Mario and fair play

Mario’s arch enemy is not Bowser, but boredom and frustration. In 1985, who hasn’t thrown a controller in a fit of rage? Well, Nintendo certainly wouldn’t want its players to do that with their new DS Lites!

Traditionally, difficulty tuning is done by measuring how many times testers, who are expert gamers, lose at a particular gameplay situation. Difficulty peaks are detected if, for a specific situation, this number raises above a certain threshold, which the rule of thumb sets at 5.

The approach in NSMB is different and refreshing. Most levels in NSMB feature many animated objects: platforms which come in all kinds of shapes and sizes (things on which Mario can jump and which move in any sort of direction) and perils (enemies, traps, and other things that hurt or kill Mario). What is new is that the movement of all of these objects is synchronized, almost choregraphed. For instance, in one level, Mario rides a lift going up. There is a hole in the left wall, and, slightly above, a hole in the right wall. All of a sudden, a spiked ball appears from the left, and the lift keeps moving up. The ball rolls from left to right, and, as it has reached the right side of the lift, the lift is now exactly facing the hole in the right wall - the ball disappears to the right. There are dozens of examples such as this one in the game, where one platform brings a peril that another platform takes away. In another game, the movement of platforms and hazards would be uncoordinated, and the player would have to wait for the right time to jump or go through or whatever, with the possibility that this right time never occurs. In Mario, all the events that can hurt Mario are triggered not by a clock, but by the position of Mario. This means that when Mario stands on a moving platform that approaches a zone of traps, there will always be a right time to jump to avoid the traps, and that time will be the same even if Mario boarded the moving platform a second earlier or a second later. So the level designers can tell that a gameplay situation is fair not just because the testers clear it, but because they know that the player will have, say, half a second to jump which they know is enough. They know that their system will never let Mario face impossible situations.

Towards a Newer Super Mario Bros?

New Super Mario Bros has already sold well over three million copies and has tremendously contributed to the success of the DS Lite. It’s likely that many games jump on the bandwagon, beginning with New Mega Man DS. But the question is: where can Nintendo go from here? and will we have to wait 15 years to find out?

At the release of previous Mario games, Nintendo emphasised on the new moves available to Mario, especially for SMB3 and Super Mario Land. But the NSMB paradox is that in order to keep all levels accessible to all kind of players, the utility of the more advanced moves, where the innovation lies, has been greatly reduced. The triple jump may be beautifully animated, but it just makes the obtention of one single coin (on 240) easier, and this coin can be obtained otherwise. The player can also pull some incredible moves, taking advantage of the sophisticated physics governing Marioland - but alas, no puzzle requires the player to be that good.

On one hand, NSMB is the proof that execution is more important than innovation. Levels are beautiful, balanced, animations are gorgeous. It doesn’t matter if the gameplay hasn’t evolved much since the eighties. The production of the next Mario will probably be focused on contents, rather than reinventing Mario. Some levels in NSMB feature unique elements that never appear anywhere else in the game (i.e. giant eel chasing Mario underwater). There will probably be more of that.

On the other hand, if Nintendo fans had been waiting for 15 years for a new 2D episode of Mario, and have been content with the level of challenge present in NSMB, they will probably expect more in a next episode. The difficulty, since the original SMB, has falled drastically, to say the least. There should be at least one section in the game for the more demanding gamers that will require them to use the full palette of moves with the finesse that only 20-years game veterans are capable of.