Stomping step stone
New Super Mario Bros. DS a good trial run
Now, y’all know I love me some Mario. I’m a Mario girl and have been for a long time. A whole issue devoted to him and his exploits aside, there are few mainline Mario games that I haven’t played and enjoyed. As a connoisseur on all things Mario, his leap to 3D was not one of my favorite things to experience because of the surprise condition of motion sickness. So, imagine my happiness when the series took the sidestep to start producing 2D games again. Nintendo’s first entry, New Super Mario Bros., was a warm-up if not a practice session for something greater.
The story starts pleasantly enough with Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach for the millionth time. It’s standard fare for Mario games at this point and it’s serviceable enough because that’s what you’re supposed to do in Mario games: save the princess. But there’s something different here: a newer style of graphics and play mechanics to whet your appetite for that “new” in the title. The game looks cleaner and brighter as compared to the last 2D outing — Super Mario World for the SNES — and Mario is more defined. Yes, you’re still in the Mushroom Kingdom but it looks newer. The way you play is also new. Mario’s getting around a lot better in modern times and it started here with a new butt stomp, wall jump, triple jump and new power-ups in the Mini Mushroom, Mega Mushroom and the Blue Koopa Shell. These power-ups are welcome additions to the Mario repertoire and are fun to use.
My main gripe comes from the new mechanics, however. While I love that Mario moves 
well, sometimes he moves almost too well. I had the same issue here as I did with the later Wii version: Mario slides around entirely too much. I have to keep in the back of my mind to undercompensate and overcorrect with running and jumping movements constantly, and it’s a bit much to keep up with while trying to play well. When I want Mario to stop running, it should be instantly. There shouldn’t be extra frames of stopping. Also, some of the jumps don’t feel as clean as they should if we’re basing it on the known Mario standard. It’s all a little too loosey-goosey for my liking and makes clean play a little bit more of a chore than I’d care to do. Later entries have cleaned this up, but it’s obvious here and I can cut it some slack because it has been fixed. Just know that it’s part of the “new” experience.
New Super Mario Bros. has the Mario charm the series is known for as well. It’s fun to play and discover new secrets and see the new concepts work out in a series that puts in the work to innovate and stay relevant. This first game was the stepping stone for the phenomenal New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and you can clearly see where it’s going in terms of the total package. It’s not an insult to say this was the practice run and that practice makes perfect, especially if you’re New Super Mario Bros., and you’re compared to other mainline Mario games, and you sell 30 million copies as the best-selling DS game of all-time. Clearly, this is a mega Mario hit and good starting point for the 2D throwback of the franchise.
on a 
The downsides to “QuackShot” are few but are similarly found in most platform games. You must ensure perfect timing for Donald when he either crosses dangerous obstacles or performs his dash move. Also, mildly infuriating is small voice sample usage for the characters as this was not only a debut game for Donald, but also it is set in the DuckTales universe. There was so much untapped potential for rich, established history. Finally, you can only start the game in Duckburg, Mexico, or Transylvania. To pass later stages, you need a particular item, so there is a lot of backtracking unnecessarily.
the touchscreen controls an issue, and it’s easy to quickly switch among them on the fly.
My only bone of contention is small but a big part of the game: The Vibe meter. While a nice mechanic as far as gameplay goes, there was something about it that bothered me that I couldn’t articulate when the game was released in 2006, but I can now. I’m not overly fond of the concept that Peach is led around by manipulating her emotions. It’s the concept that women are emotion-driven creatures that jumps out at me as a little more than offensive. If we’re capable of saving our beau — which we wholly are, and it only took from 1985 to 2006 to show this — then we can do it without it implied that we’re wildly mood-swinging weirdos who are giddy at one moment and raging or crying at the next. It’s a little more than stereotypical misogynistic nonsense that quite frankly wasn’t necessary to attach to an already damsel-in-distress archetype trying to change the status quo. The game, on its technical merits, is strong enough to stand on its own, honestly.
by Dr. Light years after the original Mega Man. X is a more powerful version of our blue titan but with free will. 100 years later, after Dr. Light’s death, X was found by Dr. Cain, a robotics expert who developed robots based on X’s design known as “reploids.” However, this began a rise of rebellious reploids, known as mavericks, which led to the formation of a group known as maverick hunters to stop them. Alas, the maverick hunter’s leader Sigma became a maverick (and the series’ main villain), forcing X to team up with another maverick hunter named Zero to stop Sigma’s plan for global domination.
Control of X is simple as any regular side-scrolling game, especially with the option of switching between the analog sticks or directional buttons. X’s main weapon, the X‑Buster, and other weapons he acquires from a level boss can be powered up in addition to finding upgraded boots, helmet and armor via secret areas in each level. Using a sub screen, I appreciated that it was understandable and simple in organizing items and weapons since, in other side scrolling games, looking for needed items is time consuming and morale-draining. Zero is also playable in 
a great soundtrack and decent controls and not be so obnoxiously unplayable that legions of older gamers remember it with a certain hatred that burns deep within their soul to be passed down through generations to come. Cool Spot, licensed from Pepsi partner 
throughout 11 levels in cages. Why its friends are trapped, we’ll never know but it’s up to Spot to rescue them and lecture you about not drinking dark sodas. Spot’s traversal through these 11 levels is nothing short of amazing despite the rampant product placement. It’s surprisingly good, with solid controls that don’t make controlling Spot a chore, and competent simple mechanics that don’t get in the way: It’s mostly jumping and shooting magical sparks at enemies and barred gates. The life system — hilariously denoted by an ever-peeling and deteriorating picture of Spot — is more than generous and there are helper power ups galore to get through levels. The levels themselves have a lot of depth and are timed just right with enough time to explore or get the bare minimum experience in the search for Spot’s missing friend.
much like playing any platformer of the past 20 years and the control scheme is simple and intuitive in letting you figure out what to do and how to apply it later. Where it falters is the jumping mechanics. While obvious and simple, the jumping does feel slightly off and floaty, which is a problem in a game that relies on that mechanic to carry it. It’s annoying to have to re-do sections of a level solely because of a missed jump, and that detracts from the core experience.
While the mechanics could use tweaking, not much else needs work. The soundtrack is fantastic and fits the game perfectly. It’s a good mixture of indie folk and pop, and it immediately reminds of the brilliance that is Katamari Damacy. The graphics are also in the realm of perfect and evoke a certain sort of charm that begs more playthroughs just to see what developer Media Molecule could come up with next. It’s breathtaking and simplistic, like a child’s world come to life, and begs to be admired.