Mario's first adventure leaves an even bigger and better impression on DS.
The Bad: The game is a tad on the short side despite its moderate difficulty; it's pretty easy to die; newcomers might be put off by having to learn how to time their jumping.
Mario has been around since about 1980. Back then he was the main character in games called Donkey Kong, where the big monkey was the big bad guy. Donkey Kong has turned good since then, Bowser, the king of the Koopas, has taken his place as Mario's enemy, and Mario is in games where his name is in the title.
With the inclusion of Baby Bowser, it's explained how Peach was captured for the first time in Super Mario Bros., the 1985 debut of the plumber on NES. This was Mario's first attempt outside of the arcades and was one of the biggest hits on the platform. Now the game has been brought back in glorious 3-D in conjunction with the release of the DS Lite.
And let me tell you, the game is even better than it was in the 80's, in literally every facet. Multiplayer still has Luigi, Bowser is still a massive beast there to shoot flames at you, there are plenty of Goombas to stomp and Mario's theme song won't get out of your head, but this DS version isn't just abusing a game from the past, ever.
The graphical overhaul is the first obvious change in the game. Mario has gone from a little 8-bit sprite to a 64-bit... dude... And he looks a lot better as a result. He's in his classic red and blue, and he now makes his funny faux Italian chuckles, as he's been doing for a while now. And the graphics aren't just updated, they actually look really really good for a sidescrolling DS game. In fact, Prime Hunters and Mario Kart don't really look any better than this one.
The sound is basically upgraded MIDI of the original stuff, and therefore it's just as great, and you'll be whistling the theme song for the next two weeks. Excellent work, even with the Mario and Peach voiceover.
The gameplay controls are plenty of fun. You can jump, obviously, but you can now speed up running too, which is very helpful for avoiding enemies or making larger jumps.
This might be a tiny nuisance for those who don't play a lot of platformers, like myself. Learning to time the jumps has a small learning curve, but then, you'll still be having fun.
There are eight worlds to this Mario, as is the case with all the old Mario titles. You won't be going to all of them the first time through, unless you go back and explore (which you are indeed allowed to do now), but this allows for more people to be able to make it to Bowser.
You can now become many new forms of Mario, including the giant Mario on the cover, Fire Mario, Koopa Mario, Rainbow Mario, and Super Mario. Every time you get hurt you'll lose one of these abilities (save Rainbow Mario). For example, if you're Fire Mario you'll revert to Super Mario, then normal Mario.
This means that it just take a couple injuries before you'll die. Even though you're now given more lives and it's easier to become Fire, Koopa, or the invincible giant and Rainbow Marios, and there are more save points, the game is pretty hard. That's to be expected from how hard games were back in the day, but it should be duly noted for younger audiences that they might not be able to make it to the final boss.
On the other hand, it's rewarding to get to Bowser, though he's a very easy boss, and exploring is in fact fun. The save points aren't all over the place, but it's an improvement on the original, where there was no saving, period.
Multiplayer isn't the main focus, and neither are the newly added minigames (which will remind you of the Super Mario 64 remake), but they're both pretty fun, and rather addictive.
There's quite a bit of content there, in other words. However, if you're pretty good at platforming and you don't die very much, the main quest will be pretty short. There's some replayability and exploration to do, but it's still not a twenty hour epic or something.
But is it worth it? Certainly. As of this writing, it's still worth every penny, and it's cheaper by now. If you want to know where Mario's come from (in a semi-modernized kind of way) and the real history of the famous Italian plumber mascot, here's your best chance.
I don't know if it's better than Elite Beat Agents (which I've never played), but New Super Mario Bros. is going to be worth your time and money regardless. It remains one of the best games on the DS.