Review: New Super Mario Bros.

After Super Mario Bros. 3 was released, it seemed that the "Super Mario Bros." Series was finished. "Super Mario World" played much the same way, but it was the last major side-scrolling Mario playformer. Although ports and remakes of these games were made, it wasn't until 15 years after SMB3 was released that "New Super Mario Bros." for the Nintendo DS continued the official “Super Mario Bros.” series.

NSMB hit the shelves on May 15, 2006 and it was a popular sale. The revival of the "Super Mario Bros." series has attracted tons of retro gamers as well as gamer of the modern age.

Overview

New Super Mario Bros. breathes life into the long neglected Mario sidescrolling world. The game returns to its roots with the return to retro mechanics such as an 8 world adventure, boss fights half way and at the end of each world, blocks to hit, Goombas to stomp on, and most importantly power-ups to collect. Per usual, Bowser has kidnapped the princess and it’s up to Mario to save her.

Series at a Glance: Mario Party

One of the gameboards from
Mario Party 1

Although it probably ranks second to Mario Kart in popularity, Mario Party is definitely the Mario Spinoff series with the most games to date. Incorporating all of the numbered games, the ones made for handhelds, and the ones only released in Japan and you have 11 entries. Add the upcoming Mario Party 9 for the Wii and you have 12 mini-game riddled party games staring Mario and his pals.


How does it work? 

Mario Party is essentially a board game brought to life...sorta. With a main map or board made up of panels and a dice to roll to move the characters, the game looks similar to say: Monopoly, Sorry, or Parcheese. 
Each board has it's own theme, difficulty, and special traits. Players collect and lose coins as well as activate different occurrences depending on what they land on. But here's where Mario Party springs up from a boring board game. At the end of each turn, all 4 players (human controlled or CPU controlled) participated in one of tons and tons of minigames.

Getting back to work.

So that hiatus took much longer than I expected it to, but alas, that is the life of a High School Senior. I'm going to return to my posting soon and I'll also be doing some more enhancements and revisions of things around the site so don't be shocked to see things in places that they weren't before. As always, your continued support is appreciated.

MC Hammer Bro.

Back in a Jiffy

With a few things going on with me, I'll be taking a hiatus for a few days. Check back in around the 12th of March and by then I'll be sure to have plenty of posts to make. Until then, keep your eyes open as Mario Party 9 is set to hit the shelves over the weekend.

Ciao

MC Hammer Bro.

Retro Review: Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros.

One of the most popular Nintendo fighting series was born in 1999 with the release of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. This game started the Super Smash Brother's series which currently has 3 game in total with a 4th one recently going into development. It's sequels are Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The game gathers up 12 of Nintendo's finest and pits them against each other to prove which fighter is the strongest.

2nd Half of the 1st Quarter

As the first quarter comes to an end, you can expect more announcement from game designers all across the board. Since the holiday season is now considerably behind us, companies are getting ready for the second best time to release video games: Summer. Expect plenty of announcements and I'll do my best to get some previews going.

Also, I'm looking into making changes into this site's layout so don't be alarmed if you start noticing changes in color, arrangements, or anything. The info will still be here.

As always, stick around for more gaming fun

MC Hammer Bro.

Classic Game of the Month: March 2012

TETRIS

The "Press Start" screen of Tetris.
Note the obvious Russian influence
from the building tops.

Tetris; if you haven’t heard of anything regarding this game before, then I’m sorry to say that you’ve been deprived from one of the most notable games ever made. Essentially the “Original Puzzle Game”, Tetris has spawned many sequels and has appeared across numerous platforms. Organizing, turning and stacking blocks is the point of the game and yet a game this simply quickly becomes quite a challenge to any gamer.