New Super Mario Bros. 2 Gold Edition (USA) 3DS CIA Download for the Nintendo 3DS. Game description, information and CIA/ROM download page. GameStop: Buy New Super Mario Bros. 2, Nintendo of America, Nintendo 3DS, Find release dates, customer reviews, previews and screenshots.

• Pros Excellent controls. Very good level design.

Same Mario charm. • Cons Uninspired. Squanders opportunities to make the game seem fresh.

Coin gimmick doesn't add to the game. • Bottom Line New Super Mario Bros. 2 is the same great Mario gameplay on the 3DS you've seen on the DS and Wii, but it doesn't try to do anything new besides shower you in worthless gold. Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication Full Album on this page. It seems strange to keep calling a game “New” when it's the third “New” game in a row with the fourth on the way, but New Super Mario Bros. 2 does just that. It's a “New” sequel to a “New” game that's a successor to the side-scrolling Mario games that helped define gaming for decades. And, sadly, this $39.99 (direct) (and ) game isn't particularly “new” in any way besides its name.

It lives up to the high standards set by the rest of the Mario series, but it doesn't actually offer anything new that isn't a gimmick with little significance in the game. It's still a great play-through, but it's effectively the same game you played on the DS with, the with, and presumably on the upcoming Wii U with New Super Mario Bros. The Basics The premise is standard Mario fare: Bowser and his kids kidnapped Princess Peach and you need to rescue her. This time the kids are mercifully the Koopalings, musically-named offspring from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, and not the insufferable Bowser Jr. From Super Mario Sunshine. You have to run through eight worlds, two of which are optional and require tricks to access, before finally fighting Bowser.

This is the same Mario gameplay you've enjoyed in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros., and if you're an old-school gamer Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. You play Mario as he runs across sprawling levels, jumping on enemies and picking up items like fire flowers and tanuki leaves. It's simple and works well, and the controls are responsive enough to never make you feel frustrated when you die. The Coins Besides the standard princess-rescuing mission, Mario has the vague mission to collect as many coins as possible. This becomes an important part of the level design and Mario's new powers, but it doesn't actually affect the game's story, progression, or mechanics. You still beat each level by jumping on a Mario flagpole or beating a boss, you still unlock different routes in each world by collecting special star coins in each level and using them at signposts.

The only hint that anything has changed is that the game throws coins at you constantly. They appear out of nowhere, and new power-ups like the gold flower and gold block let you explode enemies and bricks into flowers and run around with a trail of gold coins behind you. While coins are supposedly made more important in this game, they have less value than in any other Mario game. Their only in-game use is, like in other Mario games, to give you an extra life for every 100 coins (and lives haven't mattered in Mario games since the Nintendo Entertainment System). Besides that, you're collecting coins for the sake of collecting and they only serve as a vague score mechanic, similar to the conventional point-based scoring the game still does. Unlike the space theme and gravity mechanic of the Super Mario Galaxy games or even the water-spraying mechanic of Super Mario Sunshine, the coins in New Super Mario Bros. 2 feel like a gimmick for gimmick's sake, and were shoved into the game with no thought for how they integrate.