Five minutes of New Super Mario Bros

What do you get when you stitch together IGN’s five New Super Mario Bros videos and then upload them to YouTube? Five minutes of New Super Mario Bros footage, of course! Although you might want to give it a miss if you wish to experience the game’s various scenery for the first time when you play it, it’s certainly a must-see for Mario enthusiasts.

This game refuses to ever stop looking awesome. It’s already gotten 9.5/10 from IGN, with a sub-score of 10/10 for gameplay; this could very well be the finest 2D Mario experience to date. If you want your face to be immediately dazzled off onto the ground, watch the video.

What surprises me is how smooth it all looks. Although in screenshot form the 2D/3D graphical mix looks a bit odd, in motion is looks truly smooth and the animation is beautiful. I can’t even begin to imagine how sweet it’ll look on my bright DS Lite screen once it hits the stores.

But seriously, this video is almost orgasmic to watch. The references to the past games are constant, ranging from subtleties such as the inclusion of the underground theme’s variation that was heard in Super Mario 64 but never again (as far as I’m aware) to the odd Yoshi’s Island sound effect. Hell, even the end of the course has those castles and flags from the original Super Mario Bros. They may as well just rename this Nostalgia Trip.

Not to say that it will all be mish-mashing of past Mario games, though. The general flow of the gameplay seems to be very unique, albeit clearly based upon the best of the oldies, and there is plenty of new material; if you were worried about having seen it all before, this video will probably change your mind — just wait until you see shell Mario!