| System |
Nintendo DS |
| Developer |
Nintendo |
| Genre |
2D Platformer |
Mario and Peach were out for a walk when they saw Peach's castle shrouded in a lightning cloud. Mario ran off to investigate, but while he was gone, Peach was snatched away by Bowser Jr. Mario gives chase across the Mushroom Kingdom to save Peach from the Koopas once again.
Your aim is to run and jump through each of the stages and reach the goal within the time limit, so you can move on to the next stage. However, each stage is filled with obstacles, enemies and gimmicks that must be overcome.
Mario has a range of power-ups that can help him. The Super Mushroom, Fire Flower and Starman return from his previous adventures, and now he also has the Mega Mushroom, Mini Mushroom and Blue Shell to use. The Mega Mushroom will temporarily turn Mario into a giant, destroying everything in his path, and rewarding him with 1-Up Mushrooms depending on how much he has destroyed. The Mini Mushroom will shrink him down to miniscule size, letting him float in the air, walk on water and enter small pipes. The Blue Shell will turn Mario's dash into a devastating shell attack that clears blocks and enemies out of his way.
Every stage has three Star Coins hidden somewhere. Finding them will allow you to open new pathways on the map. Other pathways can be opened by finding secret exits in certain stages. Exploring every possible area of the stages is the only way to find these secrets.
There is a two-player mode where Mario and Luigi have to fight over Stars in an endlessly repeating stage. The first person to reach a set number of stars is declared the winner. You can also play a series of minigames (first seen in Super Mario 64 DS), many of which have been adapted for multiplayer play.
When you have completed all of the levels in the game, a Mushroom House appears in World 1 where you can buy custom backgrounds for the touch screen. One design can't be purchased until you have collected all of the Star Coins in the game, which features 8-bit sprites from the original Super Mario Bros.
Classic Mario Loading Screen
When the multiplayer game is loading, the loading screen features classic 8-bit Mario and Peach from Super Mario Bros. Peach releases Super Mushrooms and Goombas that make Mario grow and shrink accordingly. Sometimes she will send two Super Mushrooms in a row, making Mario huge.
3D Series
