A Mario Game Worth Trying!

Super Mario Brothers: Kill Bowser, is actually a very good Super Mario Brothers game that should keep any Mario fans on their toes - even veterans. It runs on a well-made engine and everything acts as it did in the older Super Mario Brothers titles. It almost feels like a mix of Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World.

The variety of levels and worlds makes this game a fun one to play, and the level navigation system - taken straight from Super Mario Brothers 3 - helps add even more polish to the game.

The main problems I had with the game were the game speed and the level design/enemy placement. The game moves quite fast, so even if you are a veteran of previous Mario games, you'll still face many challenging situations that are made even more challenging if you don't continuously maintain your fire-flower ability! Without the ability to throw fireballs, you'll be in for a rude awakening when you are forced to jump in situations such as when a turtle is in between two pipes (get ready to play 'dodge the shell!') and when several enemies are lined up in a row. Also, the level design is a bit strange in that some spots feel too cramped while others feel too unforgiving. Enemy placement, as mentioned above, is also a bit unforgiving but nevertheless provides a challenge.

Overall, you'll have a fun time playing this game if you want to play a well-made Mario clone. The engine is great and runs extremely smooth, and the challenge is definitely there. It's far from impossible, though it will indeed be frustrating if you are one to easily give up. I'm only on the second world (out of four) and I've already died numerous times, but thus far it has been a blast.


GRAPHICS: Everything is nearly perfect; all necessary sprites are in place and the only tiny error I encountered was that every time I would reach the flagpole at the end of each level, even if I was big mario or had a fire-flower powerup, it would always use the tiny mario animation for sliding down the pole.

SOUND: Neat Mario tunes and a mixture of Mario voices from a variety of Super Mario games make the audio in this one very good.

GAMEPLAY: Very addictive but also very challenging and perhaps a bit too fast.

STORY: None to note.

INTERFACE: Everything from the level navigation screen (reminiscent of Super Mario Brothers 3) to the HUD displaying score, coins, etc. is picture perfect in terms of replicating the feel of Super Mario.