If you own a DS, then you simply must own New Super Mario Bros. It's the handheld's defining game and fully deserves its place the Nintendo canon alongside Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

However, despite the game's brilliance, it is not the faultless experience that many would have you believe. Beneath the glorious art style and the tightest 2D platforming controls ever seen, there lies a serious problem. New Super Mario Bros. is just far too easy. The game can be completed 100% in a matter of hours and that simply isn't enough when compared to, say, Super Mario 64 which is also available on the DS.

This really is the only negative aspect of the game though, unless you consider a lack of touch screen interaction to be a bad thing, which is a hard criticism to level at a 2D platformer; having said that, the touch screen was utilised to perfection in Kirby: Canvas Curse. Yet it is this lack of difficulty that really hinders the game from being considered one of the best of all time and it is for this reason alone that New Super Mario Bros. DS must go down as a generally overrated game. It is still, however, a 5/5 must play for the DS.