{"id":963066,"date":"2026-05-16T04:49:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963066\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:49:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:49:19","slug":"anniversary-super-mario-first-went-new-20-years-ago-on-the-ds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/963066\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary: Super Mario First Went ‘New’ 20 Years Ago On The DS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/a> Image: Zion Grassl \/ Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

20 years ago today, something New was on the horizon. Yes, it’s time to feel extremely old, as New Super Mario Bros.<\/a> launched for the Nintendo DS on this very day in the US in 2006.<\/p>\n

Back then, New Super Mario Bros. was a big deal; it was the first new side-scrolling Mario platformer game since Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins<\/a> and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island<\/a>, reintroducing the classic Mario formula to a whole new audience, and it kickstarted a whole new sub-series for the plumber.<\/p>\n

Because there have multiple ‘New’ games over the years, it’s sometimes difficult to appreciate just how big the game was at the time. Imagine being an adult who grew up with Mario on the NES or SNES, picking up a DS and playing through a whole new 2D-esque adventure? Or showing it to your kids, who have only ever known Mario via the N64 or GameCube era?<\/p>\n

But New Super Mario Bros. was special: it blended the old and the new, giving Mario and Luigi classic power-ups alongside shiny new ones \u2014 who doesn’t remember picking up their first Mega Mushroom? That jingle is stuck in our heads, now…<\/p>\n

The brothers also have new movement abilities like double jumps, triple jumps, and many other skills only seen in Super Mario 64<\/a> or other 3D games previously. Mario and Luigi could also swing on ropes and tiptoe across wires, allowing for even more creative level designs. And there were some excellent ones in NSMB.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Plus, you didn’t have to just play through the game on your own: you could play through the game co-op with someone else wirelessly or hang out with three friends and compete in minigames. And only one of you needed the game cartridge, too.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, New Super Mario Bros. went on to become the best-selling DS game ever: by 31st March 2016, the game sold a staggering 30.8 million units, almost 7 million more than the next closest competitor (Nintendogs, with 23.96 million).<\/p>\n

While many feel that the ‘New’ series got a bit samey over the years, there’s no denying the original is an extremely fun and polished game. We may have moved on to Wonder<\/a> at this point, but we’ll always have a soft spot for the first 2.5D entry on DS.<\/p>\n

Did you grab New Super Mario Bros. on the DS back in the day? How do you feel about it now? Are you glad we’ve moved past the ‘New’ era? Vote in our polls below and share your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n

Did you play New Super Mario Bros. on the DS? (424 votes)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Yep, bought it day one<\/strong>26%<\/li>\n
  2. Yes, I picked it up a little later<\/strong>62%<\/li>\n
  3. I’ve played it, but on the Wii U<\/strong>3%<\/li>\n
  4. Never touched it, I’m not a 2D Mario fan<\/strong>1%<\/li>\n
  5. I never had a DS (or Wii U)<\/strong>8%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What’s your favourite New Super Mario Bros. game? (396 votes)<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)<\/strong>35%<\/li>\n
    2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)<\/strong>23%<\/li>\n
    3. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)<\/strong>7%<\/li>\n
    4. New Super Mario Bros. U \/ Deluxe (Wii U \/ Switch)<\/strong>31%<\/li>\n
    5. I don’t like any of them<\/strong>4%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Are you glad the ‘New’ series seems to be over? (403 votes)<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Absolutely, Mario Wonder is so much better<\/strong>26%<\/li>\n
      2. I liked them a lot, but four games was enough<\/strong>41%<\/li>\n
      3. I don’t mind either way<\/strong>26%<\/li>\n
      4. Again, not really a 2D Mario fan<\/strong>\u00a0 0.7%<\/li>\n
      5. No, New Super Mario Bros. was my favourite<\/strong>7%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
        Related Games<\/dt>\n
        \n<\/dd>\n
        See Also<\/dt>\n
        \n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

        \"Alana<\/p>\n

        Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Zion Grassl \/ Nintendo Life 20 years ago today, something New was on the horizon. Yes, it’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":963067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[12871,1424,125,90080,53,16,15],"class_list":["post-963066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-anniversaries","tag-ds","tag-polls","tag-super-mario","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116582454550705798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/963067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}