The Super Mario Bros. games have always defined each generation of Nintendo hardware. Mario's debut in the arcade game Donkey Kong saved Nintendo's fledgling video-game business in 1981; the first Super Mario Bros. became an international hit when it came bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985; Super Mario Bros. 3 is still the best-selling video game of all time, with 33 million copies worldwide—millions more than any music album. As a mass-marketed brand mascot Mario is Nintendo, more important to the company than Mickey Mouse is to Disney.

The latest Super Mario excursion, New Super Mario Bros., for the Nintendo DS, revisits the old two-dimensional game play that made the '80s Mario games so universally loved. It has the fluid animation of modern games with a classic acid-washed feel. The graphics have that special Nintendo flavor: crisp, bright, and colorful. And the fusion of 2D and 3D graphics are two great tastes brought together at last.

The game play takes some elements from each of the previous Mario installments, most heavily from Super Mario Bros. 3. Mario still grows after dropping a super mushroom, and throws fireballs after toking the fire flower. But there's now the mini-mushroom, which causes Mario to shrink down and float through the air after jumping, and the mega-mushroom that turns Mario giant size for a short while. It's all very Alice in Wonderland.

The super-happy ragtime music and iconic sound effects are still on hand, and the levels are laid out on a map like Super Mario World; you have to play through each level a couple times to unlock every hidden item and path. There is a wireless networking mode so multiple nerds can play competitive Mario games, along with a handful of mini-games that utilize the touch screen. All of the mini-games from Super Mario 64 DS are on hand, and they don't need to be unlocked. Unfortunately there's almost no real use of the lower touch screen, so it's mostly used for displaying simple status info. I was expecting to use the touch pad to interact with an environment as Mario ran and jumped through it, but no.

New Super Mario is easy to pick up, but there's also a nice difficulty curve to keep the player interested. This is one of those instances where "appropriate for all ages" means that it's actually quite entertaining for people of all ages. Sure, kids will love it, but you can sit down at a coffee shop and play it with pride. Nintendo may be yet another company mass marketing nostalgia, but what really sets this game apart is that it seems both new and familiar at the same time, and it delivers the FDA-recommended amount of classic Nintendo flavor for a healthy gamer diet.