My friend with a DS stuck around for a while after we played Elite Beat Agents. We had the chance to check out a few other DS games on multiplayer, including Super Mario Bros.

It should come as no surprise that I failed pretty miserably at this, especially considering that I’ve never made it far enough to save. My friend has been a Mario fan for quite some time, so he had an enormous advantage. The premise of the multiplayer is to get as many stars as possible (up to a certain number you set). You play as either Luigi or Mario and you can make the other character drop their stars in a number of ways, some of which are jumping on them, hitting them with fireballs, or smacking into them when you have a turtle shell power-up.

I spent most of the game trying to avoid losing my stars, as I was in no position to go on the offense. I ran around the tiny level with wild abandon and killed myself more times than I’d like to admit. However, I did accidentally stumble upon one surprising moment of offensiveness. This occurred when I got my first turtle power-up. I never thought much of power-ups at that point since seemed to get hit or die so quickly that I lost them in a matter of seconds. By this time, I had been playing for several minutes and managed to stay alive long enough to ask my friend how to turn into a turtle. I figured it out, and soon I was sliding back and forth in a lowered area.

My friend, playing as Mario, soon tried to pass through this area but I, as a turtle, was simply too fast for him. I was able to hold him off for a bit, sliding back and forth and hitting him over and over again. He dropped quite a few stars, but he was more agile that I was and so he got most of them back. Soon, he came back with his own turtle power-up and the game was over before long.

I really enjoyed playing Super Mario Bros. with my friend. It was one of those instances where you get really engrossed in a game, simply because you believe you must survive. Even if my Mario skills were lacking, I went on the defense and did my best to keep on going. My friend did go easy on me, certainly helping to stretch the game out, but I have to admit it certainly made the game more fun. I really love playing with someone else because you can create such original experiences. It was much more fun for me to tackle my friend when I was a turtle than to kill some mindless enemy, knowing that my friend had been beating me by quite a large margin for most of the game. Maybe the game does not matter. In this case, it was my fellow player who made it fun.