New moves for Super Mario Bros

The fine art of mixing exciting new features with much loved old favourites is currently taxing the skills of Nintendo's best DS developers, as they work on New Super Mario Bros.

The addition of extra jump moves in particular looks interesting. There's a wall jump, which sees the brothers bounce off nearby walls, a triple action jump, and an enemy boost jump, where conveniently-placed bad guys will help you bounce to higher ledges and the like.

The game's power-ups have also been tweaked. The much-anticipated giant growth mushroom will be matched by one that makes you tiny – we're guessing it will be useful for getting through small gaps. You'll also be able to use fireflowers to burn up enemies, while if you can find one of the oh-so-rare starmen, it will make you invincible for a time.

All the powerups will be displayed on the bottom DS screen, and you'll be able to use them at any time by poking them with your stylus.

These new abilities will be put to test in New Super Mario Bros's massive themed-worlds: desert, forest, underwater and so on. At the end of each world, you'll enter enter a mini-fortress to take on the boss character, and waiting for you at the very end of the game will be the ultimate Mario bad guy, Bowser.

The other area of the game Nintendo has shed light on is multiplayer; disappointingly, New Super Mario Bros won't work on Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection, only in the local wi-fi mode.

One option that will be supported is a head-to-head battle, where you and a friend race to collect the winning number of stars for each specially designed stage. There will also be four-player mini-games that can be shared from one game cartridge, via DS Download Play.

Currently due for an early summer release, New Super Mario Bros is topping our list of most anticipated DS games.