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New Super Mario Bros. uses the side-scrolling technology which means that the characters generally move from the left side of the screen. It is a video game conceptualized and developed by Nintendo for Nintendo DS handheld console. Initially released in the United States on May 15, 2006, it was subsequently released in Japan, Australia, and Europe and in South Korea. After the release of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, it became the first authentic side-scrolling console game to star Mario since 1992.

With music given by Takashi Tezuka and directed by Nintendo's creative giant, Shigeru Miyamoto, it soon became one of Nintendo's greatest games as is proven by the fact that it went on to be the second best selling game for the company, coming second only to Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 3 offers a more advanced gaming-experience in comparison with Super Mario Bros. series. This is seen in the introduction of a map screen, mini-games, more power-ups, enemies, and level types. Bowser made his red-haired debut with this game. Bowser's children, known as the Koopalings, also make their first ever appearance.

The main plot of SMB3 revolves around Mario and Luigi going on a mission to rescue the "seven kings of the seven worlds" that border the Mushroom Kingdom. The Koopa Kids have stolen the magical wands of every one of the kings, and turned him into animals. Now it's the job of Mario and Luigi to retrieve the wands from Bowser's kids.

Interestingly, Mario and Luigi find out only towards the end of world 7 that these attacks were only distractions created by Bowser to kidnap Princess Toadstool. Now the responsibility falls on Mario and Luigi once more to save the Princess.

SMB3 has eight different worlds each further divided into 8-10 stages not to forget the bonus stages. The levels are themed but not arranged in any strict order so the player has greater freedom to choose which order to play them in.

Fortresses and mini-fortresses are an added feature of SMB3. For every world there is one fortress. It's here that Mario initially meets the airship for that particular world. A mini-fortress is also featured for each of the worlds.

After a level is finished, a box carrying a power-up item appears which must be hit by Mario in order to finish a level. The item contained in the box must be collected by the player, so after collecting three, Mario gets an extra life. One of the most potent bonus items is the Tanooki suit. This turns Mario into a statue which protects him from receiving any harm from his enemies and also giving him the ability to kill them with special moves.

Mario plays a tune on the whistle which is similar to a melody in The Legend of Zelda. The similarity doesn't end here. In each game it calls up a storm that flounces up the hero and unloads him in a different place. The theme song "King of the Koopas" featured in the album "Super Mario Compact Disco".

Free Mario Games are available in a lot of platform such as the GameBoy Advance, Famicom Disk System, NES and many others. There are also flash game versions of Super Mario available for download. Checkout Luigi Mario for free online games to play.

AP - Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore. The Milky Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than astronomers once thought, Andromeda's equal.

In A Shot at Glory, Robert Duvall plays the inspiring manager of a lower-division Scottish football (soccer, to us Americans) team. Management wants to make major changes to the team to keep it financially viable such as taking on a star player for more visibility and even moving to another city. In order to prevent the move, the manager has to find a way to become the best team in the nation, despite the odds stacked against him and problems at home with his own family.

The film seems to be a perfect match for Glasgow-born Mark Knopfler, and brings him full circle back to his Scottish roots with Local Hero and Comfort and Joy. To date, this is the only soundtrack Knopfler has written in the 2000s.

All Music Guides William Ruhlmann summarizes the original music: The soundtrack albums of his films usually are so closely identified with him that it's a dilemma where to shelve them in the record store, and this one is no exception; it is billed on the cover as a Mark Knopfler soundtrack There are some Scottish themes in keeping with the movie's setting, a couple of slow-moving instrumentals in which Knopfler fingerpicks an acoustic guitar, and three vocal tracks. Chalk up another Mark Knopfler soundtrack that finds him repeating himself, however pleasantly.

So no one mistakes this for an album of overly traditional Scottish pieces, Tracksounds.coms Steve Townsley explains: Knopflers score does not stay in the Rob Roy/Braveheart vein of traditional Celtic sound, however, and often picks up a very contemporary beatan edgy, modern rock feel with guitar and percussionwhile maintaining the fiddles and pipes of Irish music, perhaps more recently heard in the music of musicians like Ashley MacIssac, or Ronan Hardimans music for the Lord of the Dance show.

Jim Kerr of the San Diego Union-Tribune notes that the film affords Knopfler the chance to once again dabble in authentic Celtic sounds, and the result is a rewarding hodgepodge of styles. A highland bagpipe solo, smoky jazz vocal, accordion, whistle and harp are all thrown into the mix. Highlights include the very Dire Straits-sounding He's the Man; an infectious fiddle stomp, Four in a Row; and the tender instrumental themes Sons of Scotland, It's Over and Wild Mountain Thyme."

Finally, Derek Elley of Daily Variety compliments Mark Knopfler's busy, Celtic-flavored score (which) whips some badly needed energy into the proceedings at key moments.

Knopfler has spent the first years of the new millennium focusing on his solo career, working as a guest performer with other artists, and wrapping up his long-awaited duets album with Emmylou Harris entitled All the Roadrunning. While this may prevent him from taking on new film assignments in the near future, theres no telling what we may expect in years to come but hopefully film scores are still a possibility.

A CD soundtrack was released by Warner Bros. in 2002 and is still in print (#48324). All eleven tracks written or adapted by Knopfler appear, including the three new vocals All That I Have in the World, Hes The Man, and Say Too Much.

Mark Knopfler is a singer, songwriter and guitar player touring in 2006 with Emmylou Harris to promote their new album "All the Roadrunning." For Mark Knopfler news, biography, photographs, and tour information visit the site: http://www.knopfler.info

E! Online - Talk about the wrong stuff. Sam Shepherd was busted Saturday in Illinois for drunken driving and speeding.