Nintendo Heroes 1 – Mario and the Incredible Rescue

Tracey West's Mario and the Incredible Rescue is a Nintendo Heroes adventure for 7 year olds about Mario racing to save Princess Peach from a castle full of ghosts.

What happens

Mario has one plan for the day. Absolutely nothing. Then Toad comes running up the path with terrible news. Ghosts have grabbed Princess Peach from her garden and carried her off to Bowser's Keep.

Ghosts are a problem, because you can't stomp on something you can't touch. A mysterious sorceress in a dark forest has the answer, though. Bowser stole her Book of Spells, and the only way to beat his ghosts is to find six magic mushrooms hidden around the Mushroom Kingdom.

So off go Mario, Luigi and a very nervous Toad (he's scared of ghosts, heights and most things in between).

If your reader plays the games, this is going to feel like a treat. Everybody's in it. There are Goombas to stomp, piranha plants popping out of pipes, Koopa shells to kick and Hammer Brothers to dodge. Yoshi turns up and gobbles his way through a flock of cloud-riding Lakitu. Even Wario makes an appearance, flying a little plane and dropping buckets on people's heads.

The best bit for young readers might be the clues. Each mushroom comes with a puzzle to crack, like a word written backwards or a number code where 1 is A. Mario, Luigi and Toad work them out on the page, but children can have a go first. It's a great way to slow a keen reader down.

The chapters are short and full of action, and the fighting is all very cartoonish, with lots of stomping and bonking. Luigi's overalls get a bit singed and Toad gets tossed about by ghosts, but the tone is always light.

Toad is the heart of it. He's frightened almost the whole way through and does brave things anyway. Mario is kind in a way you might not expect too. When they meet a snarling Chain Chomp, he frees it instead of fighting it.

And what's in the envelope the sorceress gives Mario, to open only if all hope is gone? You'll have to wait and see.

What to read next

If they finish this and want another hero from the games, Link and the Portal of Doom is the next Nintendo Heroes book, with Link and his fairy guide Navi chasing a portal that swallows everything in its path.