Worlds are displayed and navigated by the use of over-world maps filled with courses, toad houses and mini-fortresses. Not the only things to make a return, the Koopa Kids drop in off the airship to slow you down in each of the first seven worlds on your trip to Bowser’s castle. So much of this game feels like the embrace of your favorite sweater on the first chilly day of the year. Even the course layouts feel like they could have been pulled from any of the Super Mario Bros. games on the NES.
That, my friends, is what seems to turn people off. Many complain that they’ve “played this before,” and for the most part, they are correct. I cannot tell you the number of times I began solving problems in a course before I even had taken stock of the situation. This, along with unrealistic expectations for innovation in furthering the genre, has soured some of the population of gamers. This feeling of neglect – fostered from poor selection in new developments (Animal Crossing) or just rehashed old games – has been accumulating for over a year now since the release of Super Mario Galaxy. Throw in the vision of Moms buying the now-abundant Wii this holiday season and picking the one “Mario game” that she recognizes, and it appears those hard-core gamers have been forsaken again. However, Nintendo has upped the level of difficulty. Therefore, Nintendo accomplishes a satisfying experience for platforming veterans while spoon-feeding a brand new generation of gamers the crack-like gameplay of a gaming icon.
That does not mean that nothing was done to appease the already converted. New suits and powers to collect, expanded controls and the cooperative/competitive play mode give your plain hot cocoa a much needed dollop of whipped cream. Adding into the mix this time around are the propeller suit, penguin suit and the ice flower. The propeller suit, which looks like Mario put on an infant’s onesie with a beanie on top, gives your character the ability to spin up into the air like a helicopter and either float down, gently descend or rapidly plunge to the earth. The penguin suit allows you to slide on your belly (especially effective on ice), freeze enemies into blocks of ice and swim with ease. Last, but not least, the ice flower allows you to freeze your enemies just as the penguin suit does. Freezing enemies may not sound like much but the blocks of ice float in water, stay stationary in mid-air and are easily deployed by picking them up and throwing them like a shell. All of these abilities come in handy on your adventure. The controls work in their own simplicity. A wiimote held sideways provides all the buttons (and shaking) you will need to survive in this game. Added in features include picking up blocks and friends, wall-jumping and the butt-stomp. Personally, I have a tendency to miscalculate my jumps and miss the platform, so wall-jumping saved me out of many pitfalls and mistimed jumps. The part everyone is talking about is the cooperative / competitive game play in the main story. You and your friends can play up to four players at the same time on the same screen. Play as Mario or Luigi…or one of two toads: blue and yellow. Unless, of course, you were the Player 1, then you must be Mario. This feature changes the game completely in ways that are surprisingly fun and challenging, though you do get a fair amount of frustration as well.
For many, getting your friends to congregate and play the Wii is not a great feat. The problem usually is that most of the games are either of the mini or rhythm game persuasion. Normally a platformer like Super Mario Bros. would be too complex for the average, casual gamer. By having this multiplayer aspect, gone are the days when the expert gamer’s turn lasts an hour and the novice dies within a minute. Now both can play simultaneously without a feeling of charity work to benefit the beginner. Having a great drop-in / drop-out system gives players the chance to involve everyone with all the benefits the original player has earned. Players can either work together as a team or be ruthless and play to be the only survivor. This gives the game a lot of replayability as the different maps, number of players and the personality of the players themselves changes with every opportunity to play multiplayer – all-in-all an excellent addition to the game and the franchise.
I was going to talk about missed opportunities in this paragraph, but really, all of the pieces I felt were missing appear more like laziness on Nintendo’s part than anything else. Blue Toad and Yellow Toad as the third and fourth characters is baffling as much as it’s appalling. Really? Out of the huge list of characters that have helped Mario in the past 25 years, the best the creative minds at Nintendo could come up with was two nameless toads? The music, normally a strong point in a Mario game, felt good up until you realized that it got a little too repetitive. That is not to say that music in Mario games is never repetitive, but more that the music has never annoyed me before. Then the biggest letdown of all: no online co-op. This just blew my mind. Any other triple-A title is expected to have an online co-op mode where you can play the game with your friends around the country or the world. There is so much of this game that I loved while playing co-operatively with a friend or my family. To not be able to continue that over a long distance is extremely disappointing. Once again, I feel like Nintendo just didn’t care enough to be motivated to make this work.
There are a couple of new features that were implemented that really stress the accessibility of the game to the masses that both fits with Nintendo’s mantra and integrates well into the game. The hint videos and super guides give players that would otherwise be having difficulties with tricky spots, a visual demonstration of how to overcome those obstacles. Each course in the game has three collectible giant coins that you can acquire in order to purchase hint videos. The purchased videos from the toad in Peach’s castle may provide you with tips on secret passages in a course, how to find or collect a troublesome star coin or how-to’s on getting infinite 1ups. Super Guides, on the other hand, appear in courses where you as a player have had a lot of problems, a.k.a. you have perished a ton. When this happens, a green exclamation point block appears and activating the block begins a video from that point where Luigi steps in and shows you how to overcome your trouble stop. Whether or not you can do it yourself after that is another matter. With the exception of the horribly annoying ringing sound that plays any time you are near the green block (a constant reminder you hear every time you respawn that you haven’t succeeded yet) these are great tools to utilize that only enhance the play experience without threatening veteran players who do not need it nor are forced to use it.
Bottom line, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an excellent game. It is a solid, polished offering befitting of the title character’s great legacy. You will be challenged without being overwhelmed and will easily have a good time, especially if you are not flying solo. What will not happen is you will not be blown away by the graphics, the music or the gameplay. This is a no-risk, slam dunk for Nintendo and they knew it. They played it safe and gave people the taste of Mario they needed to tide them over until Super Mario Galaxy 2. Do not let the lack of innovation scare you away from this title. If you are a fan at all of 2-D platforming Mario, this is a must-purchase for your library. Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss your chance to be Luigi and have the ability to pick Mario up and throw him into a piranha plant.
Various disclaimers and addendums:
- I did not receive a review copy from Nintendo, but purchased it myself.
- I played most of the game cooperatively with one or two friends save World 8 I finished alone.
