Alex McAnnally

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Nintendo Wii (2009)

Published February 21, 2010

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is no doubt one great game and a must have for any Wii owners out there. What really makes this game so great is that it takes every 2D Mario game and makes it into one satisfying whole. Now alot of you are wondering, isn't this just some cheap port Nintendo brought over from the DS, yes and no. Yes, because it looks alot of the same of the DS game. But no because you can play 4 players at a time, using the Wii remote to tilt certain platforms, etc. Now this game can be really, really hard, but it's not the kinda hard where you want to throw your controller at the wall. Usually it's a case of operator error, you didn't time this right, or you didn't jump far enough, so on and so forth. Now when we throw 4 players in the mix the difficulty can exponentialy increase depending on who you play with. A few examples, sometimes it's innocent things like both jumping to a platform and colliding midair, or jumping on someone's head accidentally! sending one player flying up and the other tumbling down. Other times, it's rather deliberate crap like speed running beyond the other players so that they're forced to keep up or meet with death, or picking another player up and hurling them off into an enemy, off a cliff, or into lava. That's really not to say this game isn't fun with 4 player co-op, no its very fun but its who you play with.

You're probobaly wondering about the controls that were different from the DS I touched on earlier. I was particularly fond of the levels where the game throws a little twist at you in terms of controls. It's one thing to run through a level jumping from platform to platform while stomping enemies and avoiding projectiles, but it's another altogether to do all this while turning your Wiimote to control the tilt of a platform, or shine a light to reveal a portion of the otherwise pitch black terrain. Kudos on these inventive and very cool level concepts. They really add something special to an old gameplay that, while timeless, can still feel a bit stale after so many iterations.

In summary, this is a great game for a simple laid back and fun gaming session, either solo or with friends. The gameplay and mechanics are similar enough to previous Mario games to feel appropriately connected to the franchise and veteran players will appreciate many of the similarities and themes that remain in this game. At the same time, enough twists and mechanics are introduced that the game still feels fresh and interesting despite the strong similarities with other Mario titles. Definitely a game I would recommend to anyone, casual gamer or age-old veteran.