Mario is still fresh.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii, holy shit what a title. For the sake of this review I will be referring to this game as Mario Bros Wii. The game follows in the same line as the DS game called New Super Mario Bros. DS. If you are new to these Mario spin offs let me give you a quick rundown about them. They are Mario games set in the same vain as the old Mario games for the NES and SNES. It is a 2D platformer, you jump onto of enemies heads and you fight Koopa Kids in every mid castle and large castle. Is Mario Bros. Wii able to capture the same feel and nostalgia that Mario 3 for the NES did?
The story for Mario Bros. Wii is very simple and basic just like any other Mario game. Peach gets kidnapped bye Baby Bowser and the Koopa Kids. She is placed on an air ship and flown to the main castle in each level. Mario takes on the task of rescuing her from Baby Bowser. Other then the opening cut scene there isn’t any more story sequences except for the end. Mario games have never shoved a story down the player’s throat, so I never expected much. It is good that Nintendo sticks to what they know about Mario and don’t try to take the story serious. I am afraid if they did it would just be bad. I am happy that they follow the same Mario formula.
The gameplay in Mario games have always been its strong suit and in Mario Bros. Wii they do not disappoint. It is just like an old Mario game where you run, jump, and stomp onto enemies. He also gets some new moves like wall jumping and doing a triple jump. Also at you disposal you have new suits like the helicopter suit that makes you play straight up in the air, or the penguin suit which makes you slide on your belly across the ice. The new suits feel great, you barely use the penguin suit but I loved using the helicopter suit.
Power ups return with you standard mushroom, fire power, and mini mushroom that makes you hella small so you can gain access into some small pipes or run atop water. Aside from coins and power ups to collect they have added Star Coins. There are three Star Coins per level. After you collect Star Coins you can spend them at Peach’s castle to give you hints on secret areas of levels or they can help you collect that one damn Star Coin you can’t reach. The Star Coins serve as a reason to go back through each level and collect all of them so you can purchase every hint and unlock secret areas.
The new hint system is good, its purpose is to help you find all of the hidden things in each level or help you collect a Star Coin but you do have to pay a price for all most hints. It is a great system they have setup for this game. It is like a built in Nintendo Power in your game and I hope they implement it in all upcoming Mario games. The graphics look great, everything is so colorful and the game never bogs down when there are a lot of things on the screen at once.
Another feature they have added to this game is cooperative play, with up to four players at once. At first you think that is awesome but holy crap the difficulty changes the more players you add. The levels themselves do not increase in difficulty but when you add just one other person to each level it adds difficulty. My wife and I played together through the first two worlds and since then we have not played together since. When you have more than one character trying to jump for the same platform you will run into each other and the person at the losing end will die. Or if you get too far about from each other, one of you will die. If you have somebody that is as good at Mario games as you are then you should give it a try. If you can’t you need to have patience and laugh because it is suppose to be fun and it can be.
One thing I need to harp about is the games length. 2D Mario games have always been somewhat short but it only took me four to five hours to complete. That is short for a $50.00 game. There is value in going back and collecting all of the Star Coins and doing some other multiplayer tasks but for the most part there is not a lot in this package.
I did enjoy myself while I played this game. The gameplay is great and it looks great. For this being my first Wii review I think I pick a good one to start out on. The price of this game is too high for how much time you get out of it. The game pulls at your nostalgia string and never lets you go.
