"New Super Mario Bros. Wii" Game Review

By our guest blogger, Luke Winkie

Should “Mario” fans purchase “New Super Mario Bros. Wii,” most will know what they’re getting into. As expected, the game opens with yet another kidnapping of the incapable Princess Peach. The action takes place in a 2-D, side-scrolling plane, and it thrusts you into zones of various flavors encompassing the usual Ice, Desert, Island and Mountain worlds. You’ll confront the long-absent Koopa Kids, who naturally are defeated with three jumps to the head. And, of course, the underwater levels suck.

All of this should be pretty familiar to anyone even remotely attached the gaming scene over the last two decades, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Although gaming has evolved tremendously since the inception of Mario, it’s still fun to jump on goombas and throw fireballs.

“New Super Mario Bros. Wii” accelerates all of this with an added sense of challenge. The game can get merciless in the latter worlds, but in a good way. Despite its occasional back-breaking moments, I never felt cheated out of lives or felt helpless in the face of the more masochistic jumps. In fact, it actually feels a little liberating to see Nintendo returning to its more hardcore-oriented roots with a game designed for SNES-honed hands, especially since it parallels the beloved “Super Mario Bros. 3” so lovingly. Sure, it doesn’t try to revolutionize the template, but the 2-D "Mario" platformer is so well known, it would be a disappointment if the gameplay was radically different.

“New Super Mario Bros. Wii” also gives you the option to play through the levels with three other players--you take control of Luigi and two Toads. This adds a lawless element to the relatively conservative single player game. The game bills itself as a “cooperative mode”; however, if you play with the people I was playing with, it’s anything but cooperative. The game allows players to bounce off each other’s heads, pick each other up, and even scroll to the next level, thus marooning any players unlucky enough to be near the back of the screen. This is easily the most fun I’ve had in a "Mario" game in a long time. It removes any sort of natural pacing inherent within the "Mario" franchise, and it forced all involved to make a fevered rush to the finish line. Also, for whatever reason, playing through the breakdown of core platforming values is entertaining, especially when the people you’re leaving stranded in an unnavigable field of bullet bills are your friends.

“New Super Mario Bros. Wii” is great because it’s fun in two different ways. You have the traditional-level grind of the single player, and the wacked-out insanity of the multiplayer. It’s a game that can be attacked and enjoyed in multiple ways--and not many games can claim that. It’s a game that delivers simple, light-hearted fun within a medium that has become increasingly more obsessed with gritty color palates and lead characters with tattooed faces. If anything, it should be applauded as proof that nothing more than refined game design can stand up against anything in a competitive market.

View the trailer for "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" below.  Thoughts?