What's new, Mario?
No, really... What is new? At first glance, not a lot. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a side-scrolling 2D platform game in the classic Mario style. It's got question blocks and Koopas and Goombas and power-bestowing mushrooms, and everything in its cheerfully surreal world has spots, or eyes, or both.
It's built on the same foundations that were laid for the first Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Gameplay-wise, things haven't moved on much since classic nineties SNES title Super Mario World. Even the graphics and sound haven't changed much from the New Super Mario Bros. DS game, although they benefit from the extra size and resolution of a TV screen. No one's complaining - after all, we're talking about some of the best games ever made - but there doesn't seem to be much new here.
"The first properly multiplayer Mario platform game."
It's-a us!
That's until you turn on a second controller. And a third... And a fourth. Up pop Luigi and a couple of Toads and soon four of you are bouncing around the screen in a merry, chaotic muddle - not just in multiplayer mode but in any of the main game's levels, at any time. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the first properly multiplayer Mario platform game and in a way, that makes it the newest of the lot.
The clever thing about New Super Mario Bros. Wii is that it works just as well played on your own as with friends, and just as well played co-operatively and competitively. Things inevitably get a bit out of hand as you nick each other's items, nudge each other off platforms, collide in mid-air or just pick up and throw each other right into a piranha plant's maw - it's just so much fun to be mean in this game - but at the same time, having a friend or few on-screen can be a real help getting through the game's tougher levels. And they do get plenty tough - this is no walkover like the DS game, but a proper test of reflexes and improvisation like the 2D Mario games of old.
When you lose a life in multiplayer you come back on screen in a bubble. Shaking the remote brings you close to a friend who can pop the bubble and bring you back. It sets up a tag-team style that gives you two, three or four chances to get through any particular section. If you don't fancy helping each other you also get a Free Play mode which tots up individual scores. Then there's the brilliant Coin Battle, where you're just competing for coins, and which features some hilariously madcap special levels.
Level best
By and large though, the levels are exactly the same played solo and there's just as much to interest you. Nintendo's designers are absolute masters at cramming an apparently simple 2D level with secrets, surprises, jokes, challenges, unhinged enemies and even the odd bit of drama. They can do this sort of stuff in their sleep - and to be fair, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is pretty familiar in places if you're a Mario aficionado - but there's still enough reason to play most of these levels half a dozen times over, scouting out the star coins and secret exits, or just for the fun of it.
"The power-ups are the silliest and cutest in 20 years."
Stick this in your pipe
Another area where this is much better than the DS New Super Mario Bros. is in the power-ups, which are the silliest and cutest in 20 years. The Penguin Suit and Propeller Suit are fun to use - the former gives you snowball and slide attacks, better swimming, better traction on ice and an adorable waddle; the latter sends you soaring into the air and floating back down with a spin - which is even more fun to watch. You also get the fire flower, the new ice flower, mini-Mario from the DS game. Plus, joy of joys, Yoshi - Mario's irrepressible, insatiably hungry and stupidly bouncy dinosaur steed - is back.
With the smart Super Guide that helps you out if you're really stuck on a level, unlockable hint videos and the option to get your friends involved at any stage, it's never been so easy to enjoy a Super Mario title. It's not the best and certainly not the most original game Nintendo has ever made, and it looks and sounds a bit retro (mostly in an enjoyable way).
But in this day and age, any game as focused on pure fun and total silliness as New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a breath of fresh air - no matter how new or old it claims to be.
Bros.
+ Classic, challenging Mario gameplay.
+ Magnificent multiplayer hi-jinks.
+ Just like old times .
Toss
- No online multiplayer.
- Nintendo recycling past glories again.
- Makes you wonder why you bought all those nun-boards, balance plusses and motion chucks.