N-Philes

Wii REVIEW – New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Posted December 3rd 2009 by Brandon Schmidt.

Oh Nintendo, you've done it to us again.  Time and again you've surprised us with fun, new experiences only to leave us in a prolonged dearth of 1st-party gaming on the last few consoles.  Thankfully you've redeemed yourself once more with the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a new spin on a classic formula.  Mario is to platform gaming what the alphabet is to the educational system, and Nintendo has taken something so fundamental and elementary and revitalized it in a fun-filled package.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is like a great recipe that's taken the best ingredients from your favorite meals and combined them into one, in a way that is greater than the combination of those individual elements, to make a gaming experience that not only looks tasty, but won't leave you feeling empty upon completion.  If you're an avid gamer, you're probably already familiar with New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS, one of the best-selling titles on the platform.  It was an homage to the great Mario games of old, very similar in nature to Super Mario Bros. 3 in its overworld structure tying together classic platforming stages.  The twist in the Wii version is that you can take three friends along for the ride.  The idea is basically the same as it's always been - make your way from Point A to Point B on each map in order to complete the stage and eventually rescue the princess.  It's how you get there that's received a facelift.

Like The Four Swords series in the Zelda catalogue, New Super Mario Bros. Wii capitalizes on the cooperative/competitive dynamic.  It's the constant switching between these two mentalities that leads to so much hilarity when playing with friends.  While one second you'll be working together to move a platform from one location to another, that sense of camaraderie goes right out the window as soon as powerups appear on-screen and everyone greedily scrambles to snag them whether they need them or not.  What would a Mario game be without powerup suits?  The propeller and penguin suits, among others, are useful if not as memorable as others in the series' past.  While I can appreciate and even expect innovation in every new iteration of a Mario side-scroller, it would be nice if Nintendo paid some fan service and include some of the old favorites like the classic Tanooki suit.  As in Super Mario Bros. 3, you and your group can choose to use the powerups you collect from item houses prior to actually starting any level.

The actual platforming, while tight as it's ever been, plays second fiddle to the ebb and flow of the cooperative experience. This game introduces a bubble mechanic that is activated in one of two ways.  When your player dies, you will reappear on the screen in a floating bubble after a short timeout.  Otherwise, you can tap the A button to force your character into a bubble.  This free-floating bubble takes you out of the game in the sense that nothing can hurt you and you can't interact with the stage.  In order to be freed from the bubble, you must have another player make contact with you.  That introduces the catch that there must always be someone on-screen that is not bubbled; otherwise no one can be freed and the stage is failed.  The bubble mechanic also plays into the cooperative vs. competitive structure.  There will be times where it's next to impossible for all characters to progress without getting in each other's way.  In that scenario, it's much simpler for a couple characters to bubble while the others progress forward.  There are also coins that can only be reached by making a leap of faith, grabbing the coins, and bubbling before you disappear off-stage.  From a competitive standpoint, it can be advantageous to avoid freeing your teammates until you've had a chance to grab any powerups that might be available on the screen.  This can lead to moments of pure hilarity as you dodge enemies and pitfalls all the while screwing over your friends.  It really is an interesting addition to the series.  Once you and your friends get a feel for when and when not to use it, the bubble mechanic can really be useful.

The game features three different modes: the main story mode, Free-For-All, and Coin Battle.  While I've made mention of the story mode already, Free-for-All has you and up to three other players competing on individual stages to see who can rack up the most points by collecting coins, powerups, enemy kills, etc. as you make your way to the finish flag.  Coin Battle is similar except the ultimate goal for each player is to finish with the most coins, obtaining bonuses for collecting the large coins scattered throughout the stages.  These other two modes are great for parties where you might want to swap out players from time to time.  They're strictly competitive modes that offer quick bursts of entertainment if you're not looking to play the main story mode.

While everything I've said so far has been glowing, the game is not without its shortcomings.  Although playing multiplayer sessions in person really adds to the enjoyment, it would have been nice to have an online option.  This is especially true once you consider how well the online aspect was implemented for the Wii iteration of Mario Kart.  This game also borrows a lot from its DS counterpart.  That's not to say that's a bad thing, but if this game weren't so much fun it would be hard to justify paying full price for something that's basically a beefed-up port from a technically inferior system.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was the only game at this year's E3 event that I went back to play multiple times. There's a reason for that. It's both familiar and fun and reminds me of why we play games in the first place. Leave it to Nintendo to take a 20+ year-old idea, work its magic, and make us happily forget that we're not really playing something revolutionary. Grab this game, call up three friends, and get playing.

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Tags: New Super Mario Bros

Posted in: Reviews, Gaming

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