Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Here we go!

By Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 01:11

Entertainment

Yep!  It’s a me again!  Mario is let loose in multiplayer mayhem on the Nintendo Wii.  In the face of an increasingly sophisticated video-game environment, is there still a place for the 2D side scrolling antics of New Super Mario Bros. Wii?

Some argue that the antics of a brightly clad, moustachioed plumber, his brother and mushroom shaped mates have no place in a modern video-game world.  How can the traditional 2D action of Mario, Luigi and Bowser compete with the likes of Modern Warfare 2, let alone more sophisticated platformers such as Braid?

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
	Developer	Nintendo
	Publisher	Nintendo
	Rating	G
Wii

Well the simple answer is that it doesn’t have too.  Mario games will always provide a link between the sophisticated envelope pushing titles and the increasingly popular (and harder to ignore) “casual” video game markets.

And while New Super Mario Bros. Wii provides nostalgic links to games of decades past, it also layers the experience with enough “new stuff” to keep the age old action fresh.

This is pick-up-and-play gaming at its best, both young and old will be familiar with Mario’s jumping, coin collecting and block-busting action.  The jump-on attack and shell bumping will bring back plenty of recognizable mechanics.  Mario can duck, dash, Spin Jump, ground pound, wall jump, slide, swim and throw objects during his journey.

And his journey is also familiar, that fruity royal, Princess Peach has again been kidnapped, and Mario, Luigi and a couple of Toadstools rush off to save her.  Across eight worlds, accessed by a dynamic strategic map full of locations that are ingeniously designed, another legacy of Nintendo’s investment in the Mario franchise.

Even in single player mode, there is so much happening on screen, so many moving elements, joyous settings and controller bending puzzles.  The Nintendo designers had a task ahead of them, these levels needed to be traversable not only in a satisfactory way for solo Mario’s, but also for the new up-to-four player multiplayer option.

With Luigi and two toadstools joining the fray, the busy scene soon becomes chaotic.  Players can hop on Yoshi to flip around, swallowing up enemies and co-op players alike, spitting them out with all sorts of combination results. 

Fellow players can combine for high jumps or picking each other up to toss up to inaccessible areas or do a synchro devastating ground pound attack.



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