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White Men CAN Jump - New Super Mario Bros. Wii By: Gavin Mooney & PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman Rob's Account - It’s been about 15 years since Nintendo has brought a 2-D Mario game to one of its home consoles (not counting that awful Yoshi’s Story on Nintendo 64, since it’s technically not a Mario game). Luckily for us fan of retro styled games, the gameplay format presented in New Super Mario Bros. Wii has not deviated much from that of previous games in the series. While the core gameplay of the game is relatively the same, New Super Mario Bros. Wii does bring a few new tricks and styles of play to the table. If you’re in the small percentage of gamers that have never played a 2-D Super Mario game before (and believe it or not, I personally know 2 people like that), Super Mario Bros. is basically an action game where you transverse a myriad of surreal obstacle courses. Most of the action focuses on skillful, well timed jumps from platform to platform; but sometimes you’ll be getting through the levels in other ways such as by swimming or climbing. The game follows a pattern of going through 7 (or 3 in the original games) similarly designed levels which lead up to a castle themed level that normally contains some sort of boss. Though this pattern has been slightly tweaked and added to throughout the series’ inception, its underlying formula generally stays the same and is pretty predictable from game to game. The story in the Super Mario games (even the 3-D ones) is all the same and really written at some sort of base level. A giant dinosaur named Bowser kidnaps the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and it’s up to the titular character, Mario to save our blonde damsel in distress. There’s no plot twists, weird mysteries or any sort of deep character development, this is honestly one of those stories that is less complicated than a child’s fairytale.
The controls in this game are very solid. Everything is responsive and does exactly what it should. The 2 motion sensing actions work well in this game and aren’t intrusive or feel like they’re tacked on. However, fans of previous Super Mario games will immediately notice that the controls feel subtly different. While Mario used to have programmed physics that were similar to a slippery brick, he now feels a little weightier and more organic. It seems to take Mario just a bit more time and distance to accelerate up to a decent speed which subsequently affects his jump distance as well. At first I thought this had to do with the fact that I’ve been forced to use the stiff directional pad found on the Wiimote (and possibly because I was piss drunk when I first started my playthrough); however, after several hours of play, this is clearly something in the programming. It takes a bit to get used to, but really isn’t a big issue. As mentioned before the game does manage to showcase a couple new tricks while remaining very true to its predecessors at the same time. The most notable addition to this game is the multiplayer option. As Gavin will mention, the days of taking turns are in the past as you now can play a Super Mario Bros game with up to 4 players at once. There are a couple modes in multiplayer mode, none of which I’ve played yet (mostly because I’m waiting to be the jerk that dominates others in game simply by knowing the secrets and keeping them to myself). However, from what I’ve heard and seen of the multiplayer, it makes me a little sad that I don’t have a steady girlfriend to enjoy the multiplayer with. Along with the multiplayer mode Nintendo has also added a few new power ups to the game. You have power ups from other Super Mario games, such as: the micro mushroom from New Super Mario Bros. DS and the ice flower from Mario Galaxy. You also get some totally new power ups like the penguin suit and the propeller mushroom too. The new power ups are pretty fun for the most part, though the ability to shoot ice and the propeller can make the game easy to the point of pointlessness if they’re abused/over used.
I have a couple complaints about this game with one being a huge issue. The biggest issue about this game is its underlying value. I’ve owned the game for about 2 days now and am right on the verge of finishing it. While there is the added challenge of finding all the secret routes and collecting the 3 hidden coins in each level, I don’t see them lasting any longer than the side challenges in the DS version (which took a little less than a week to mill through completely). The second complaint is that the game is too easy. Perhaps this has much to do with the game being too short, though I feel they’re kind of separate issues. In many of the automatically scrolling levels you’re doing little more than jumping over a rogue enemy every 15 seconds or so (which is pretty mild compared to the standard Super Mario fare). I anticipate that the “secret world” offered to you at the end of the game will be more of a challenge, but with Nintendo you can’t be 100% sure.
The updated graphic style is pleasing to the eye and retains the same spirit of the previous games in the series. The new sprites are very well designed and are very well made representations of the 16x16 (or 24x24) character pixel art used in the past. The use of color is very well thought out as everything has a very lively feel to it, even the fortress and ghost house levels seem very vibrant despite being done in mostly deep blacks, grays, reds and blues. Nintendo has truly outdone themselves by creating an art style that’s not only kid safe, but also visually interesting for us older gamers that enjoy well made environment and character design.
The game’s audio presentation is truly superb. The sound effects and music all work for the situation and the setting. However, the simplistic song loops might get to you if you’ve been stuck on a level for a while. I’ve somewhat grown to hate the accordion heavy song they play during climbing/flying platform stages, but it’s more because the music now signifies a level that I’ll probably be spending a handful of lives in order to beat it. Certain noises in the game can be a bit annoying, the Super Guide block and the random power up block sound effects come to mind here; however, they’re pretty rare in the game and can easily be shut up. All in all the game is a deserving addition to the Super Mario Bros. series. Not only does it stand alone as a decent action platformer, but it also plays out as a very cleverly nostalgic homage to Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and even Donkey Kong Country (with the emphasis on picking up and throwing stuff in this game). While the value is a bit lacking for one player (since you’re basically shelling out $50 for a 8-12 hour game), the addition of multiplayer to this game could possibly extend the playtime indefinitely. If you’re intentions are to play this game with friends, I seriously suggest you pick it up in the near future. If your just looking to see what Mario has been up to on your own, then maybe save this for a sale or an unlikely price drop or just rent it.
Gavin's Account - In the new Super Mario Brothers Wii a feature has been added, which in true Nintendo party game form, makes the game all the more playable. I am of course talking about the multiple players at once. In every subsequent Mario game you are forced to wait and watch as player one dashes through the whole game, you constantly hoping he’ll slip or fall or a gooba will get the better of him, until finally he dies and then it’s your turn. Only you walk two steps and die and it is player one all over again. But no longer! Finally player one and two, and three and four if you like, can all play at once and the tedious waiting game is over. Mario Brothers can once again be played as we’ve all wanted it and how it should have been, co-operatively.
In Super Mario Brothers Wii there are three ways to play with or against you friends: Co-op, Free for All, and Coin Battle. I’ll address the last two first since they are mostly the same. In Free for All you compete against your friends to see who can complete any selected level from the game first, with the most coins and lives intact. In this mode it is everyman for himself so the well being of your fellow players is not an issue. After each level is finished there is a tally done and a winner is chosen from the remaining players. Levels are unlocked through playing the normal game. This mode is alright if you just want to play against everyone and don’t really want to deal with the maps and what not. Coin battle is much the same except the object is to see who can collect the most coins. The battle maps are for this mode are different then the in game maps so if you get tired of constantly seeing the same ol’ same ol’ this will provide you with a little change of scenery. The coin battle maps are cool and fun as well in true Mario battle fashion. The only down side to coin battle is that you can’t knock the coins out of the other players, like in smash brothers, so it just turns into a mad dash.
And now for the crème de la crème, co-op mode. In this mode you and how ever many players you choose play the game as you would in single player mode but the only difference is that you all play at once. This is a feature that should have been around far earlier in Mario brothers’ history if you ask me. But it’s not all good. Normal game play has its up and downs but multiplayer can get downright annoying at times. Now even though it’s called co-op mode it is just about anything but that. There are no areas, power-ups or parts of the game that cannot be gotten to in one player mode so the need for other players is non-existent, though getting to areas that are tough alone become a little easier with a little help from my friends. One cool feature of the multiplayer aspect of the game is being able to pick up the other players. Its fun at times to just pick someone up and chuck them off a cliff or a platform when they least expect it. Often time this would be considered a serious “dick move” but with a push of a button (A) the player can save him or herself and we all get treated to a laugh. Also sometimes a player will have a power-up, like the spinning cap, and both players need to move together but lack the power-up to do so, so the weaker player can pick up the other one and they can use the power-up together and move together. There are a variety of ways to gets one’s kicks in co-op mode. Also sometimes it is useful to have others with the same power-ups as you so if you fail to achieve something and lose your power-up they can give it a second go.
But co-op isn’t all fun and games. At times it can be quite annoying. There are a variety of ways the other players can hinder the progress of Mario and each other. For instance if you’re big on finding secrets or collecting everything, one wrong step can pass up things for the entire level and you’ll need to replay it all over again just to get it. For instance someone goes down a pipe while other players are trying to reach something. After a few seconds the screen cuts and everyone is forced down the path the pipe goer chose. One really annoying thing is the other players at times. First, you can’t run by or through the other players. So if you are dashing behind a player and they stop congratulations you’re stopping. Often times this can be annoying when you are trying to get the flag at the end or some power-up, coin or what not. Also jumping on each other’s heads; this can be a helpful tool in finding new areas, secret ways, even star coins, but the flip side is you can always jump on each other’s head. Even when you don’t want to, you will be playing and a player will either stop your progress, slow you down, make you lose a power-up, or worse kill you simply by jumping on your head. It is quite annoying. On the flip side you can be trying to do something and you accidentally jump on someone’s head and it will launch you into an enemy or a hole or something and again you’re screwed. Finally this is sort of more of a warning rather than a complaint but characters can be killed by screening them. I am talking about one or more players moving faster than the others and they go off screen so far that they die. Sometimes the level will just drag the laggers into enemies or a hole or something. It is one part that at times can hinder the whole group's progress because they keep screening the other players.
All in all I personally think this is one of the more playable Mario games in awhile. I was never a fan of Mario 64, I thought Mario Sunshine sucked, and Galaxy was too easy, but this Mario is at least fun. The multiple player aspect really gives this game more playability because honestly there have been times where friends and I have wanted to play Mario but no one really wants to wait and watch while others play. Now we don’t have to and we can all play together in a variety of ways. Because in the end isn’t that what we really want from a game, for it to be fun?
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