New Super Mario Bros. Preview [Wii]

I don't think anyone was particularly blown away by the New Super Mario Bros Wii announcement at E3. My problem was more with the name – it's not New, it's Old. So, Old Super Mario Bros Wii, although it does bear a striking resemblance to New Super Mario Bros on DS. Which was also Old. This is getting confusing.

New SMB Wii is very much akin to New SMB DS in that it's a classic, side-scrolling Mario game with brand new graphics, but it has one very, very nice feature that the DS game didn't have: simultaneous multiplayer. This is the big thing about the game, and don't be fooled by the underwhelming response to the announcement at E3: it really is a big thing.

What you can expect are a load of all-new levels, with all of the updates that New SMB DS added in (or poached from older games that only used them once.) There are secret coins and new power-ups, there are new environments, there are new enemies. I didn't see all of the power-ups that were in the DS game, like the giant mushroom, but there were some that are entirely new for this game. There's a propeller suit, which spins Mario high into the air. There's a penguin suit, which fires out icecubes that freeze pretty much any enemies in your path, including Piranha Plants.

Now I'm teasing you, though, because I haven't actually told you about the four-player simultaneous co-op, so: the four-player simultaneous co-op is absolutely awesome. It removes a lot of the tension that's in Mario, where a single slip sends you back to the start of the level, as death results in a loss of life and a bubble containing your character appearing. If another player hits the bubble, you respawn, so having four characters leaping around the level with the screen zoomed out, each competing for coins and powerups, bouncing on the heads of other players, has very little in the way of a fear that you won't complete the section. That's not to say it's easy, because it's not, but when your death simply means that you have to rely on the other players for a few seconds, you can focus far more on enjoyment.

While it's ostensibly co-operative (if all players die at the same time, then you do indeed fail the level, and using each other to get to new areas is an important – and fun – aspect) there's a competitive element, too. The end of each level ranks you on lives left, enemies killed, and coins collected, and being top of a four-player leaderboard is a great bragging right – although your “friends” will likely “accidentally” pop your respawn bubble over a pit on the next level. This extends to all elements of the gameplay, too. If one player goes down a pipe, then the screen is held on that section of the level for a few seconds, during which time the other players try to get to the pipe next. The first player in is the first player out at the other end, and when you're competing for coins, being the last player in is a serious problem. And the flagpole at the end of the level? Again, when one player hits it, everyone else has a short period to try and get higher.

Co-op Mario is incredible. It's not the sort of thing that's going to stun everyone as an E3 announcement, but it is the sort of idea that, upon playing it, makes you wonder why the hell it hasn't been done before.

In single-player, New SMB Wii is fine. It's not hugely exciting, essentially being exactly what you'd expect from a game with the New SMB name. That said, don't underestimate the multiplayer. It's a feature that suddenly seems very obvious and very long overdue, and with the way it played when I tried it, Nintendo have done it right.