New Super Mario Bros. Wii Review [Wii]

27 Nov 2009 at 14:40:59 by Tim McDonald
Systems used to review this title: (WII)

It's very, very easy to be unimpressed with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Announced at E3 this year as one of Nintendo's big titles, it was... another side-scrolling Mario game. On the Wii. Great.

It's a fair point. In this era of bold and beautiful 3D games, another 2D side-scrolling Mario title in which you hit blocks to get power-ups and stomp on Koopa Troopas across eight worlds isn't the sort of thing that's going to amaze at an E3 press conference, particularly when it comes shortly after Microsoft's Project Natal reveal.

More fool us, to be honest. While it might not be the jaw-dropping explosion extravaganza most will salivate over once leaked phone photos hit the internet, or some new and fascinating control mechanism that will let you control your console by blinking, it's an incredibly adept game through one core concept: multiplayer.

Multiplayer is nothing new to games. Hell, it's nothing new to Mario; the original Mario Bros. was a two-player arcade game. Having four characters traversing the usual Super Mario Bros. levels at once, though, is new, and it's such a simple but utterly wonderful idea that you'll feel stunned that it hasn't been done before when you try it for yourself.

It's a simple concept. Between one and four players leg it through traditional Mario courses, from sunny grasslands to giant castles, scorching deserts and Boo-filled ghost houses. With more than one player, it becomes something very familiar but very, very different. Other players have a physical presence, meaning that you can bump into them or use them as platforms. The appearance of a Fire Flower results in a mad scramble as players jostle each other out of the way to be the first to get it – which will likely result in retribution later down the line.

It's co-operative and competitive at the same time. In multiplayer, as long as you have lives left and there's at least one player alive, death simply means you float in from off-screen on a bubble. Shaking the Wiimote hurtles your bubble towards the nearest player, who can pop it and return you to the game – which is a mechanic that naturally results in your “friends” deliberately popping your bubble over pits, probably because you jumped on their heads to get that Fire Flower. The first one into a pipe is the first one out, so if you feel like competing for coins (and the game does indeed track these things) then even seeing a pipe that you may or may not be able to enter will lead to a mad jostling for position.

With the abundance of lives and the respawn mechanic, this never feels unfair or malicious. Death will often result in some muffled swearing, a sigh, and a couple of seconds wait until you can come back to exact revenge on whoever knocked you into the lava. In the end, though, it's co-operative: your success is bound to the survival of everyone else, because they're your safety net when you die, whether through your own fault or theirs (and I assure you, in multiplayer, it feels like someone else is responsible for every death).

Added to the mix are a series of new power-ups. While a few favourites from New Super Mario Bros. on the DS are missing, like the Mega Mushroom, there's still plenty to entertain you: the Penguin Suit grants much-needed control on ice as well as a powerful slide move, and while there are no Raccoon Suits for flying, you've got an extraordinarily silly propeller hat that allows your character to soar into the air and then glide down. There's also a wonderful new addition in the form of the Ice Flower, which hurls snowballs instead of the Fire Flower's fireballs. The first time you use this to encase an enemy in ice and realise you can then temporarily use them as an impromptu platform, the potential applications become obvious.

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