New Super Mario Bros. Wii is, without a doubt, Nintendo's biggest offering this holiday season. I'll leave it to the naysayers to pipe-up to themselves that it's Nintendo's only holiday offering. Sure, you can think that, I'm just here to talk about the red-cased beauty in front of me.
Call it a sequel to New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, that's basically the closest you'll come to nailing it. This is the first console-based, 2-d Mario game we've seen in 18 years. The last to grace the world with its glory will have been Super Mario World, my favorite in the entire series. Yes, you can consider Yoshi's Island to be a 2-d Mario title, but I don't. It's a Yoshi title, a good one, but a Yoshi title nevertheless.
Clearly built with multiplayer action in mind, NSMBWii comes with three different game modes from to first boot-up. Standard story is the only one that can be played solo (and that action's great, so don't fret if you're alone), but bringing friends will let you partake in Free-for-All and Coin Battle. Coin Battle is what it sounds like, a match against friends to collect the most coins while racing to a course's goal. Free-for-All mode lets you and your friends pick a course you've previously cleared.
Players will be able to control Mario, Luigi and a Yellow/Blue Toad. You won't be able to control Luigi or the Toads in single-player...only Mario. Sort of an odd choice, but the only way you can access Luigi is by dying a lot. Die 8 times in a single level and a block will appear. This will activate the Super Guide. Hit it and Luigi will come and auto-pilot until you tell him to stop. Stop him and you take him over. This is a neat addition for folks that may find certain courses too challenging.
I'll say this now, and it applies to the game as a whole, adding friends changes this experience dramatically. You can take that as a benefit or a negative. Frankly, more friends makes for a more fun experience. A lot of Wii owners see this at the heart of their consoles. However, more friends makes for a much more difficult experience. On my solo campaign, I completed the game with something like 80 extra-lives. And, no, I didn't head to a single level over and over to rake in the goods. With friends? Yeah, like 30 continues before even reaching World 7. Part of that comes from the fact that my friends are assholes and actually tried to throw me in pits of lava. But the game just becomes more challenging as friends will inadvertently bump you into enemies or fireballs. It happens, and it's all part of the hectic glory.
My massive amount of lives doesn't really do the difficulty here any justice. It's on par with the older Mario games in the area of toughness. Platforming is hard, but the experience isn't Contra hard. It's just hard enough to be challenging while maintaining the fun factor. If it's any indication, there were a few times when the wrist strap on the remote stopped me from ruining my Wii Remote.
If you're looking to cash-in on those Mario style power-ups, this one brings some of the oldies along with three new ones. We've got your standard Mushroom, Fire Flower and Star for the original set. From NSMBDS we've got the Mini-Mushroom. The new talent includes the Propeller Mushroom, the Ice Flower and the Penguin Suit.
The Propeller Mushroom is the obligatory flight mechanic that's been rocking since Super Mario Bros. 3. Shake the Wii Remote and zip up to the sky. You won't be able to hold it for the entire level like you could with the Racoon Tail or the Cape, but you will be able to rock through some spaces that would have been much harder on the ground.
The Penguin Suit and the Ice Flower both sport the same projectile. A ball that turns foes into a block of ice. You can then grab them and hurl them, or stomp them out of existence. It's a cool mechanic. You'll actually find times when you freeze a foe in order to use him as a platform to higher locales. The Penguin Suit, however, carries two perks of its own. The ability to run and slide on your belly really fast is downright awesome. You also gain the benefit of traction on ice. This was a huge help in the Ice World.
The item of Yoshi was a bit of a bust here for me. When this trailer debuted at E3, I was somewhere in the nosebleed section of Nintendo's press event. People were psyched from the start, but once Yoshi showed up, half the room lost their minds. Yoshi's had that affect on us nerds since Super Mario World. Remember way back then when you tried to beat every single level with Yoshi? Well, that's gone. Yoshi only shows up a few times in this game, some worlds he doesn't even show at all. And, when he does show up and you beat a level with him, he stays behind. Sort of lame, if you ask me.
But, harkening back to the likes of Super Mario World, secret routes are aplenty. There are warp cannons and secret levels to explore. I wasn't able to reach anything epic like the Star World in the SNES title in the same way, but it could be there. I don't know, couldn't find it. There is, however, a special treat at the end of the game. No spoilers on that front from me.
So, is this game nostalgiac? Yes. Aside from the visual throwbacks by simply seeing Mario on a 2-d scape, Nintendo worked a nod to every scrolling title in Mario's catalogue. Flags and Castles return from the original. Picking things up returns from the 2nd. The world map and battleships return from the 3rd. Yoshi and secret routes return from the 4th. This game is a series delight, for sure.
But the music takes the thrill a step further. Rather than being a simple re-hash of old tunes, Nintendo chose to mix and match from the series. Some songs, like the original overworld theme, are peppered in at odd spots. Other songs from the New Super Mario Bros. DS are included completely. And songs like the underworld theme are remixed for NSMBWii goodness.
This game will make you smile for a lot of reasons. First of all, you're platforming with the hero of the genre. You'll be able to taste a bit of the glory days of gaming in a way that only Nintendo and their champion can provide. You'll also be able to go co-op or competitively with friends, adding a whole new dimension to the already epic Mario experience.
This game is what Mario Party should have been from the very start... a perfect blend of platforming and group fun. Aside from group difficulty and Yoshi, I can't really dock this experience for much of anything. I suppose I could come out and say that Nintendo should do this more often, but hopefully they already know that. Nearly two decades is too damn long to celebrate Mario and his roots on my living room TV.
CraveOnline Rating: 9.5 out of 10
-1 if you're flying solo.
+1,000 if you're a die-hard Mario fan.
