Quickie Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Single Player)

I’m not a fan of these forced co-op games. I don’t have people over daily. I don’t like or trust anyone to watch my back in most gaming situations, although I must admit that I am a good assist/wingman. When I heard about New Super Mario Bros. Wii being a 4 player co-op title, a part of me died. Am I, a single player gamer with little interest in co-op gaming, going to suffer with somewhat incompetent AI partners (Left 4 Dead) or the worst partner AI since Justice League Heroes (Resident Evil 5)? Luckily, no.

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Unlike RE5 and L4D, you’re not forced to play with others to enjoy the game. You’re not even forced to have a god forsaken AI partner that defies all laws of coding (seriously, why does Sheva unload a full clip of bullets into my back when trying to kill an enemy and not try to move to get a better view, or wait for me to move?). You can play New Super Mario Bros. Wii as if it were any other Mario title, which is the way I’d want to play it.

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Playing through the game, it feels like the best of Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island and New Super Mario Bros. DS mixed together into one fine package. You have items you can win in bonus stages that can be held onto and stored until you choose to yse them (SMB3), the Koopa kids are back finally (SMB3), Yoshi pops up in some stages (SMW), Kamek doing flybys before a boss battle to boost their powers (SMW2), wall jumps, triple jumps and similar overall structure (NSMB) and more. If anything, this is a revised New Super Mario Bros. DS, on a bigger screen, with much more visual detail.

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Those Koopa kids are finally back! All that time away really turned them into bigger pushovers than they were years ago.

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Which lies one of the three minor issues I have with New Super Mario Bros. Wii – it feels like I’ve played this before, even with the added variations. The looks is similar enough, the stages are similar enough to a degree, the music is similar enough, and so on. Its only a minor complaint because of how good New Super Mario Bros. DS was. The second complaint I have is, as with NSMB, the difficulty is very uneven. You go from a stretch of easy pickings, to one stage that just frustrates the living hell out of you. One stage in particular, in the third world, you have to swim through the stage with these annoying fish that follow you until one of you die, while avoiding Bloopers that shoot out of pipes in certain directions that make for near misses or hits all the time. I’m not saying older titles don’t have an uneven difficulty pacing here and there, but when it comes to Super Mario Bros. 3 for example, the pacing eases you forward, becoming progressively more challenging, while still throwing a curve ball here and there. Sometimes, if feels like the curve balls have turned into screwballs with this game. I appreciate difficulty in Mario games, but when the stage after that swimming one seems so easy that it could be played with your tongue, while getting ten lives, there’s something wrong there.

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Which leads to my third gripe – Why do I have 32+ lives at the end of world 1? Why do I have 43+ lives at the end of world 2? Between New Super Mario Bros. DS and Wii, as well as Super Mario Galaxy, you can get more 1-ups faster in the first two stages without even putting effort into it, than you would have on the first five Super Mario Bros. games and Super Mario Land 1 + 2, with effort. Even with the lopsided difficulty pacing, you don’t need to have that many lives at the end of the FIRST WORLD. I’d rather see a game over screen with the ability to continue from my last save with a stock setting of lives than spoon fed tons of lives throughout.

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Nearly every Super Mario staple is back - from the original Fire Mario power up, to those platforms that drop when you stand on them too long.

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Like I said, they are all minor gripes, even with all the time I spent discussing them. When it comes to a traditional Mario title, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is as good as they come. Stage sizes vary, the power ups range from been there done that, to pretty damn cool. The formula has changed very little over the years, which means the game is still easily accessible to hardcore gamers as it is to casuals. The game looks crisp and clean, with fluid animations bright colors and still has the best 2D platforming game controls ever. As a single player game, it is still everything you’ve loved and admired about the series.

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Who would have thought that twenty five years later, we’d still be playing 2D Mario titles, and still having a good time with it? New Super Mario Bros. Wii, on the single player front, is the same Mario experience we’ve come to love, and while it certainly does feel a bit too similar to New Super Mario Bros. DS, given how incredible that game was, it’s not as much of a detriment as one would think. Again, this is all based off a single player experience. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is what you know and love of Mario games, right down to the charm and gameplay. One of the rare “must have” titles on the Nintendo Wii.

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Rating: 8.8