Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

So I finally got a chance to sit down with the New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my wife last night.

And boy, I have to say that the entire experience is amazing. Nintendo really outdid themselves here.

For the most part, the entire game play is smooth just like its predecessors. But there are a few things that make this game worth every penny. The only one that you absolutely have to go into mentioning is the one about multiplayer through the game mode.

Most games try to scroll you through the game and drag along all of the players. New Super Mario Bros. Wii however, uses the player that runs to the farthest edge of the screen as the one that drags the game. This means that you technically could kill your teammate if you move too far and they haven’t caught up. You can also screw them up by jumping on top of them and so on, which makes it absolutely frantic when you’re playing on an ice level with ledges.

But in the same instance, it makes the entire game fantastic. You can bust through a level with multiple people trying to achieve the same goal. Before, this was only reserved for FPS shooter types or capture the flag. Not even close for scroller games. But now, it’s a seamless play where gamers are immersed in the same screen (no splitting) and are looking for the same things like coins and such. Team effort at its finest, which is actually a whole new level of game play.

I have to say that I haven’t had a chance to touch the Super Guide mode yet, but this definitely has a lot of replay value. Even my wife, whom usually just watches me play the review titles had to pick up a controller and couldn’t put it down.

The game itself does come with a pretty thick manual, and if you’ve never played any of the Marios before, I would probably suggest you familiarize yourself with at least the concept. I personally prefer to play it with a controller instead of the nunchuks being of the old school Mario play. Would be interesting to see it actually work with the classic controller too, but obviously that wouldn’t work with some of the movements you need for this game. Either way? I’m looking forward to waking my wife up bright and early this weekend to finish beating this sucker. And I’m sure that anyone that has that old Mario nostalgia would entirely understand.