New Super Mario Bros. Wii. (Video Game Review)

Video Game Review
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nintendo Wii
2009
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo

There was a time when a new 2D Mario game would have generated an unprecedented amount of buzz and excitement. However, when Nintendo announced that their latest adventure starring the plumber would be nearly identical to the DS game that had released two years prior, people became skeptical. Many wondered why such a simple adventure was being given a full Wii retail release instead of being put on WiiWare or released as a DS game instead. When it comes down to it, Nintendo did it this way to make the most money. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is still a fun game even if reeks of being a cash-in title, although more gimmicky.

The story is same as it always was. Bowser kidnaps the princess and Mario and company have to travel the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue her. Many characters make their return after a long absence like the Koopa Kids. Luigi is now a playable character instead of a cowardly NPC. Also, two toads help out too (making up the roster for the four players). Mario and friends must make their way through the standard ice, water, desert, etc. worlds to reach Bowser’s lair. It’s the same old formula although we wouldn’t want it any other way.

Most of the controls are incredibly simple. The game uses the Wii Remote only and is held horizontally like a NES controller. The game controls similarly to the NES Mario games too. The d-pad moves Mario, 2 button makes Mario jump and holding the 1 button makes Mario run while moving. Other recent Mario staples are there like the wall jump and triple jump. There are some motion controls added in although they feel a little lame. Shaking the Wii Remote in mid-air will keep Mario in the air a couple of split-seconds longer. It’s a bit useful when you’ve miscalculated a jump and you need any help you can to recover to prevent falling into a bottomless pit. If you have the propeller suit, shaking the remote takes you airborne. There are also platforms that move in conjunction in relation to the position of how you have the remote tilted. These features feel they’re put in there to justify having the game on a system where the gimmick is motion control. All of these motion controls can be easily replicated with a standard controller setup. They do not add anything to the game other than make your wrists tired.

The graphics like nearly identical to the DS version although slightly better. Everything is colourful and nice looking but it does not push the hardware at all. The game easily handles all the action on screen and boasts the most enemies and action on screen in a Mario game with no slowdown. However, some might feel disappointed that there is practacally no graphical leap between the DS game and the Wii version. If anything, it’s a small crack. However, it’s definitely nothing the Gamecube wouldn’t have been able to handle (or maybe even an Expansion-Pak enhanced Nintendo 64). Despite this, the Mushroom Kingdom looks great with popping colours and nice visuals. Even with the disappointing visuals, if they made a Mario animated movie, this is probably what it would like.

The music is near identical to the DS version which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your opinion. There are a couple of retro tunes thrown into the mix but they’re used sparingly. The biggest gripe about the music in the game is that it doesn’t feel like music you’d hear in a Mario game. The accordion feels out of place in the Mushroom Kingdom. The programmers did offer a nice touch in that some of the characters react to the game music. Goombas and koopas among other creatures will bob their heads in tune with the music which is kind of clever. The sound effects remain nearly identical to much of the sounds from previous Mario titles which is fine because those sounds are so iconic that even people who have never played a video game will still be familiar with the sounds Mario make while jumping or collecting a power-up or extra life.

Mario has always been more about platforming elements than puzzle solving and with each instalment; we see slight changes to the formula. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is no exception. It feels like there are more moving platforms than ever before. Besides the gimmicky tilt platforms, there are rotating platforms that Mario has to react like he’s a logroller to keep from falling off. There are even circular landscapes that turn which act as a treadmill which also makes timing jumps trickier. Nintendo can’t be faulted for playing it safe with the level design because some levels feel insane; as if someone on acid designed some of the harder stages and then someone on meth took over because they thought it was too simple.

But there’s a big problem with some of the hard levels. It’s actually not a problem with the levels themselves but how they are placed within the structure of the game. The issue is that there is no proper difficulty curve. The levels don’t get progressively harder; the difficulty of a level is random. It seems to take some of the balance out of the game when you get stuck on a really nasty level early on in a world and then breeze through the rest of the levels in the world. The Super Guide feature fixes this in that if you get stuck on a level multiple times, it will play the level for you. Essentially, you get to skip a level much like Lakitu’s Cloud item in Super Mario Bros. 3. It feels though that the Super Guide is causing this problem because the rational argument would be that if the levels are getting harder, what purpose would the Super Guide serve because the next level is likely more difficult than the previous. So if the levels are uneven in difficulty, there’s a reason to have the extra help. If this is the case, it’s too bad because it really hurts the flow of the game.

The biggest gimmick of them all is that there is four-player offline multiplayer. Presentation wise, everything runs smoothly. The execution is another story. Players can play cooperatively or competitively. You can play through the main game together as a team or make it a competition or you can select levels to compete against others in for coins. It works well with two players, but beyond that it feels a bit chaotic. The players are constantly bumping into each other which can be problematic in the stages where there is no ground; missing platforms becomes a common occurrence because of a slight accidental nudge from a friend. Even though this is supposed to be the main attraction to this game, it feels tacked on and inferior to the multiplayer option on the DS Mario game. It would have been nice to have played the game taking alternating turns but there is no option for that. Also, the pickings are slim for selectable characters. You have Mario, Luigi, and two Toads. It would have been nice if you could have picked someone else; even a character from another or franchise like Donkey Kong. Or Sonic. That last sentence just blew the mind of every Gen-Xer reading this.

It’s hard to live up to the hype and we tend to give Mario games lofty goals for each subsequent traditional game. New Super Mario Bros. Wii feels like a throwback to the past and is a very enjoyable experience. However, all the extra stuff they’ve added to the formula feels either out of place or thrown in as a feeble attempt by Nintendo to add value to the product. Some might really enjoy the multiplayer but most won’t or would rather be playing a better multiplayer game on the Wii. Still, it’s a solid entry in the Mario franchise and better than the DS version.

☆☆☆☆