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“The Jet Gamer” Game Review: New Super Mario BrothersWii
10 years ago
Yay, we are back to doing Nintendo stuff. Enjoy guys =P
New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Ahhh, good old Mario. He is likely one of the biggest icons in gaming, and here he is once again in another Mario game, this time on the Nintendo Wii. And unlike the Galaxy series, the New Super Mario series actually turns the games back towards its roots. Is this a good or a bad thing though? Let us take a closer look at the game and see for ourselves.
Gameplay
As I just said, this Mario game has taken the Mario series back to its 2D roots in this 2.5D game. You run left and right in the games, and also up and down depending on if you are doing standard or vertical levels. You are looking to get through each level in the world and progress to the other worlds in the games. You have the standard Mario gameplay of jumping on Koopas and Goombas as well as the other Mario enemies that have either been brought back or are reappearing from other games as they stop you from completing each level on your way. There are standard levels, fortresses, castles, ghost houses, and even random enemies on the world map that try and stop you in your progress. The toad houses also return in this game. There are three types: Red, being where you play a flipping mini game trying to get items. There is yellow that offers you a star you can use in a level for temporary invincibility. Then finally there is green, which gives you a 1-Up mini game to earn some more lives. As I just mentioned of course, with the return of the toad houses, the red ones give you items if you can uncover them without losing the games. These power ups can be used in any level you wish at any time if you feel you need the extra help, just like in Mario 3. There are some of the traditional power ups, but there are also some new ones that I hadn’t seen before. There is the Ice Flower which shoots ice instead of fire and freezes enemies into solid ice blocks. There is the mini mushroom that makes Mario very small, which makes him be a little floaty in his jumps, allows him to go into mini pipes, and also be able to run on top of water. There is the Penguin Suit that allows Mario to slide on his belly into enemies and break through blocks. It also allows you to swim a lot more easily as well. Then finally there is the propeller hat, the power up that honestly seems to be the most useful. This hat allows Mario to float up into the air and then slowly make his way back down. If you have this one, getting to high spots are a synch, and also reaching out of the way areas is now no longer that hard at all. Also, Yoshi is back in this game, so you will occasionally find Yoshi in some levels where you are able to ride him around and eat up the enemies in your way. Though sadly, Yoshi is restricted to only the levels you find him in, as he says good bye at the goal flags. There are also multiple paths you can take in the game, as the game has gone back to doing world maps like in Mario 3 and Mario World as well. This means there are ways to complete the game more quickly, instead of going through every single level of the game, though I wouldn’t recommend doing this. I’ll tell you why later. But there are some levels that have hidden exits that can either allow you to skip some levels, go right to the castle at the end of a world, find hidden levels, or even find the warp cannons. Either way, it actually pays to explore the game. The only things frustrating at times is that you do have some tricky levels that do have some motion controls to deal with, and then other levels where hitting enemies can be a bit tricky. However, this is very few and far between. You won’t be hurting for lives in this game at all, as it is quite easy. It took me almost no time at all to max out my lives and then to never got that far from maxing it out again ever again. Maybe I’m just good at platformers, but I do think this game is a bit on the easy side. Though that is actually a good thing, which means I do feel it is kid and younger gamer friendly. Anyone can have fun with this game, and that’s definitely a plus.
Story
This is honestly the only area of the game where I feel there is some lacking potential. The story is pretty much the same as always. Princess Peach is kidnapped, and it is up to Mario to go rescue her again. Though this time, if you have more than one player, other characters can join Mario in the game. Luigi and two toads are also assisting Mario on his way to trying to rescue Peach. Though this time, instead of it being Bowser that does the kidnapping, it’s actually Bowser Jr, Kamek, and the Koopa Kids that do it this time. You then have to go from world to world chasing Bowser Jr’s airship as he is trying to make is back to his dad’s castle with Peach. All the time while you are chasing him, the Koopa Kids keep jumping out one by one in the various worlds to try and stop Mario’s progress. This actually is a nice little twist, but really, that’s all you get when it comes to story, there really isn’t much else. Since none of the characters can talk, it is pretty much just going off on the emotion of Mario trying to save the princess. While the game does display this emotion very well, both in Mario and in the bad guys, it would have still been nice to have gotten a little more detail in the story of this game. Also as I mentioned earlier, there is a reason you do not want to skip ahead in this game is that you will miss some of the few cutscenes there are already are in this game. When you skip, the airship skips with you, so any scenes that would have been at any of the older castle’s you skip, will no longer be there. This is something that was a bit troubling for me and did make me reload my save after seeing this happen.
Graphics
This is one of those areas where this game really shines. Bright colorful worlds for you to explore as you go from level to level, as well as the levels being nice looking places as you roam through them. You have no trouble seeing and telling what anything is, and nothing looks out of place at all. Mario and all the characters look great in this 2.5D style, plus the fact that the few cutscenes that are in the game are very well animated. I didn’t see a single graphics glitch, nor did anything even appear that it might glitch. Everything looks smooth and flawless. Everything has its place and stays where it should stay. I would say this is likely one of the better looking games on this system for sure in this style.
Sound
The music in this game is very catchy. You will find yourself humming along with the little tunes that play as you are playing the levels. The Koopas and other enemies even enjoy the music as they dance along with it at certain beats in the game, which is just so entertaining to watch them swing their arms at certain points in the music of the levels. Some of these tunes are new tunes for you to remember, while some levels have familiar old tunes, such as the underground tune being the same as always. The sound effects are also done in an interesting way. Most of the sound effects, such as taking hits and getting power ups are the same sound effect as in the old games for the most part. Yet, you hear a lot of them in the game and also from the wiimote in your hand. It is interesting to hear the noise of getting a mushroom both in the game and also from the little speaker in the wiimotes. I have to say, they did the music and sounds great justice in this game.
Control
For the most part, I didn’t have much trouble with the controls in this Mario game at all. You are going to occasionally mess up jumps and run into enemies on your own, which are legitimate deaths and understandable. It happens. The only deaths I felt were a bit cheap when it came to controls were ones that were based around motion controls. There are a few areas where your wiimote determines the angle of where platforms should be and also where the platform is if it is scrolling upwards. This can occasionally make jumping on enemies rather tricky as both your hand on the wiimote and the d-pad have to match or you could end up throwing yourself into enemies while trying to maneuver the platform itself while controlling Mario at the same time. Other than these few areas where this is the case though, controlling Mario isn’t that difficult. He jumps where you want him to jump, and the power ups both aid and hinder in the ways they should. For example, the penguin suit does make swimming and sliding a lot easier, but your jumping does seem to suffer a bit as the suit is a bit slicker than some. The mini mushrooms floaty jumps can make landing sometimes a bit tricky on enemies, but it does give you an extra split second to land on certain platforms as well. Really, you shouldn’t have much trouble with the controls here. You play with the wiimote horizontal in your hand instead of pointing at the TV, so it should feel familiar to anyone that has played games like this before. Any mistakes are usually going to be your fault, not the games fault for the most part.
Replay Value
You would think a Mario game where you go from level to level would possibly not have a large amount of replay value, but it actually does. It does it in an inventive way as well. Yes, the majority of the game is going to be played on your first play through, and once you beat a level, it is beaten. However, there are three large star coins in each level that have to be found and collected while also finishing the level after completing them. These coins have two main purposes. The first being that you can watch hint video’s back in Peach’s castle in world one, that can be watched to either see how to get some harder coins in certain levels, how to find the hidden exists in some levels, and also to watch videos of someone playing the levels like a super expert while getting all the coins in that level. These unlock as you go, so it is to your advantage to go back and watch them if there are things available for certain levels if you do need the help. The other thing is that collecting all the coins in a world does unlock additional levels after you beat the game. That is actually a great incentive to play the levels in the game again and to get more familiar with them if you want to play some bonus content in the game. While the levels you are replaying may not really be different than when you went through them the first time, the great incentive to keep playing is well worth playing those levels once again.
Overall, New Super Mario Brothers Wii is a great addition to the Mario franchise and is a game I would recommend anyone get for their Wii library if they are a fan of platformers. It has a reasonably easy difficulty curve to deal with, and the look and sounds of this game are just amazing. While the story may be a little lacking in some senses, all the other elements way more than make up for this little complaint. This is definitely a game I’m glad I got and would recommend picking up if you can find a copy for a reasonable price.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give New Super Mario Brothers Wii a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: 7
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 9
New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Ahhh, good old Mario. He is likely one of the biggest icons in gaming, and here he is once again in another Mario game, this time on the Nintendo Wii. And unlike the Galaxy series, the New Super Mario series actually turns the games back towards its roots. Is this a good or a bad thing though? Let us take a closer look at the game and see for ourselves.
Gameplay
As I just said, this Mario game has taken the Mario series back to its 2D roots in this 2.5D game. You run left and right in the games, and also up and down depending on if you are doing standard or vertical levels. You are looking to get through each level in the world and progress to the other worlds in the games. You have the standard Mario gameplay of jumping on Koopas and Goombas as well as the other Mario enemies that have either been brought back or are reappearing from other games as they stop you from completing each level on your way. There are standard levels, fortresses, castles, ghost houses, and even random enemies on the world map that try and stop you in your progress. The toad houses also return in this game. There are three types: Red, being where you play a flipping mini game trying to get items. There is yellow that offers you a star you can use in a level for temporary invincibility. Then finally there is green, which gives you a 1-Up mini game to earn some more lives. As I just mentioned of course, with the return of the toad houses, the red ones give you items if you can uncover them without losing the games. These power ups can be used in any level you wish at any time if you feel you need the extra help, just like in Mario 3. There are some of the traditional power ups, but there are also some new ones that I hadn’t seen before. There is the Ice Flower which shoots ice instead of fire and freezes enemies into solid ice blocks. There is the mini mushroom that makes Mario very small, which makes him be a little floaty in his jumps, allows him to go into mini pipes, and also be able to run on top of water. There is the Penguin Suit that allows Mario to slide on his belly into enemies and break through blocks. It also allows you to swim a lot more easily as well. Then finally there is the propeller hat, the power up that honestly seems to be the most useful. This hat allows Mario to float up into the air and then slowly make his way back down. If you have this one, getting to high spots are a synch, and also reaching out of the way areas is now no longer that hard at all. Also, Yoshi is back in this game, so you will occasionally find Yoshi in some levels where you are able to ride him around and eat up the enemies in your way. Though sadly, Yoshi is restricted to only the levels you find him in, as he says good bye at the goal flags. There are also multiple paths you can take in the game, as the game has gone back to doing world maps like in Mario 3 and Mario World as well. This means there are ways to complete the game more quickly, instead of going through every single level of the game, though I wouldn’t recommend doing this. I’ll tell you why later. But there are some levels that have hidden exits that can either allow you to skip some levels, go right to the castle at the end of a world, find hidden levels, or even find the warp cannons. Either way, it actually pays to explore the game. The only things frustrating at times is that you do have some tricky levels that do have some motion controls to deal with, and then other levels where hitting enemies can be a bit tricky. However, this is very few and far between. You won’t be hurting for lives in this game at all, as it is quite easy. It took me almost no time at all to max out my lives and then to never got that far from maxing it out again ever again. Maybe I’m just good at platformers, but I do think this game is a bit on the easy side. Though that is actually a good thing, which means I do feel it is kid and younger gamer friendly. Anyone can have fun with this game, and that’s definitely a plus.
Story
This is honestly the only area of the game where I feel there is some lacking potential. The story is pretty much the same as always. Princess Peach is kidnapped, and it is up to Mario to go rescue her again. Though this time, if you have more than one player, other characters can join Mario in the game. Luigi and two toads are also assisting Mario on his way to trying to rescue Peach. Though this time, instead of it being Bowser that does the kidnapping, it’s actually Bowser Jr, Kamek, and the Koopa Kids that do it this time. You then have to go from world to world chasing Bowser Jr’s airship as he is trying to make is back to his dad’s castle with Peach. All the time while you are chasing him, the Koopa Kids keep jumping out one by one in the various worlds to try and stop Mario’s progress. This actually is a nice little twist, but really, that’s all you get when it comes to story, there really isn’t much else. Since none of the characters can talk, it is pretty much just going off on the emotion of Mario trying to save the princess. While the game does display this emotion very well, both in Mario and in the bad guys, it would have still been nice to have gotten a little more detail in the story of this game. Also as I mentioned earlier, there is a reason you do not want to skip ahead in this game is that you will miss some of the few cutscenes there are already are in this game. When you skip, the airship skips with you, so any scenes that would have been at any of the older castle’s you skip, will no longer be there. This is something that was a bit troubling for me and did make me reload my save after seeing this happen.
Graphics
This is one of those areas where this game really shines. Bright colorful worlds for you to explore as you go from level to level, as well as the levels being nice looking places as you roam through them. You have no trouble seeing and telling what anything is, and nothing looks out of place at all. Mario and all the characters look great in this 2.5D style, plus the fact that the few cutscenes that are in the game are very well animated. I didn’t see a single graphics glitch, nor did anything even appear that it might glitch. Everything looks smooth and flawless. Everything has its place and stays where it should stay. I would say this is likely one of the better looking games on this system for sure in this style.
Sound
The music in this game is very catchy. You will find yourself humming along with the little tunes that play as you are playing the levels. The Koopas and other enemies even enjoy the music as they dance along with it at certain beats in the game, which is just so entertaining to watch them swing their arms at certain points in the music of the levels. Some of these tunes are new tunes for you to remember, while some levels have familiar old tunes, such as the underground tune being the same as always. The sound effects are also done in an interesting way. Most of the sound effects, such as taking hits and getting power ups are the same sound effect as in the old games for the most part. Yet, you hear a lot of them in the game and also from the wiimote in your hand. It is interesting to hear the noise of getting a mushroom both in the game and also from the little speaker in the wiimotes. I have to say, they did the music and sounds great justice in this game.
Control
For the most part, I didn’t have much trouble with the controls in this Mario game at all. You are going to occasionally mess up jumps and run into enemies on your own, which are legitimate deaths and understandable. It happens. The only deaths I felt were a bit cheap when it came to controls were ones that were based around motion controls. There are a few areas where your wiimote determines the angle of where platforms should be and also where the platform is if it is scrolling upwards. This can occasionally make jumping on enemies rather tricky as both your hand on the wiimote and the d-pad have to match or you could end up throwing yourself into enemies while trying to maneuver the platform itself while controlling Mario at the same time. Other than these few areas where this is the case though, controlling Mario isn’t that difficult. He jumps where you want him to jump, and the power ups both aid and hinder in the ways they should. For example, the penguin suit does make swimming and sliding a lot easier, but your jumping does seem to suffer a bit as the suit is a bit slicker than some. The mini mushrooms floaty jumps can make landing sometimes a bit tricky on enemies, but it does give you an extra split second to land on certain platforms as well. Really, you shouldn’t have much trouble with the controls here. You play with the wiimote horizontal in your hand instead of pointing at the TV, so it should feel familiar to anyone that has played games like this before. Any mistakes are usually going to be your fault, not the games fault for the most part.
Replay Value
You would think a Mario game where you go from level to level would possibly not have a large amount of replay value, but it actually does. It does it in an inventive way as well. Yes, the majority of the game is going to be played on your first play through, and once you beat a level, it is beaten. However, there are three large star coins in each level that have to be found and collected while also finishing the level after completing them. These coins have two main purposes. The first being that you can watch hint video’s back in Peach’s castle in world one, that can be watched to either see how to get some harder coins in certain levels, how to find the hidden exists in some levels, and also to watch videos of someone playing the levels like a super expert while getting all the coins in that level. These unlock as you go, so it is to your advantage to go back and watch them if there are things available for certain levels if you do need the help. The other thing is that collecting all the coins in a world does unlock additional levels after you beat the game. That is actually a great incentive to play the levels in the game again and to get more familiar with them if you want to play some bonus content in the game. While the levels you are replaying may not really be different than when you went through them the first time, the great incentive to keep playing is well worth playing those levels once again.
Overall, New Super Mario Brothers Wii is a great addition to the Mario franchise and is a game I would recommend anyone get for their Wii library if they are a fan of platformers. It has a reasonably easy difficulty curve to deal with, and the look and sounds of this game are just amazing. While the story may be a little lacking in some senses, all the other elements way more than make up for this little complaint. This is definitely a game I’m glad I got and would recommend picking up if you can find a copy for a reasonable price.
Overall, in my opinion at least, I give New Super Mario Brothers Wii a nine out of ten.
Gameplay: 9
Story: 7
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Control: 9
Replay Value: 9
Overall: 9
