The Wii U gets a Mario launch title with New Super Mario Bros U. But it wasn't quite what the fans meant...

I picked this up shortly after getting my Wii U, being a consumate fan of all games Mario and this made for quite a quick-fire succession of New Super Mario Bros. action after playing the 3DS New Super Mario Bros. 2 barely even a month beforehand. But this is hardly a problem because even despite being relatively samey, the New Super Mario Bros. series always delivers plenty of enjoyable 2D Mario action harking back to the original pre-3D Mario Bros. games and this one is no exception.

Things start as usual with the princess being kidnapped yet again by Bowser. And it is your job to save her yet again. The Koopalings again return here acting as the final bosses for most worlds before you fight Bowser in the final world. Power ups remain mostly unchanged from previous New Super Mario Bros. titles, but do introduce a few new ones. The Super Acorn being the main one here which turns you into a flying squirrel able to glide like the racoon or caped Mario can as well as cling to walls. He can not fly however, unless you pick up the P-Acorn which is similar to Super Mario Bros. 3's P-Wing allowing unlimited flight throughout the level you use it on.

Mario in his new flying squirrel get-up

Baby Yoshis also make a return appearance not having been seen in a main Mario game since Super Mario World. As before, there are a few different colours each with different abilities such as bubble attacks, lifting you into the air and acting as illumination. These new power ups help to mix things up and the majority of the older ones are still there as familiar old friends.

The multi-player from New Super Mario Bros. Wii returns allowing up to 5 people to play the game at once. 4 of these control on screen characters with WiiMotes and the 5th can act upon the world using the Wii U gamepad to either help or hinder the other players by moving platforms, disabling enemies and the like. Hilarity always ensues as players can bounce off each other and steal power ups so this can lead to some quite insane messes occurring with more people sometimes making the game harder than easier.

You progress through the game again in the usual way going through various worlds with themes like grass, ice, fire etc, but I was particularly glad to find some of the levels dedicated to my favourite world in Super Mario Bros 3., Big Island, where all the enemies are gigantic creatures towering over Mario. This game seems to contain a lot of references to Super Mario Bros. 3 in particular including others like battle tank levels, Boom Booms and airship levels. I found this to be fantastic nostalgia as this is still my favourite 2D Mario game.

Big Island, or Giant Land as it was originally called in the NES original Super Mario Bros. 3

New Super Mario Bros. U proved to be yet another fantastic Mario game in my opinion. And while the New Super Mario Bros. series can seem quite samey from title to title and never gets the same applaud as the full fat 3D titles these days, each one is always guaranteed to be extremely worthwhile for fans of Mario and both platform games in general. You know who you are. So buy it if this is you!

Lots of fun but nothing really new in this second portable entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series

I’ve been interested in this sequel to New Super Mario Bros. for a while now, but due to my 3DS being American and it being region locked, I preferred to wait until I was back in America again to pick it up. 

I did greatly enjoy New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros Wii, the later I played co-op with Big Phil and it was an insane mess.  But apart from the madness of bouncing off each other in co-op, and the series’ trademark Mega Mario power up which allows you to destroy everything on screen, I have never found anything terribly remarkable or memorable about the NSMB series.  They all seem quite samey and like they’re just going through the motions of a 2D Mario game.  They all also have the usual grass, fire, ice, sky etc world that Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first to pioneer.  The first half dozen or so 2D Mario games were all very distinct, different and memorable because they were changing and evolving alongside the hardware platforms that they appeared on.  Super Mario Bros. was very limited by the NES’s small technical abilities, but Super Mario Bros. 2 pushed them a bit further and looked very different (because it was originally a different game).  Super Mario Bros. 3 returned more to the old form, but introduced the world map and retainable power ups and many more conventions that are now standard.  Super Mario World introduced secret worlds, multiple exits to stages, saving etc.  Each of these games evolved and changed the Mario games with each new one adding in new features and abilities and each one being notably different.

But now it feels like all that can be done has been done and there is not much left to add other than the occasional new power up.  So the end result is that all the games in the NSMB series have a feeling of disposability and will never be as memorable or distinct as the older games.

All that being said, this was still an extremely solid and fun 2D Mario game.  It’s just more of the same, but when it’s this good to play, you don’t mind that as much.

The one new twist that this entry in the series does add is an obsession with coin hunting.  The game keeps tracks of total coins and you unlock small rewards at milestones.  There is also a new Coin Rush mode where you race through 3 stages as fast as possible to get as many coins as possible.  A kind of coin score attack if you will.  There are also various new methods to gathering coins such as the golden block which makes your head into a golden block with Mario’s face on it that will keep dishing out coins as long as you’re running until the timer runs out.  And a gold hoop which turns all enemies gold giving extra coin rewards for killing them and any kicked Koopa shells leave coins in their wakes.  I’m sure there are plenty of other new ways to farm coins, but these are just some of the ones I found.

I would definitely recommend this to any fan of the Mario games because Mario games are always a lot of fun and the coin hunting aspect does add a small new twist.  The only caveat would be the aforementioned feeling of overall sameness in these games.

First game beaten of the new year!  The end of the backlog creeps ever closer.