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!