New Super Mario Bros. U review

[teddymeow]

This is a great winter game for me. Easy to get into and play but there's real challenge if you want to go through and collect all the gold coins.

The little touches, too, show this game has some old school Mario and "soul". Things like when you get on a Yoshi and extra notes start playing in the music. Little layers that raise a smile as you play.

I love the integration of SpotPass and MiiVerse; posting hints and tips and thoughts about levels is fun. Seeing where other gamers have struggled or had most fun is brilliant!

[crocky-chocky]

Happy to say I'm proper loving this too.

It doesn't knock your socks off in a Galaxy stylee, as they have stuck the more standard snow/desert stuff at the beginning. I mean, they're solid levels with some lovely little design touches, but from 'Soda Jungle' onwards it really takes off -I hit a streak of levels last night that were just pure Nintendo magic, and it's took a turn for the Super Mario World in the world I'm currently exploring. Some lovely backdrops, though admittedly one or two assets do look a bit ugly.

The haunted house levels and Koopa kid boss battles are ace, the later ones really monkey about with the standard formula and have a whiff of Galaxy's playfulness.

The challenges have also been great so far and massively satisfying during the head-bop challenges once those 1-up's start chiming. I particularly love the ones that use the squirrel suit and the time limit makes them feel like a kind of Pilotwings crossover. Tough too.

[Kieran76]

I love this game, so much so that it is keeping both Zombi U and Far Cry 3 waiting. It like video game Prozac, like most folks at the moment I leave for work in the dark and return in the dark, so the chance to play a wonderfully fun and brightly coloured video game is the perfect tonic. I love the way the koopas do a little dance, I often hold off jumping on their heads just to see it.

[wakka]

Really want to play this, but feel it will benefit from multiplayer. I played through all of NSMB Wii in 4P (including all Star Coins), only way to play it imo.

[Atticus]

I'm really liking this. But I liked NSMB Wii too. As classic Mario games go, nothing will come close to the experience I had discovering Super Mario World, the returns are bound to diminish as the years go by and the titles rack up. But graphical differences aside (for some of us modern visuals sometimes lack the character of old-school 2D - saying that, this is a very pretty game in places) I think Nintendo still have the magic touch and 2D Mario is still someting special. Especially here. Pretty much what I'd want from a 2D Mario game. It's relaxing, happy, challenging where it needs to be (the challenges are a stroke of genius). No complaints at all. Even trumps the very good Zombi-U as my fave launch game.

[JSR]

My experiences with multiplayer in the previous "New" games isn't too great. I remember trying to work together in about five minutes before all the accidental bumping turns into genuine attempts at killing each other. Pretty fun, but very unproductive. Today I played this one with my brother. At first we were stumbling through the levels rather awkwardly, but after a while we seemed to hit a good rhythm. We naturally waited for each other at platform without being in each others way, automatically cared for each our area of the screens to collect coins or beat enemies. We worked together pretty harmonically, and for the first time, multiplayer in Mario actually made sense. Some situations - like boss fights - were still more easily tackled when alone though, but tremendous fun to play together nonetheless.

[gambit6613]

I have to agree i think this is a brilliant Mario game. I am enjoying it so much more than NSMB on Wii. It looks absolutely stunning in HD and some of the levels are genuinely a challenge.

[Goemon]

Really enjoying the time trail challenges, I love breaking down a level to do it as good as possible.

Anyone playing the challenges?

[BIG EDD]

Must admit to enjoying this one love the colourful HD graphics plus using a good set of headphones with the gamepad makes the cavern levels a joy to the ear

[hexxed]

I really like this, but you I also enjoyed the other NSMB games, this is more of the same, but exactly what I wanted really. Looks great in HD too.

[rmoxon]

Yeah, the real super mario bros 2 is actually the least original game in the series, to the point that when it was finally released here it was somewhat misleadingly sold to gamers as a collection of deleted scenes/levels from the first game. So even back then the series wasn't always original.

The western SMB2 is the most unique out of all the old school games but its not a real mario game when all is said and done so does not count.

when all is said and done even another nsmb game is probably more entertaining than a lot of games anyway, even if its not one of the best mario games.

[Nu-Eclipse]

If you lay out the original NES trilogy and see just how totally different they are, by comparison the New SMB's really do look a bit lazy. The leap from 1 to 2 on the NES blew my tiny mind as a kid, I remember being confounded when Mazza jumped on a shy guy and just stayed pirched on top of the fella without him getting squished!

I'd bloody love an NSMB in the style of Mario 2. Turnip tossing was the nuts!

Rehashing classic gamer knowledge here, but it really does depend on how you look at it. After all, the SMB2 that we got in the western world was never really a true Mario as opposed to Lost Levels (SMB2 Japan), which was pretty much more of the same following on from the original SMB.

SMB3 was when the 2D Mario series really started to evolve, paving the way for many of the ideas and concepts that appeared in Super Mario World (SMB4) - arguably STILL the greatest SMB game ever, if not the greatest 2D Mario title ever.

[arcnas]

When mine arrives im already a bit comcerned, will i play these Wii U games above Far Cry 3 which is coming the same day, i doubt i will.

[MisterBubbles]

Its exactly the syndrome the other consoles have to, no new innovation just COD 3 and BF3, because these sell, innovation doesn't really sell any more, it might, but if it doesn't then maybe your dev studio is finished. Pretty surprised to hear Shozuki say he's nearly bored of the system already, i guess that gamepad is still a gimmick just now, looks like ZombiU is the only exclusive good thing for WiiU.

[VR46]

...I couldn't be more disappointed really. It looks and plays by the numbers - and seems to lack a bit of charm for me. I want to inform people here I played 3D land recently and was really impressed by the game in general; Somehow finding a wonderful balance between old, new and creative.

I felt exactly the same buying and playing NSMB2 on the 3DS after playing the great MarioLand 3D extensively. They set the bar high, then the going back to 2D felt a real step back. Sorry for going off topic a bit.