The new Super Mario Bros game for the Wii seems like a pretty obvious evolution to appeal to the kinds of gamers that play the Wii. It is traditional side-scrolling Mario action, with the capabilities of up to 4 players playing simultaneously. How can you go wrong?
Gameplay: 9.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
New Super Mario Bros Wii is very similar to Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World, so it will appeal to fans of the classic Mario series immediately. It's a platformer, with a lot of the same traditional enemies and powerups - mushrooms, goombas, turtles, firepower, coins... you get the idea.
In addition to these classic ideas they've added the ability to pick certain stuff up and carry it with you, like barrels, ice blocks, POWs, helicopter blocks and other players.
Some aspects of other Mario games have been included, such as Wall-Jumping, making for some interesting challenges and goofy, but intense moments.
The game is pretty straightforward, and certainly a nice hybrid of things we've seen in other Mario games, and some thing we haven't seen before.
Some stages can get crazy because of how many items are flying around the screen, while you're trying to knock out enemies, avoid pitfalls, control the platform you're on with the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers.. it can get crazy! It's often a lot more intense and chaotic than the original Mario series.
They also did a wonderful job of making every stage feel unique. They had a lot of different objects that they incorporated, and sometimes those objects will only show up a couple of times throughout the course of the game.
It seems like this game was a long time coming, and when it came, it would be hard to be disappointed. It's multiplayer Mario action. What more do you want?
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Lots of appeal to classic Mario fans in it's presentation. Good music, funny sound effects and dialogue, funny animations. It's impossible to be disappointed here if you're a fan of Mario games.
Theatrics: 0.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
There's really no story in Mario games other than "go rescue the princess". Cut-scenes are slim and don't add to or detract from the game.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
I typically don't like motion sensitivity in games, but Mario does a good job of incorporating it and making it feel necessary. To twirl or pick up objects, you need to shake your controller, and a lot of in-game objects like platforms require tilting the controller one way or the other to make it move or rotate the way you want it to.
Sometimes the controller shaking happens accidentally, and some concepts may be a little tough for more novice gamers to pick up and be good at. Overall, decent controls for this kind of a game. Some of the best on the Wii that use motion sensitivity, no doubt.
Replay Value: 8.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
This game is actually pretty large and has a rather high difficulty curve, so you'll find yourself being challenged and having to work hard at some points to make progress. It has a great range, and offers a lot of unique objects that make each stage feel like it had a lot of attention paid to it, instead of one world's stages all feeling pretty much the same.
Once you've played through the game once, maybe twice, you'll likely not find yourself pining to go back. One playthrough is probably 10 hours, and it's too fun of a game to play through only once.
Their alternative game modes are confusing and really not much different than the actual game itself, which was a little disappointing.
Fun: 9.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
This is comfortably one of the most fun games on the Wii, and easily one of the best games of this generation to just pick up and play. Playing with 3-4 people is often crazy, and half of the fun of the game can be doing goofy things to hurt other players, like picking them up and throwing them off cliffs or bouncing on their head.
This is one of the few games that has caused uproarious laughter among a large group of people all playing at the same time.
The only downside is that the ending levels and getting 100% completion is stupid hard. It can get frustrating really quickly, so I think it's best to stick to casual play in order to get the most out of this game.
My Overall Rating: 9.1
Complexity Level: Pick up and Play. Literally almost anybody can pick up a controller and start playing reasonably well.
Gameplay: 9.5
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
New Super Mario Bros Wii is very similar to Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World, so it will appeal to fans of the classic Mario series immediately. It's a platformer, with a lot of the same traditional enemies and powerups - mushrooms, goombas, turtles, firepower, coins... you get the idea.
In addition to these classic ideas they've added the ability to pick certain stuff up and carry it with you, like barrels, ice blocks, POWs, helicopter blocks and other players.
Some aspects of other Mario games have been included, such as Wall-Jumping, making for some interesting challenges and goofy, but intense moments.
The game is pretty straightforward, and certainly a nice hybrid of things we've seen in other Mario games, and some thing we haven't seen before.
Some stages can get crazy because of how many items are flying around the screen, while you're trying to knock out enemies, avoid pitfalls, control the platform you're on with the Wii's motion-sensitive controllers.. it can get crazy! It's often a lot more intense and chaotic than the original Mario series.
They also did a wonderful job of making every stage feel unique. They had a lot of different objects that they incorporated, and sometimes those objects will only show up a couple of times throughout the course of the game.
It seems like this game was a long time coming, and when it came, it would be hard to be disappointed. It's multiplayer Mario action. What more do you want?
Presentation: 10.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Lots of appeal to classic Mario fans in it's presentation. Good music, funny sound effects and dialogue, funny animations. It's impossible to be disappointed here if you're a fan of Mario games.
Theatrics: 0.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
There's really no story in Mario games other than "go rescue the princess". Cut-scenes are slim and don't add to or detract from the game.
Controls: 9.0
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
I typically don't like motion sensitivity in games, but Mario does a good job of incorporating it and making it feel necessary. To twirl or pick up objects, you need to shake your controller, and a lot of in-game objects like platforms require tilting the controller one way or the other to make it move or rotate the way you want it to.
Sometimes the controller shaking happens accidentally, and some concepts may be a little tough for more novice gamers to pick up and be good at. Overall, decent controls for this kind of a game. Some of the best on the Wii that use motion sensitivity, no doubt.
Replay Value: 8.5
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
This game is actually pretty large and has a rather high difficulty curve, so you'll find yourself being challenged and having to work hard at some points to make progress. It has a great range, and offers a lot of unique objects that make each stage feel like it had a lot of attention paid to it, instead of one world's stages all feeling pretty much the same.
Once you've played through the game once, maybe twice, you'll likely not find yourself pining to go back. One playthrough is probably 10 hours, and it's too fun of a game to play through only once.
Their alternative game modes are confusing and really not much different than the actual game itself, which was a little disappointing.
Fun: 9.5
What were the most and least fun parts of the game? Overall, how much fun is the game?
This is comfortably one of the most fun games on the Wii, and easily one of the best games of this generation to just pick up and play. Playing with 3-4 people is often crazy, and half of the fun of the game can be doing goofy things to hurt other players, like picking them up and throwing them off cliffs or bouncing on their head.
This is one of the few games that has caused uproarious laughter among a large group of people all playing at the same time.
The only downside is that the ending levels and getting 100% completion is stupid hard. It can get frustrating really quickly, so I think it's best to stick to casual play in order to get the most out of this game.
My Overall Rating: 9.1
Complexity Level: Pick up and Play. Literally almost anybody can pick up a controller and start playing reasonably well.
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