I agree with the overall theme of these opinions. This is the best of the NSMB series and an excellent 2D platformer, but it's still a bit stale due to being the fourth game of this ilk within a relatively short period of time. One could argue there's actually five of these games, since New Super Luigi U is sort of its own game. That said, I actually find the game more fun to play in multiplayer, it's a riot.

yet nobody complains there is a new Call of Duty, Madden, or Batman game very year. I love this game, I love Mario games they are the major selling point for me when it comes to Nintendo. I didn't care for the last three main Mario games, Sunshine, Galaxies 1 or 2, so these games felt like, to me at least, a true Mario experience.

I guess the difference especially if Nintendo is your only console, or your primary console at least, is you have little outside of Mario and Mario-type games to play so I can get the feelings of fatigue to some extent. I get that, I love Mortal Kombat and I think they series got stale when they had a new game every year, but once they slowed down a bit they took their time to make every new game feel like a true successor instead of just a minor continuation. I think with some games it works and others it doesn't for some reason.

I sold my Wii months before New Super Mario Wii came out, if I had played that game when it was new I might have kept my Wii for a little while longer. I don't mind the experimental Mario games as long as they also have traditional Mario games for those like me who don't enjoy the experimental ones as much.

I complain about that. Well I don't play Madden or Batman games because they are boring, but Call of Duty is stale. However, I don't think sports games should be a part of this sort of equation because they are a simulation of a real sport, and the real sport does not change every year. These games kind of have to be similar every year because there's not really anything they can do to change.

Yeah.  I got this at launch because there wasn't much else.  I really enjoyed it and I've never been huge on 2D Mario.  Its too bad NSMB2 had just come.  I think as time passes this game will get more and more love.  I really need to get NSLU.

No No we complain or ignore them since there not on Nintendo Consoles for the most.

I'm actually playing NSMBU for the first time right now. I've gone through 3 worlds and a few of the challenges. I have to admit that the colors and look of it in widescreen is really great. Technically, it's great and controls well and it feels more difficult as well than the other NSMB games. I have no problem with the NSMB theme. I've liked it from the first game. However, despite that, it just doesn't seem to be gripping me. I'll play it for a night and then 3-4 nights go by before I play some more.

When the first NSMB for DS came out, I was hooked on that for a long time because it was fresh. When I finally got around to playing NSMB Wii 2 years ago, I was hooked again and played that for just over a week straight until I beat it completely. To me, it was the better Mario game than Mario Galaxy. In fact, as I write this, I suddenly have the urge to take it out and play it again since it has been so long since I last did so. For some reason, that's the positive reaction it left me with. I ended up playing NSMB2 a couple months later and I was not as thrilled with it. It was ok but it was just unmemorable and uninispired to me. The coin rush aspect did not appeal to me so I completed the 5 star aspect of it but didn't bother with the pointless 1,000,000 coin challenge. I know Mop it up disagrees with my take on NSMB2 but at this point, I can only remember 2 things about the game since it made so little of an impact.

While I can say that NSMBU is better to me than NSMB2 and NSMB (which did not hold up that well when I tried playing it again a year ago), I feel like giving the nod to the Wii version as the best in the series still. I'll keep playing through NSMBU as it's early to really be judging it but at the moment, it isn't winning that fight.

Wait, what did you remember me saying about NSMB2? "Unmemorable" and "uninspired" sounds exactly like what I think of the game, I rank it at the bottom of the NSMB series and near the bottom on the whole Mario series.

Guess you're right. I could have sworn last year there was a thread where people started talking about Mario games and I gave my view on NSMB2 but then I thought you came to its defense and thought it was better than 3D Land or another Mario game being discussed. However, on doing some forum searching, I see you mention 3D Land as being better than NSMB2 and I can not find any evidence of you coming to NSMB2's defense. Perhaps I confused it with you criticizing 3D Land when I said it was better than Galaxy.

Confession: I'm ready for a new 2D Mario platformer.

I've pointed out elsewhere that this is actually the first year without a Mario platformer since 2008. I think the series could stand to rest a bit longer.

NSMB U/Luigi is pretty much the ultimate 2D Mario experience.  Takes everything from the previous 2D Mario's and refines, polishes, perfects and twist in ways that just make it amazing the whole way.  It also has the challenge mode which is a hardcore Mario fans dream come true.  Trying to 100% all gold medals is a very challenging experience in a good way that shows just how great the games level design really is.

While I never played NSMBU, I can say that anyone looking for a change in variety and theme should definitely pick up New Super Luigi U, which is one of the best new takes on the franchise yet (and at half the price).

However, I am a big fan of the NSMB series (excluding 2) and I want to pick it up eventually.

Yeah, probably something like that, or maybe just 3D Land in general since that's a game where our opinions differ as well. 3D Land is also a game I find a bit bland and uninspired, though not to the extent of NSMB2. But when it comes to the NSMB series then we seem pretty similar. In fact, even though I dub NSMBU as the better game, I would say that I had more fun with NSMBWii since it was more fresh at the time. Playing a Mario game with 2-4 players was a crazy-awesome deal back then.