New Super Mario Bros. WiiReview (North America)
By Jason Ross, Forum Member
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the Newest Super Mario Experience Yet!Nintendo's bold move is sure to impress those who are new to the Super Mario Bros. gang. Will it impress you?New Super Mario Bros. Wii (NSMBWii) is Nintendo's perfect elixir to anyone who hasn't played a video game in sixteen years. Indeed, the title comes with jam-packed with all the features, stages, enemies, items, and fun that you remember from Mario games of yesteryear, and delivers even more to the table by tying it all together with an overwhelming multiplayer system. If you're looking for a platformer with lots of creativity, challenge, and originality, but top-notch and simple controls, this could be the game for you!
NSMBWii reminds us of a time when games were simpler. Unfortunately, once the nostalgia passes, you realize, despite everything new to the table, the amalgamation of the things we loved in '93, along with new ideas, like penguin suits, would just be a little too dated for modern gamers. To begin, while the game is rendered in 3D, movement is locked on a confined path, similar to other Wii games, like Ghost Squad and other light-gun style games. The difference, though, is that the gamer controls when they move, but overall, the experiences are very similar. Stages take advantage and manipulate the linear design by hiding alternate routes in pipes or even textures. It's a clever concept, but it executes poorly: Often, in order to get the most out of a stage, I had go back to it, choose it, and take an alternate pathway, even branching to a different end in order to clear it. What's most unfortunate about this execution is that gamers won't get the full game's experience in one run-through. It's almost as if Nintendo decided to hand us half a game!
While the game offers stunning digital precision, I often found myself attempting to aim the fireballs I'd throw with the 1 and 2 buttons, resulting in imprecise jumping and running speeds. Given the number of enemies and pits on screen at once, I'd even lose lives due to this type of error. I can't help but feel this is the fault of the Wii Remote and it's lack of analog control inputs. Many gamers will find themselves questioning how other consoles could optimize the controls. Free, simple analog control of Mario's movement and speed with one stick, while control over where he faces with the other would have been optimal, and much more simple. Had jumps and fireballs been mapped to shoulder buttons, I'd fee much more at home. However, with NSMBWii, movement is limited to the D-pad, and since there's so few buttons, throwing fireballs AND running were mapped to the same button! Furthermore, the Nintendo has hashed in motion controls once again! In a rather uninspired and lackluster presentation, Mario can pick up his friends and chuck them around the screen by shaking the Wii Remote. It's needless to say execution of the motion is difficult at best, rendering the technique unusable and impractical at best.
NSMBWii's story is lacking even basic necessities, and where it tries, it's filled with plotholes. In a nutshell, a princess is captured by several bipedal turtles, and so two plumbers and two guys with funky hats set out to save her. I understand the princess aspect, certainly, but one thing I've never been clear about in the Mario franchise is the dependence on plumbers. I can't see how any gamer would choose to play as a plumber over a knight, a prince, a magician, or something similar. I expected to learn about why there were bi-pedal turtles (The game calls them the Koopa Kids), and why the citizens of the mushroom kingdom all wear such odd clothing, as well as some backstory to how mushrooms can grant instant growth or flowers can provide the ability to throw fire and ice. Instead, no explanation is given, and the gamer is expected to ponder such things on his own. If anything else, this shows how Nintendo has failed to develop story and plotlines since the sixteen bit era. We're never even treated to a hint of where the Koopa Kids came from! What story is present is clearly black and white, with no sense of drama or urgency on either side. If you even turned on any other game in the past month, you've probably experienced better story than this.
Each area to the game is themed, but some stages branch away from the theme, taking place in abandoned houses, underwater, or in a castle/tower. You'll find the music in the themed areas fits the game well, but there simply aren't enough tracks. A stage with mushroom-based platforms in the first area has the same music as one in the fifth area. All abandoned ghost houses have the same music, and subsequently lose much individuality. Boss fights have their own songs. Oddly enough, when you move from area to area, sound effects rarely are altered. Mario's jump consistently makes the same noise, as well as powering up and stomping on enemies. No effort was made to even capture the acoustic inside, aside from a small amount of echo. While the surface Mario runs on does effect the running sound, at no point did it sound like he was running on anything real, but at least we've had an update from the last main, linear, console Mario title, where there was no running sound at all.
Perhaps what surprises me the most is Nintendo's admission to control and stage design flaws: When you die eight times on one stage, at the beginning of the stage a switch appears, and Nintendo literally takes control of the game away from you. It's literally like buying a game to play, and then just watching as an older brother yanks the controller from you after you struggle a little bit at one point. Sure, things begin very basically, but by the second or third area, stages were much more difficult, and I found myself forced to just watch as big brother would steal the controls, beat the stage, hand the control back to me, and then yank them away on the next one. On some stages, I grew so frustrated with the controls that I found myself intentionally dying, just to let the game play with itself for me, so I could move on. To make matters worse, when you're not in control, you're forced to just watch Luigi (The game uses Luigi to do it instead of Mario, for further embarrassment...) skip over any alternate paths you might notice. You could take control back from the game and travel the alternate route, but to be frank, once you do that, you're dead in the water, just waiting for a problem to arise.
From what I understand, the game truly shines in multiplayer. At the time of press, I've been unable to experience multiplayer, as the game doesn't have any built in AI, nor does it offer an online mode. Unless you know several people who are interested in mid-90's style video games, you probably won't get a chance to experience it, either. I suppose I'd have struggled with the matter anyways, since a lack of online means I won't have to trudge through friend-codes and Nintendo's poor online service, but still, I'd have enjoyed even just knowing the option is there.
To sum it up, Nintendo's brought in hordes of originality and mashed it with clever dashes of nostalgia, but despite all the memories, it reminds me of how it's a good thing video games have "Grown Up" since Super Mario World. The entry might be a hit if you still enjoy Super Mario Bros. or one of the series other classic entries, but a modern gamer will likely find the title outdated and flawed. Perhaps if the game fit modern standards, it would leave a more lasting mark, but as it is now, it's use is solely to take a hazy stroll down memory lane, even bringing me to question my taste as a new gamer back in the day. New Super Mario Bros. Wii retails at $50, but if you're interested, I'd wait until it hits the bargain bin in two or three months, and pick it up for $20, maybe a little less.
Pros-The game only utilizes the Wii Remote, so there's no random accessory of the week involved.
-Brings back old characters, and mixes them with new environments, enemies, friends, and items.
-Super Guide system can get you through all the tricky parts so you can finish the game.
Cons-Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow use of the classic controller for more accurate control.
-No "real" story effort was made to make sense from the nostalgia.
-The game snatches control away from you constantly... What's the point of playing?
-Lacks online modes
-Features remixes of classic music, but not the original
Graphics: 6.0 Nearly everything old seems to be ripped from the DS version, and it shows. New pieces of game art and models have clearly been scaled back to match this. Looks good for a Wii title, but I wasn't impressed.
Sound: 4.0 The game features new remixes, but nothing was orchestrated. Additionally, there were new songs to match new areas and stages. Music was reused in nearly all stages of similar setting, though, making parts unmemorable.
Control: 2.0 Digital control is precise, but analog control would've been much better. Due to difficulties with fireballs and running, accidental suicide often occurs. Shoe-horned motion controls also attribute to the low score; they were virtually unusable.
Gameplay: 3.0 The game would've been much better had I a chance to play it! The Super Guide feature and control issues remove much of the experience from the gamer, and would've been better fit left out.
Lastability: 5.0 Since the stages have alternate routes, I bumped up the score a little bit. The branching paths are really more of an alternate to the normal ones, though. Once you've beaten the game, it's pretty much over.
Final Score (Not an Average): 5.0
The game is an outdated effort at nostalgia, really, and while fun and charming at moments, it really brings nothing new to the table. In fact, it brings leftovers to the table from last week, the crummy Asian place you only tolerate for variety. While not perfect, the concept has made me wonder why we don't see updates to other Nintendo franchises similar to this one, like Zelda or Metroid. If you haven't touched a controller since the SNES, it could be fun. Consider picking it up if that's your case.
Jason Ross, Forum Member
Yes I did just submit this as an application to jobs [at] nintendoworldreport (dot) com, and yes I did just receive a notification email that said address does not exist. Now I'm left pondering how I will get this read by the staff!
Topic: It's fun to be IGNorant! (aka NSMBW trolling thread) (Read 15661 times)
