Topic: New Super Mario Bros. 2

[Tizona]

Sadly, this game came too late for many people who were depending on those 100 Club Nintendo coins for their gold nunchuks.

I'm with you Kairon. I was holding out on the coins I got from the XL to get the gold nunchuk, but alas.

You can still get Fluidity for 150 coins through today though! It's a fantastic game (if you hadn't heard that 1000 times on RFN).

[Kairon]

Sadly, this game came too late for many people who were depending on those 100 Club Nintendo coins for their gold nunchuks.

I'm with you Kairon. I was holding out on the coins I got from the XL to get the gold nunchuk, but alas.

You can still get Fluidity for 150 coins through today though! It's a fantastic game (if you hadn't heard that 1000 times on RFN).

Urge to buy Fluidity... rising...!

[NWR_insanolord]

I've only played the first world, but I have to say I'm very happy with this game. It may be generic in certain ways, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. I like the level design so far, and I got every star coin in the first world except for the third one on the level you have to unlock, which I haven't been able to find. I'm thinking that one might require a mini mushroom, because of a way a certain pipe cut off, but I haven't tried that yet.

[Pixelated Pixies]

So I'm now even further into the game. I've beaten the Star World, Collected all the Moon Coins, and spent more time turning things into gold coins than I care to admit. My question, however, is this. Is there any point to collecting coins beyond the arbitrary goal of collectin 1,000,000? I've played the game for about 12 hours now and have only reached 35,000. Short of grinding coins in Coin Rush mode there's no way I'm reaching a million, and there's no way in hell I'm going to start grinding for coins.
 
So if we disregard that goal (which for most people will be unattainable in my opinion) is the only reason to collect coins in the main game because the game and the promotional material around it tells you to? I'm just not finding coin collecting to be all that enticing in and of itself. It seems to me that the coin collection aspect has been thrown on top of the game rather than threaded into it. Which I guess in a sense is good because it's not integral to the experience, but it also gives lie to all marketing that accompanied this release.
 
Secondly, was there any reward for collecting the Moon Coins that I missed?
 
Again, not that collecting all these coins wasn't fun, but I was kind of hoping there was a more enticing reason to do so.

[Kairon]

Wait a second... TWELVE HOURS?!?!?!

*turns on 3DS Activity Log*

I've only played Super Mario 3D Land for 10 Hours and 22 minutes...

[Pixelated Pixies]

Wait a second... TWELVE HOURS?!?!?!

*turns on 3DS Activity Log*

I've only played Super Mario 3D Land for 10 Hours and 22 minutes...

Yeah, I was surprised as well. Although, having checked my Activity Log I did put 21 hours and 49 minutes into 3D Land. I'm not sure how those figures are added up though. I tend to leave my games on, but surely it wouldn't count the time spent in sleep mode? Regardless, with Mario games I tend to suck the marrow out.

[UncleBob]

I have to say, this is the first time in a while that I've played a Mario game where I've actually spent time playing in the levels to the point where I nearly run out of time.

I've always thought the timer in Mario was a waste - an archaic throwback to times gone by.  Interesting to see it actually being an enemy at this point.

Speaking of archaic throwbacks... 100+ lives after beating the first world?  They should give you some kind of Life-to-Coin conversion.

[Pixelated Pixies]

Speaking of archaic throwbacks... 100+ lives after beating the first world?  They should give you some kind of Life-to-Coin conversion.

That's a friggin' great idea. I have 400 plus lives at this point. If they let you break your lives down into 100 coins each that would be a nice twist on the 100 coins = 1 Up, plus it would make that 1,000,000 that bit easier. It's a shame they didn't think of it first.
 
 

[ThomasO]

You know? I like this game a lot more than 3D Land. I'm only up to the 5th world, but it's so much better. I could beat a whole world in 3D Land in only 6 minutes. It took me 15 or so to beat the first castle, and that's without finding any secret exits. And far better and interesting level design. There are lot of times where I'm genuinely surprised and I say "that's really clever!" Coin Rush is actually quite addictive, too. It is a bit disappointing that 3D blurs the backgrounds (despite being copied from NSMBW, are still nice looking), so I often play with the slider at 1/2, so I can still have a 3D effect and not have extremely blurry backgrounds.

[Pixelated Pixies]

You know? I like this game a lot more than 3D Land. I'm only up to the 5th world, but it's so much better. I could beat a whole world in 3D Land in only 6 minutes. It took me 15 or so to beat the first castle, and that's without finding any secret exits. And far better and interesting level design. There are lot of times where I'm genuinely surprised and I say "that's really clever!" Coin Rush is actually quite addictive, too. It is a bit disappointing that 3D blurs the backgrounds (despite being copied from NSMBW, are still nice looking), so I often play with the slider at 1/2, so I can still have a 3D effect and not have extremely blurry backgrounds.

I quite literally disagree with everything you said, lol. Super Mario 3D Land is perhaps one of my favourite Mario games period. NSMB 2 is perhaps the most forgettable (albiet fun) Mario game I've ever played. Still, I'm glad you're enjoying it so much, it's a fun game.

[Evan_B]

I wanted to hate this game.

And then I didn't.

[Caterkiller]

Went through 4 worlds so far. Been stumped a few time looking for coins and tried and tried to find secret exists. I found one, where ever they are they are hidden well. The difficulty has surprised me as well.

Aside from the music I am liking this game much more than I thought I would.

[PogueSquadron]

I honestly love the soundtrack to this game. I think it might be nostalgia, but I just loved quirky old GB music. Parts of it remind me of Link's Awakening, mainly any underground/cave sections. There's something about those little twinkly sounds that I love.


Overall, I'm actually surprised at how well this game holds up. It's slow, yeah, but I love what they do with the levels and how they change. I wish more games with World Maps like this one were so dynamic. Mario World did it a little bit by letting you find bridges and stuff (and then the level would be a bridge, kind of like in SMB3 but more organic), and DKCR did a great job of it as well. I just love how, for example, one level might hold no secrets, but if you go back later in the game, the tide has come in on the world map, and the level is now flooded with water.


Nice touches like that do a GREAT deal to make the game world feel alive. I actually think it's something that Nintendo is sorely lacking with with their most recent Mario games. It's like they can't make a platformer anymore unless it has either NO world map, or a very limited/generic one.

[Kairon]

God you guys, stop saying nice things about this game so I can continue on with my plan of NOT buying it... >_<

[UncleBob]

Want a fun Coin-Rush challenge?  30,000 coins ain't nothing...


Get zero coins.

[tendoboy1984]

Want a fun Coin-Rush challenge?  30,000 coins ain't nothing...


Get zero coins.

How is that possible if there are coins EVERYWHERE?

[Caterkiller]

Is anyone else having such a hard time finding the secret exists? Some are really hard to find! That is until I actually find them. I take a leaf into every stage and fly everywhere! Feels so good to be able to fly again but for real.

Using Luigi for my second run through to get things I missed.

[UncleBob]

It's hard.  Very hard.

You have to hope it pulls you levels that don't have coins in a required spot (for example, coins in the path of a pipe/cannon).

When you get to the flag pole (or the boss) at the end, you have to wait until there are 4-or-less seconds on the clock before finishing the level (you get a coin for every 5 seconds left).

In some levels, it takes a lot of weird jumps, twists and turns in order to avoid coins.  In the three-pack I finally got (I think 1-1, 2-Ghost and 2-Castle), there's a really funky jump/duck that you have to make right at the beginning of 1-1.

0 coins is much, much harder than 30,000.

[Adrock]

I rushed to finish New Super Mario Bros. 2 in preparation for New Super Mario Bros. U tomorrow... then Star World happened. I don't know if I'll get through it tonight.

I have all of the Star Coins except 2 that require you to have a mini-mushroom when you enter the level (since one is not provided for you in that particular level which is kind of shenanigans, but I'll consider it a "challenge") though I didn't open any paths that required spending Star Coins so I still have to get those.

I'm pretty sure I've completed roughly 90% of the game so I feel like I've played enough of it to give a definitive opinion. It's good. I'd rank it above the original DS NSMB, but slightly below NSMBW. I replayed most of the DS game, but I haven't played NSMBW since it came out (then I traded it in for max trade value) so I'm going off of straight memory with that one. Co-op with my brother made the Wii game for me. I haven't tried multiplayer in NSMB2. The return of Raccoon Mario was spoiled by Super Mario 3D Land bringing back the Tanooki Suit even if it functioned more like the bunny ears from Super Mario Land 2 than the old school Super Mario Bros. 3 version.

Some of the levels in NSMB2 are pretty difficult, but they don't touch NSMBW insane-in-the-membrane difficulty. I'm assuming I haven't played the real final boss yet, but I have a feeling that whoever/whatever it is won't hold a candle to the final level of either NSMBW or SM3DL. Good game nonetheless. I recommend it.

[tendoboy1984]

I'm so glad I still have NSMB Wii. It's more polished, and has better level design, than NSMB2.

[NWR_insanolord]

I disagree with both of those claims.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I'm so glad I still have NSMB Wii. It's more polished, and has better level design, than NSMB2.

I honestly couldn't say which one is better designed, but I definitely had a higher tolerance for the NSMB series back in 2009. Even then I didn't think NSMB Wii was an exceptional game, but I certainly had more fun with it than I did with NSMB 2. It's not that NSMB 2's design is worse, it's that the formula has become stale for me.

[tendoboy1984]

I disagree with both of those claims.

So you think NSMB2 is better?

[NWR_insanolord]

I disagree with both of those claims.

So you think NSMB2 is better?

I do, at least in single player. I like its level design better, like the raccoon tail way better than the propellor suit, and really like Coin Rush.

[tendoboy1984]

I honestly love the soundtrack to this game. I think it might be nostalgia, but I just loved quirky old GB music. Parts of it remind me of Link's Awakening, mainly any underground/cave sections. There's something about those little twinkly sounds that I love.


Overall, I'm actually surprised at how well this game holds up. It's slow, yeah, but I love what they do with the levels and how they change. I wish more games with World Maps like this one were so dynamic. Mario World did it a little bit by letting you find bridges and stuff (and then the level would be a bridge, kind of like in SMB3 but more organic), and DKCR did a great job of it as well. I just love how, for example, one level might hold no secrets, but if you go back later in the game, the tide has come in on the world map, and the level is now flooded with water.


Nice touches like that do a GREAT deal to make the game world feel alive. I actually think it's something that Nintendo is sorely lacking with with their most recent Mario games. It's like they can't make a platformer anymore unless it has either NO world map, or a very limited/generic one.

What game were you playing?