I’m just about done with my first playthrough of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I think I fully understand the mixed feelings I’ve heard about this game. I totally get why this game is tearing people apart. I pretty much can’t play some of the more difficult levels without killing or getting killed by my partner once every minute or so. Still, it hasn’t bothered me much at all, in fact I often find it quite hilarious. There are a few things working in favor of me liking this game though that I find interesting.
First of all, due to a certain someone, my third Wiimote is God only knows where. This limited us to only two people rather than three, or Heaven forbid four. I played with four people at PAX and what should have been a fairly easy level for anyone well versed in Mario (which I think should be just about everyone at PAX) turned into a horrible clusterfuck of Italian and fungal death. If all my friends tried to play this game together I imagine it would be a nightmare. The simplest tasks would result in deaths which we could never have planned for. I still want to try it out of morbid curiosity, but it’ll be awhile before I acquire a fourth Wiimote (the third is on its way from Amazon as we speak.)
The second and most important part of my resounding enjoyment rather than utter hatred and frustration of all things mushroom is who I have been playing the game with. My friend and I are both quite laid back and find stupid humor in everything, so generally when one of us gets totally boned by the other we just end up laughing or making some faux angry comment and then laughing. We also both tend to think the levels that screw us over the most are also the most creative and fun ones to play. If you were playing with the wrong person I could definitely see a potentially fun time blowing up in your face. Hell, I’ve already been threatened with physical violence while briefly playing with another friend. In his defense I did throw him into a bottomless pit because he didn’t know about the bubble system yet. :)
Which leads me to my next topic, Nintendo did quite a bit on their own to alleviate cheap deaths by turning the A button into an “Oh shit” button. By pressing A at any time your character will be encased in a bubble and will start floating toward the other player characters if you shake the Wiimote. You are impervious to everything while in the bubble, in fact you are pretty much in a plane that is in front of the level and only your teammates can free you. It has a few problems, such as being freed directly above a lava pit, and if everyone is either dead or in a bubble then you’re still starting the level over, but overall it has come in handy at least half a dozen times per difficult level. Besides, if you’re quick you can rebubble before hitting the lava which solves that problem nicely.
Nintendo also must have known about the difficulty spike starting around world 7 or 8 because just before it gets hard you get the opportunity to acquire a ridiculous amount of lives. Going into world 8 I had over 50 lives and I believe my friend had over 60. I have since lost 30 of those in World 8, but it’s hard to care when you still have 20 and unlimited continues.
Anyway, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an excellent synthesis of classic Mario sidescrolling and its direction it’s trying to take the Wii as a social living room device. It might be a little too hard for the average non gamer, but the beauty of Mario is in his simple mechanics that take forever to master. Besides, I think everyone on earth has at least some experience with the Mario’s of yesteryear, even if it was 20 years ago. Check it out, just be prepared to never talk to your loved ones again. It’ll be an interesting test to see how close you really are. ;)
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