Game Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

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Sunday isn't normally a day that one associates with music, movie, or video game releases - except on those rare occasions where something truly epic is about to be released and the distributors want to set a special release date to boost their first week sales numbers.

That was the case with the video game New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Regardless of the semantics of how and when the game came out, the game is definitely worth checking out if you've ever enjoyed any version of a Mario Bros. game. Seeing as I am a huge Mario and platformer fan, we went out and picked up this game and I'm definitely glad we did.

The creators of New Super Mario Bros. Wii incorporated elements from the first three Super Mario Bros. games, Super Mario Galaxy, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, etc. These elements include power-up options like the tiny mushroom and ice ball throwing, all of the Bowser baddies, as well as ice world and desert world. The game even incorporates new elements like donning a penguin suit. The makers of this game took great elements from past Mario Bros. games and added in new and exciting elements to create some great gameplay.

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One of the features that I think is exciting is the ability to co-op with up to three other players. This is a fun way to involve everyone - especially if your group has one player who dies a lot and spends most of the game play waiting for the other player to die to resume game play. This feature also adds another dimension of difficulty to the game because the screen is not split (which might be my only complaint about co-op play) so all of the players are using the same screen. I had a tendency to forget if I was Mario or Luigi and would end up trying to figure out why my character was not doing what I wanted. Overall, though, that makes the game that much more challenging. After about three hours of play, we had beaten the first three worlds.

Pros:
Vibrant colors
Elements from previous games
Challenging, but not overly difficult
Fun for groups
Co-op play
Controller is held like a regular Nintendo controller, and it's probably possible to use a classic dog-bone controller as well.

Cons:
Co-op play doesn't use a split screen
The box makes it confusing about the controllers - you do not need a nun-chuck for this game unless you want to use an analog stick

Obviously the pros seriously outweigh the cons. I definitely recommend The New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It (and the Wii system) would make a great addition to any home, just in time for the holidays.

You can purchase this game through Amazon or at your nearest video game retailer.