Wii Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo, Wii, 2009)

First it's sweet, then it's sour.

I've never found myself on a couch with a drink in one hand and Mario's gloved digits stroking my opposite thigh, but when New Super Mario Bros. on the DS enchanted me enough to go for 100% completion, I was eager to give the sequel on the Wii (see, it's the same name, but they added "Wii" to the end) a shot. The gimmick this time around is the simultaneous four-person co-op where you and three other people aggressively toss each other around stages. I know firsthand it's as chaotic as it sounds, but for this review's run, I went solo. The two are similar enough that anyone who liked the DS one will dig this, but I found it kind of a downgrade, really.

Holding the Wiimote horizontally with both hands to mimic an NES controller is cute, but how come the Classic Controller isn't supported? That sharp Wiimote d-pad really did not make my thumb happy, but I pressed on, enjoying the quick stages, solid platforming, plentiful save points, and new power-ups, including an ice flower for freezing enemies and a propeller suit that can throw you upwards with a jerk of the Wiimote. I think the DS one's powerups were better, and I prefer being able to deploy them during a stage rather than before, but plentiful bonus item houses make it easy to gather a cache of them for a rainy day. So far, so good!

I grew less enthused with Nintendo's inventiveness towards the last few worlds. Stages start to rely on platforming over huge instant death hazards and hiding 90% of the play area in darkness, and any mistake means death or at least being handicapped. That bouncing pipes and Bullet Bills stage in World 7, or the one with the fucking rail platforms over lava geysers in 8, or the final boss, all suck ass. Sure, you can get infinity lives and skip any stage you want with the "Super Guide" function if you die enough times, but these are Band-Aid fixes over core design problems that disrupt the flow of good platforming. Wii is a cute, short Mario game that reminds me why I don't often play Mario games.