E3 Hands-On: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Though stylistically and essentially similar to New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, NSMB Wii I thought improved on a lot of little gameplay niggles that held back the two year-old DS game. Nintendo was wont on showing off New Super Mario Bros. at E3, with multiple kiosks showing off the four-player action. They even brought the voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, to hang around the booth and — I’m sure — be hounded by throngs of Ninthings asking him to do the ol’ “it’s-a-me, Mario!” soundbyte. Nice guy though; he was really eager to talk to all shapes and sizes of Nintendo fans. And believe me, they came in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Getting back to the game, I still think New Super Mario Bros.’ oversaturated color scheme is a bit too much even for a Mario title, and that the floaty physics betrayed the overall tightness of previous mainline 2D Mario games. That fact nonewithstanding, and after shedding all my critical pretence, I found New Super Mario Bros. Wii to be quite fun. There’s something to be said about how crazy it is getting four players together, half-cooperating to finish a level, whilst sneakily trying to nab all the power-ups and stomp down all the enemies to get the most points at the end of the round. “Bragging rights are at stake,” as the Nintendo employee put it succinctly while handing me the Wiimote on my first playthrough.
There are a few new additions to the New Super Mario Bros. formula this time: you can lift and throw allies by shaking the Wii Remote — either for use as an ersatz projectile or, if you’re like me, to be a total tool and chuck one of them in the direction of a bottomless pit. Also of note were the two new powerups featured in the demo: the propeller suit, which allows you to handily fly towards powerups and extra coins in the sky by holding down “A,” and the penguin suit, which allows you to slide on the ground (methinks to supplant the Blue Shell) and shoot snowballs that turn enemies into solid blocks; ostensibly to reach inaccessible chasms or platforms. Another — very welcome — improvement was the complete lack of Bowser Jr. In place of the horribly irritating cretin are the original Koopa Kids from Super Mario Bros. 3.
And admittedly, the visuals really hold up fine. Sure, it’s the DS game with better-polygon models and upscaled backdrops, but all the assets blend together really well in the end, and since your players are dimunitive in contrast to the on-screen action, the low-poly models everyone’s been complaining about really shouldn’t be an issue. And the music, though not as grandiose as Super Mario Galaxy’s epic score, fit the action really well, but resembled the DS original’s soundscape quite a bit.
Overall the game was shaping up well, and looked almost complete and ready to go. Hard to believe that it’s slated for Christmas 2009, as I can see myself playing the demo as it is all day already.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Fact Sheet:
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii offers a combination of cooperation and competition. Players can pick each other up to save them from danger or toss them into it.
- Mario™, Luigi™ and two Toads are all playable characters, while many others from the Mushroom Kingdom make appearances throughout the game. Players can even ride different Yoshi characters and use their tongues to swallow enemies – or their fellow players.
- In some areas, players use the motion abilities of the Wii Remote™ controller. The first player to reach a seesaw might make it tilt to help his or her character reach a higher platform – and then tilt it incorrectly just tomess with other players.
- New items include the propeller suit, which will shoot players high into the sky with just a shake of the Wii Remote and Mario’s new ability to transform into Penguin Mario.
- At the end of each stage during the simultaneous multiplayer mode, players are ranked based on their score, the coins collected and the number of enemies defeated.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii Screenshot Gallery:
