Mario makes a triumphant return to form on the Wii U!
It's a horrible time to be a princess right now as, you guessed it, Bowser has once again plucked Peach right before Mario's eyes. It's too much to ask for that Mario and the gang can just frolic around Mushroom Kingdom without Bowser swooping down in whatever new contraption he's in. Once again, Bowserunleashes his seven bratty kids to capture seven different lands while he spins a purplish cloud around Peach's own castle. Well, what else is Mario going to do? Jump over barrels and climb ladders all day? No way! He's going to rescue the princess and... Ehh, we've heard it all before.
To call New Super Mario Bros. U "New" is sort of misleading. We all know there's nothing new about the story, because there's never really much story to it. Yet, the game does contain a "Story Mode". As far as the game's structure is concerned, it follows the same basic formula that all 2D Mario platformers have done in the past. There's an overworld map and you travel from level to level, taking down towers and castles while making pit stops to toad houses along the way. What makes New Super Mario Bros. U special is just how well planned the world map is. Each land is themed after the obvious forest and desert and ice environments, but they are loaded with scenery and interconnected with shortcuts that you find via secret exits.
Yes, there are secret exits to find again, and some of them are real brain stumpers. Sometimes the map will give an indication that a shortcut or secret level is waiting just around the bend, but others are completely hidden requiring a great deal of observation and trial and error. Finding that hidden goal is just as satisfying as it ever was, even more so since the shortcut path takes you along a scenic tour as you bypass several other lands. Also, some normal paths branch out allowing you to hit a couple of levels in different orders or if you're pressed for time, you can skip one or the other. It's great to see the linear progression of a Mario game broken up for once.
The level design has returned to top form after the disappointingly easy New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the 3DS. All the staples of Mario games are here from moving platforms to power blocks that transform coins into bricks to hazardous fire bars. It's how all these different elements are assembled that make for some of the best level design a 2D Mario has seen in some time. NSMBU starts you off with a gentle difficulty, but it ramps things up very quickly. Mario veterans will even find themselves spending a few more lives than they thought. Sure, there are the pushover levels that'll end up stocking your cache of extra lives, but the game's dark side will throw levels at you that will deplete you of them just as easily. You can, however, make the game easier by not going after each level's three star coins, but where's the fun in that?
As mentioned earlier, Bowser's kids have returned. Each land's castle is occupied by one of the seven, and their fights are some of the best ever seen in a 2D Mario. They usually contain some element from their land's theme, and each one behaves in a unique pattern. Larry, for instance, is perhaps the trickiest of them all, as he enters pipes on the floor and returns on the ceiling where he can drop on you in a moment's notice. Each fight with Bowser's kids is something to look forward to, which makes the anti-climatic final fight with Bowser that much more disappointing. Mario fans haven't really been treated with a difficult Bowser fight since the old Super Mario World.
There is a flaw in the game, though, and that's a lack of power-up variety. The penguin suit and propeller hat are gone (SPOILERS: They appear in Mushroom Houses on Superstar Road after you beat the game) and there's only one new power-up to replace them: the acorn. The acorn transforms you into Flying Squirrel Mario, which like the propeller hat, you're able to shoot vertically into the air. The acorn lets you glide great distances, so it's easy to argue that it's a better power-up than the hat. Yoshi has also returned, so those who've missed him will have a joyous reunion, and there are even baby yoshis that have their own special abilities such as blowing up into balloons or lighting up ghost houses. Still, a lack of diverse power-ups stifles creative level design opportunities.
New Super Mario Bros. U brings back the multiplayer fun from the first game where three other players can grab Wiimotes and play along. The game also makes a bit of use with the tablet controller as one player can tap on it creating blocks for another player to jump on. NSMBU also has a series of challenges you can perform which has you clearing stages or gathering coins as quickly as possible. Each successfully cleared challenge unlocks another more difficult one, and they all have bronze, silver and gold ratings. These can be very addictive as you try and try again refusing to settle for less. There's also a new mode called Boost where you collect coins to increase the rate that the screen advances, and Coin Battle where up to four players compete for the most coins in specially made coin courses or any of the unlocked courses in Story Mode. All this extra content is a great way to get more mileage from the game after you've finished Story mode.
New Super Mario Bros. U is the best looking 2D Mario Nintendo's made, and it should be since it's now on a machine that can display in HD. It's not just the high-definition that makes it look so good; a large part of that is attributed to the art direction. Just about every single level has their own distinct look to it, and one such level in the Soda Jungle has a hand-painted aesthetic that begs for a whole new Mario to be done this way. Mario and other characters are rendered and animated beautifully, and the layers of scrolling backgrounds are fantastic. The overworld is also a thing of beauty, crafted with as much attention to detail as a model builder.
The audio is just as great, but Nintendo puts a little too much emphasis on keeping the soundtrack familiar. Nostalgia obviously isn't something that a Mario fan wants to give up, but this comes at a cost of limiting the amount of new music the game could have. It is the fourth "new" Super Mario Bros., after all. The sound effects from brick bashing to bouncing off enemies to Mario's flying squirrel suit flapping in the wind all sound excellent. The sound effects make an even larger impact as the game's bigger moments kick in, such as Bowser's airship pummeling the ground with a mechanical fist.
It has been 17 years since a Nintendo console has launched with a Mario game, so New Super Mario Bros. U is extra special in that regard. It's a superbly crafted platformer that makes the player run the gamut while treating them to wonderful visuals. It doesn't make much use of the Wii U's innovative tablet controller, however, but you can play independently of the TV which makes for some great gaming while you're resting in bed. A wealth of challenges and a few multiplayer modes helps add value to an already high quality game. New Super Mario Bros. U is the game everyone will want to get for their Wii U, and a game that every Mario fan will want to get a Wii U for.