The year of Luigi has been good to me and I bet a lot of other people out there feel the same way, but it’s also been good to the Mario series as a whole. While I wasn’t particularly interested in the New Super Mario Bros. U game, both by price point and premise; Super Luigi U gave me something that peaked my interested, a harder game and cheaper price. While it was originally released as DLC, it later came out for 30$ on a disc, effectively making it a game rather than DLC, and personally a better game compared to NSMBU. The thing I especially like about Luigi U is that Nintendo was allowed to pretty much stop pulling punches like it usually does. While the game still isn’t as Nintendo hard as the early days, it still makes a point that your lifes will likely not stack higher than 20. Dying is rather easy and common in Luigi U, but this is only because the game is that much harder. All the deaths really fall to player(s) error, and the game never feels like it out right cheats you. As well, the game does a good job of making sure you aren’t being too careful by setting the clock to 100 seconds at the start of the level making nearly every level fast paced and easy to pick up. This also helps the game by not being so daunting when it comes to getting from point A to point B as the majority of the levels tend to have 1-3 hard parts within them that just take a bit of practice to past through. This new level of difficultly also makes the game that more remember-able as there can be a lot of parts to it that make it cooler if you just barely survived or styled throughout that level. Super Luigi U is very much about enjoying the challenge of the game at it’s purest form and why I think it truly shines out of all the “New Super Mario” games. While a lot of the NSB games are trying to bring back the nostalgic feeling with a flesh of new light to an older series usually with music or appearance; Luigi U does it better by also reminding us of how challenging Mario games can be.
Of course there are still a few problems to address with this game, but for the most part they are either fixable or simply nitpicking at best. For one, why is Nabbit a character choice instead of someone like Peach? I get that Mario isn’t in this game, but by putting Mario in Peach’s place would have made this game a far better fit. On top of that, it would have helped explain why Mario isn’t apart of the characters you can select. Instead though, we get no explanation why either Nabbit is helping Luigi or where Mario went. As well this game’s story is identical to NSMBU story, which is a bit annoying because they pretty much redid everything else with in this game, but its virtually the same story wise. I suppose it is asking a bit much from a Mario game, but it really would have been great to see Nintendo step it up a little more. As for the level design, I kind wish they gave either more levels or simply made them a bit harder by comparison. Aside from one hiccup where the correct path is hidden, Luigi U doesn’t really get much harder, and if it does Miiverses post tend to help soften the blow by giving advice. Pretty much each world is 3 level to save and 6 to beat the world, rinse and repeat. While it does make the game a bit faster paced, there is also a lack of potential for cooler levels or ideas they could have done. Overall though this is some pretty great DLC filled with a lot of levels and if bought as a disc, a great substitute for the NSMBU game.
Final Thoughts:
New Super Luigi U ironically gives new life to the New Super Mario series by not just being something that mimics the aesthetic look of the older games, but also the difficulty. Why Mario is gone and Nabbit is helping is never answered or the fact that this game’s fast pace action makes it a short ride; Luigi U still manages to provide a fun time for any person that wants a reminder why gamers love platformers.