(Belated) New Super Mario Bros. U thoughts.

Serviceable level design (the usual tropes and themes, but I expected that), but I don't like how floaty Mario is. 99% of my deaths have been down to how slippery Mario is to control which is rage inducing. What happened to the tight, precise jumping mechanics of old? This game just goes to show how poor the game-pad's d-pad is. It's way too small. I'm using the analogue stick which just isn't as precise for a platformer like Mario. Also, is it just me who found it super annoying how the course clear flag on start-up only updates when the save pop-up appears and you press okay to confirm? If you use the save-to-menu feature you'll be left scratching your head...and re-playing every single level just to find out what the heck's going on. Annoying. Also, there seems to be no golden flagpoles. Is this true? I've reached the top of every flagpole of Acorn Plains and the next 3 levels in World 2 so far, but there's no way to check if that counts for anything. I don't think the manual mentions it.

My only complaints with NSMBU is how bland the music and visuals are, and playing alone is not as fun as playing co-op. It's the best NSMB game, I didn't have problems with the controls, and the level design is great, but it's incredibly difficult for me to sit with the game for more than an hour if I don't have at least one more person causing shenanigans.

Yeah, I don't recall seeing golden flag poles. I do know SM3DL and SM3DW have them.

I don't think the NSMB series has golden flagpoles. You just get a 1-up for hitting the top

The music isn't memorable like the originals. Maybe it's nostalgia, but the 8bit and 16bit tracks are catchy and exciting. The ones here are bland. You won't be humming these any time soon.

lol that probably explains why I have like 70 1UPs o.O I've beaten the first two worlds now.

I also don't like that we have to hold the analogue stick to wall jump. You could say that adds a skill element, but it's clumsy and totally foreign to me. Well I guess it's true what they say, an old dog can't learn new tricks haha.

It's a fun game overall, but it's cookie cutter. There aren't any new concepts worthy of the 'New' title. The baby yoshis are weird to control as is picking up frozen enemies. The d-pad could have been put to good use here. No pixellated progress bar on the gamepad is just absurd to me. What a waste. They didn't have to be unique for every level, but randomised and serve a helpful reminder of how close we are to the end and look cool. I don't know, that attention to detail seems to eroded away over the years or perhaps I'm just looking too deep into it.

The map is nice though, small, but nice.

I'm exclusively a Mario handheld player. It feels strange playing Mario on a tv. It feels perfect on my 3ds/ds or gba though.

@wiiboxstation: Barely used my TV for gaming since I got a Wii U. The gamepad IS a handheld.

I didn't have any issues with the D-Pad, and i have pretty big hands. Didn't feel Mario was floaty or anything. After you play a bit you get used to how he jumps. I do find it hard switching from mario to Luigi though with his different mechanics.

Overall with the game i was satisfied. Like Star said, it was a little Cookie Cutter, but it's the first HD mario game, they didn't need to really re-invent the wheel with this title. For the sequel, i'd like to see them try some new ideas, and take some risk. I will say i was a little disappointed in 3D world. Love SMG 2, and felt this didn't live up to that, and the 3D feel, just felt a little off to me.

NSMBU was a let down for me. it was nothing new....it was the wii game uprezzed.

dpad is just fine for me...i even use it in fighters like tekken and injustice no problem.

Have you re-played the old titles recently? I have all the numbered Mario Bros. games (not the US or Japan variants) for the NES and I find that jumping is springy and more responsive. There's no drift at all unlike in NSMB U. Just try it - run for a bit in NSMBU and then release the analogue stick. Mario won't stop instantly, there's a delay. Thay delay doesn't exist in the classic series.

I also have the emulated version of Super Mario Bros. on the 3DS VC and again, the controls are starkly different. The same applies to Super Mario Land. The float makes speed-running less satisfying because it slows down the game-play. They kind of tried to circumvent that by borrowing the triple jump from the 3D games, but it doesn't quite work. There's not as much open space in a Mario platformer so you end up hitting a lot of objects when you don't mean to. You always have to shuffle back if you see an obstacle ahead of you which slows you down even futher as it ends up killing momentum when the whole idea behind it is to increase momentum.

Ahh well, it is what it is.

Stop being so belated :P

I enjoyed it the game, I thought the level design was pretty good, and I had no issues with the controls. The visual aesthetic was a little bland. They experimented a little with the Van Gogh design, and I wish they did more of that.

@trugs26:

Hehe xD.

Saw the Van Gogh level on an LP a while back. Looking forward to that. Speaking of which, if they brought back paintings in a reboot of Super Mario 64 they could explore lots of different styles...

I had fun playing it but by the end after beating it I felt no desire to revisit it. Really each NSMB has been less exciting than the last due to the fatiguing game play and audio/visual design.

The last exciting 2D Mario game was the original New Super Mario Bros game, and that was as a throwback.

Nintendo needs to think a bit before they release another entry in this series.