Is coming out on Sunday. I’m pretty sure this never had it’s own thread before now, so here it is.
I’ve been anticipating this one more and more in the past month, and seeing the game in action is sweet. I’ll have my copy whenever Amazon gets to ship it to me.
1Up recently held a Game Night with it that runs for about half an hour where they showcase a few levels, how the multiplayer looks, and how players can be total dicks to each other. Part 1, Part 2. Also read Parish’s encouraging review, while keeping in mind that he was someone not entirely impressed with the previous game on DS.
From everything I’ve gathered, the game has two primary flaws that I wish Nintendo could’ve addressed. One, the two Toads. With a plethora of other Mario characters to choose from I’m still baffled as to why players 3 and 4 are forced to use these screeching idiots when characters like Wario, Princess Daisy, even Waluigi would’ve been better. My only guess is that this was a Miyamoto game and it seems like he traditionally isn’t comfortable using Mario universe characters from games he wasn’t involved in. But still, the two Toads are a big ‘meh’ point.
Second issue is the brief pause that happens when another player dies. It seems like something you really have to be paying attention to, as it could really screw up your timing if one of your buddies dies as you were running towards a pit to make a jump. Shouldn’t be too bad if you’re on your game though.
However the game, from all reports, seems more challenging than the previous DS entry, it features a load of nostalgic throwbacks that even appear to rival Galaxy’s nods and winks, and you don’t fight freaking Bowser Jr. in every goddamn Tower level.
So is anyone else besides me looking forward to it, or are you all gonna make Bowser cry again? :bowser:
I played the one on DS and it was pretty good, I liked it. I haven’t played Galaxy yet, but thats not the kind of Mario I like. I like side scrolling mario, not three-dimensional mario. So I’ll probably be getting this around christmas.
Day one purchase for me, but that’s mostly cos I’m reviewing it.
Basically, I’m looking forward to this because almost all of my college friends are not into gaming that much, and only like to play more old-school type games. So, having a new simple game with a fun twist like simultaneous co-op has them all itching to give it a shot. It works out for all parties!
What really concerns me though is the single player. I kind of felt like NSMB took too many steps back. I miss the really expansive levels of Super Mario World, and I kind of feel like not having those is taking too much out of the game. If you wanna bring something back to old school, pick up at the last old-school game you left off with and make some improvements on it. I’m just jumping to conclusions, I admit, but it really looks like the single player will still be a bit too subtractive. In any case, I’m buying it tomorrow, so I guess I’ll find out
See, that’s my problem. As excited as I am about it, I’m pretty unexcited that the core fun seems to be with multiplayer. I just don’t have that many friends that come over to play video games… ya know? All the same I’ll probably pick it up or snag it at christmas time.
I thought that this game was going to be the godlord of multiplayer, and a forgettable single-player experience. Turns out, it might be the opposite…kind of.
The single player is really good. The game is fun and interesting, and the new powerups are cool to use (although I’m still really pissed that they took away Blue Shell Mario). The only real complaint I have is the same one that I had for NSMB on the DS: There’s no ‘flying’. I mean, sure, there’s the Propeller Suit; but the Cape Feather in Super Mario world and the Spin Jump allowed for really AWESOME level designs that you just don’t see in the NSMB games. Still, it’s a ton of fun.
The only game mechanic I just don’t like is the use of shaking the Wiimote. I wish they had just tried to keep it out of the game. You use it to spin jump, and it IS fairly reliable…but that’s the problem. It’s fairly reliable. It’s not definitely reliable. In clutch and precision situations, it’s very awkward. To pick up object, you have to hold the run button and shake the remote. How weird is that?
The multiplayer is also good…but, I dunno. I think the jury’s still out on Multiplayer for me. The main problem is that the extra players feel like impediments:
Your friends in the game take up physical space that you can’t occupy. In rooms or areas that are small, it’s very easy to die a whole hell of a lot due to widespread panic. Also, if you jump on someone, you leap frog off of them; this is very cool, but let’s pretend you need to jump to avoid something, but your friend is coming down from a jump. If he’s above you, he’ll land on you, leap frog off you, and knock you back into the obstacle. Players should be given more control over their ability to interact with the other players.
So, some of you might have seen in videos that when you die, you come back like five seconds later in a bubble, someone tags the bubble, and you’re back. Well, there’s also a button you can use to put yourself in the bubble - I called it the “Super Safe Button”. Well, you can use this frequently to avoid dying, and you don’t lose a life for doing it; but, you count as ‘dead’ when you do it. So, if you’re the last person alive and you press the Super Safe Button, you have to restart the level.
So, what’s the problem? The whole ‘easy to panic’ thing that I talked about has people pressing the button too much. I can’t tell you how many times me and my friends had to restart a level because when someone died in a sticky situation, the instinctive reaction of all other players was to press the Super Safe Button. It’s pretty funny, but it gets old after it happens too many times.
If you die, you lose a life, even though the level doesn’t restart. You could make the argument that it would be easy otherwise, but the multiplayer seems like it’s meant for more of a hilarious social experience than a challenge. This might have a lot to do with the fact that I have no gamer friends.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the 2 players…but I’m definitely going to have to keep trying 3-4 players before I make a final decision on how I feel about it.
I’ve heard mostly positive reviews for it. I’ve kinda been wanting to get it, since the videos for it look pretty interesting. Maybe I’ll get around to playing it around Christmas or something.
Everything I’ve read suggests it has far superior 1-player compared to NSMB on the DS, and some even make outlandish claims like ‘it’s the true sequel to SMB3 we’ve all been waiting for’.
Either way, the single-player mode is probably not something to worry about.
Alas I still don’t have it, waiting for Amazon to get it shipped to me.
Grumble, living in the middle of nowhere, grumble. :bowser:
To be honest, I really don’t think SMB3 is better…I mean, it was FAR more revolutionary, so it’s better in a historical context…but NSMB Wii is definitely more fun.
I’d say that my overall verdict is that I like the game, but a bad teammate can really ruin the experience. Now, all I’m waiting for is New Super Mario World…
Btw Super Mario World has a ton of mods. I can’t vouch for their content (for instance, that Zelda mod was hard, yes, but the design left a lot to be desired), but there are plenty.
Alright! Mine arrived today, two days earlier than I was expecting it, score!
I’ve already cleared World 1 and I’m loving it to pieces.
In one level I defeated a Hammer Bro by spitting his own hammer back at him with Yoshi.
Speaking of Yoshi, I love that he has his old broken vacuum-cleaner sound effect back instead of the baby sounds he’s had ever since Yoshi’s Story. Though it’s a shame he’s limited to the levels you find him in, like the suits in Mario Galaxy, or Kuribo’s Shoe.
However, the other power ups aren’t limited like that. I haven’t tried the Penguin suit yet, but I’m liking the Propeller Suit. It seems to be as good of a flight ability as we’re bound to get without it breaking the levels like the Cape did in SMW.
The ‘hold the 1 button and shake’ to pick things up is still a little awkward, but it’s not too bad. I’d PREFER the option to play it on the classic controller and drop the whole shaking malarky entirely, but I guess then the stuff that calls for tilting the wiimote wouldn’t work. Ah well.
If you used the classic controller, you could use the shoulder buttons for the wiimote platforms. The shaking aspect is one of the few things I flat out dislike about the game.
The Penguin Suit is pretty weird. It’s like a cross between the Ice Flower, Blue Shell Mario (from the DS game) and Frog Mario (from SMB3), while also allowing you not to slip on ice. It’s a really versatile suit, but you don’t get a lot of them, sadly.
Just finished it, though I still got a lot of levels and star coins to go.
Over the past week I’ve seen links to videos spoilering the final boss for the game, and now I’m glad I didn’t click on any of them. The final battle was actually really cool. It wasn’t HARD or anything, I still beat it on my first try, but it was something DIFFERENT. Mechanically, anyway. You weren’t fireballing Bowser, you weren’t knocking him into a pit, and you weren’t swatting his projectiles back at him.
It was a nice way to cap off a game that has a lot more creativity than it appears to at first glance.
I’ve been playing it for the last day or two now. I’m kinda liking it so far. Played some 2P co-op with my sis too. Was pretty funny when she found out she essentially had infinite lives, and other stuff. But I can see the complaints with other players taking up physical space, as this got us killed several times.
Also, I did the Yoshi-projectile thing purely by accident and had a nice laugh. It’s always good when I can eat hammers and spit back at enemies. The game has plenty of nice surprises, and it’s a good feeling when you discover them (like some tricky Star Coins hidden out of sight). Good example of this was a Star Coin in World 3 (Ice Cave type level), where one was hidden in a hidden area below a platform. Found it purely by accident, because she couldn’t get out of the water.
My only point of contention with your review is the sound part where you say music is taken directly from older games. Remixed probably would’ve been the better choice of words since none of the music is lifted directly. True there is a LOT of remixed material, but I wouldn’t call any of it bad or disappointing. I really like the Castle theme and the final battle themes.
I’ve finally beaten all the worlds, gotten all the star coins, and have five stars on my game file. I think that the one thing I would change about the game if I could change anything would be to add Classic Controller support. (Yes, I would add this more than online multiplayer because, let’s face it, latency would probably be tough to get around and the platforming is just a bit too precise for that. It’s bad enough with the mandatory pause whenever someone gets hit or dies).
The waggle controls are really superfluous, like they are in most games where they’re shoehorned in. They could all be substituted with buttons on the classic controller. The shaking spin jump could easily be one of the face buttons. This has the added benefit of being far more responsive than a waggle. Whenever you need to tilt the Wiimote, the L and R buttons would suffice since in every case the tilting function in game is analog. The Classic Controller’s D-Pad also has the benefit of being slightly larger and more comfortable.
But, I can’t really fault it too much, especially since I get the sense the enforced waggle is more a corporate decision than something Miyamoto would insist on. It doesn’t ruin the game by any means, but it still would’ve been nice to add it.
Yeah, online play and classic controller support are the most obvious things.
And also, on a technicality, there are at least two pieces of music taken directly from a game; the “lose a life” song and one of the “beat a level” songs were taken from the original SMB. Either way, you do understand what I mean; the songs were just derived from previous games. It’s one thing to stay true to the style, but I mean, the main level songs are just “remixed” (I still use the term loosely because of how similar they are to the source material) versions of the songs from the DS game. That just kind of let me down a bit, but it still wasn’t bad music or anything.
