New! Super Luigi U [Review]

Released last month as DLC to last year’s ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’ for Nintendo’s Wii U console, I’ve just purchased the month-later physical copy of the game. The add-on sees the original levels scrapped and replaced by brand new ones, with Mario replaced by a floatier Luigi and each level replaced by a shorter, more difficult, but completely new version and limited to 100 seconds on the clock.

On the surface this spin-off may seem like a shameless cash-in with the world map unchanged and secret levels missing, especially in the light of Nintendo seemingly milking their plumber as much as they can, but actually it’s quite a deep and playable piece of DLC, though it should be as it’s more expensive than your usual add-ons.

Though world one is pretty straight forward and the three star coins hidden in each level simple to find, there is a fairly steep difficulty curve as levels become much harder, but very rarely too frustrating. Finding all three star coins becomes more challenging, athletically rather than actually finding them, and a different way of playing needed becomes apparent.

Out goes the exploration of the previous games’ levels, in comes the speed-run friendly, acrobatics of a new game, utilising a floatier, jumpier Luigi who, in contradiction to other reviews, isn’t that difficult to control and for every time his jump throws you in the path of an enemy, it helps you get over a tricky obstacle. There is a certain pleasure in the game from seeing Luigi dodging over obstacles like a gymnast, trying to reach the ending before the time runs out, though in effect this rarely happens; more likely it is a well-placed enemy, trap or obstacle that will hit you.

The difficulty of the game is balanced well between losing lives and the plethora of coins and how much easier it is to land on the top of the final flagpole with Luigi, which gains you an extra life, but you’ll still find the Game Over screen appears regularly.

The game continues to work with Miiverse integration, allowing you to leave messages for players, and elements such as chasing Nabbit, mushroom houses, the relatively boring and easy bosses, and up to 4-player gaming returns, this time with the invincible Nabbit replacing Mario for younger players.

The game throws in the odd change, such as a hidden Luigi in each level (though it would be nice for the game to note if you find it by, say, touching it on the gamepad) and the removal of secret exits – which feels a missed opportunity – but mostly feels very similar, even down to the game throwing you back out of the map after each defeat, which feels like a barrier between you and the game as you find yourself dying much more regularly than in a usual game of Mario – sorry – Luigi.

With all the assets, sounds and music coming over from the original, it looks and feels very similar but for players after a much greater challenge and have exhausted the previous game, then this is a must buy, and your only decision is whether to buy it physically for £10 more so it sits on your shelf, or go for the download option (which requires you owning the main packaged game). If you didn’t enjoy the first or found that too difficult then you need to avoid this.

I thoroughly enjoy the challenge and the levels are as ingenious and tricky as Nintendo’s best.

7/10

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New! Super Mario Bros WiiU

I’m going to start this review with an honest confession: I’m a big fan of the Super Mario games. I’ve played them all and enjoy them. However, that’s not to say this is going to be a biased review. Nintendo, in a questionable decision, have milked their plumber (sounds painful) to within an inch of his life with his core games and spin-offs. In the past few years we’ve had more games released with his name on them on the DS, Wii and 3DS than I care to mention and though the recent ones ‘Super Mario 3D Land’ and ‘New! Super Mario Bros 2’ just about kept up the quality thanks to some innovation in both games, even if the latter recently annoyed me with its really lacklustre reward for completing the challenge of getting one million coins. And, though the games were fun and more challenging than the ones that preceded them, we’ve never had so many Mario 2D platformers in such a short space of time and the magic soon wears off.

Nintendo’s solution to this is still to be revealed but in the meantime they keep plugging their plumber to death, this time releasing ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’, a launch title for their new console. And, though it’s not particularly revolutionary, it’s by far the strongest Mario title for a long while.

(Though at least they do make a nod to the familiarity by shaking up the ‘plot’ a little, by keeping the Princess in the castle and catapulting Mario away to get back to the Princess).

Seemingly taking on board the feedback from gamers over the years, the developer has realised they need to be more like ‘Super Mario World’ and indeed this game is. The map isn’t made up of small worlds, it’s one massive sprawling continent with moving elements, secret paths and puzzles built into it. It might lack the charm of the original but is a brilliant over-world map, borrowing elements from all the games and bringing them into HD. The worlds are as familiar as you’d expect but the levels are varied, new baddies introduced to balance against the returning foes and bosses, and more secret routes and levels than many recent games, even if some of them are a pain to find with no indication on a level if there is a secondary exit, which makes some of the bonus levels nearly impossible to find. But at least there’s a challenge, and a big reward for some of them that allow you to skip many levels, so big thumbs up for the speed runners.

The gameplay is as tight as ever and Mario controls well, and the new power-up of the flying squirrel is a fun one that basically mirrors the controls of SMW’s cape but without the ability to continue flying upwards. The game looks crisp and glorious in HD, though it’s not the best example of a graphical style to show off 1080p, and the music is as catchy as ever with old and new tunes mixed in. Yoshi returns in the game in both adult form and three baby forms, each with their own unique power up, but it’s only really the purple one that is any huge help. The difficulty is up so older players will get a buzz out of the game but the help block returns to show lesser able players how to complete a level after dying several times.

Bosses are varied and the Koopalings have never been this tricky to defeat, but it’s still business as usual with three hits and their out. The end boss trick is pulled again and it’s a little bit more difficult than the Wii boss but not quite as enjoyable.

Each level also contains three star coins, as per, and there is much fun and challenge in getting these and they’re not all a walk in the park. Power ups can also be collected with ten stored in your inventory, with power ups collected at mushroom houses or by capturing Nabbit, a blue rabbit who appears once in each world who gives up a P-Mushroom (this game’s equivalent of SMB3’s P-Wing) when captured in a speed-run challenge. P-Mushroom’s allow you to constantly fly through a level until hit, allowing you to skip a level you may have struggled with.

The levels are varied, though all mostly familiar, and there are plenty of them, with a bonus world for hardy players and a whole lot of statistics available upon completion to challenge the 100%ers to get all the fireworks, finish all the levels with Yoshi and get all the applause for pulling off great moves etc.

The GamePad is a neat addition to this game. In single player you can play the entirety of the game on the screen so if someone is using the TV you can still play. Plus, through in the Miiverse compatibility where helpful hints from other players appear hovering on the map screen and you get a Mario game that feels much more connected. The game can, though, be also played with the traditional Wiimote, of which four are needed to get the most out of the game.

Alongside the main single-player game are loads of other options that really bulk out the package and help make this the strongest yet. Getting the multiplayer out of the way first it’s still pretty weak, unchanged from the Wii version and pretty infuriating to play so it’s best avoided unless you want to lose friends or see them sending your GamePad through the nearest window. The GamePad player – pushing it up to a five-player game – can aid or hinder the players by placing down blocks using the touch screen so this adds a certain Dick Dasterdly element to it, which makes it a little more tolerable. The main problem with this mode is the brief stutter of everyone as someone gets hits or picks up a power up. It’s distracting and should be removed!

It’s the other elements that make this game. The challenges menu, the first one I’ve truly enjoyed since the days of Worms, is brilliant, with a seemingly never ending list of challenges based on speed runs, not touching the ground or destroying enemies, and various iterations of them, with bronze, silver and gold medals up for grabs. With a steady increasing difficulty, there is much fun to be had here.

There is also a boost rush game where the scrolling level speeds up for every ten coins you get, up to a maximum speed, proving a challenge for even the best players over a range of packs of three levels, with more promised soon via DLC.

Finally there is also the multiplayer coin rush game which is more fun to play with friends.

Overall, ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’ is as familiar as you expect from a 2D Mario game as Nintendo have pushed the releases to the limit. Thankfully this is the best of a still strong series of games but hopefully this will mark a break for the plumber for a few years 3D games notwithstanding. It’s graphically beautiful and the game play, level design and play is as fun as ever. The map with its Miiverse integration is the most welcome addition, but the challenges menu is the most surprising but must-play addition to the game.

Don’t expect any major surprises and those with nostalgia for the series will get the most out of it, but it’s a must play if you have a WiiU thanks to its varied and challenging levels, additional features and easy to play, hard to master gameplay.

8/10

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It's-a-me-a-million-coins disappointment

*** Warning: contains spoilers for 'New! Super Mario Bros 2' ***

Now, I am a big fan of the Super Mario games and have played every single one so far and I have to admit they are becoming a little formulaic and samey, but more recent entries such as the WiiU version have helped improved the situation with some more innovative game play and level design. Still the Princess gets kidnapped though. I think she just likes it.

The version previous to this - for the 3DS - also mixed it up by taking a post-credit crunch look at the world of cash with coins everywhere. The aim of the game, aside from defeating Bowser, is to collect one million coins, a not insignificant task considering I finished the main game with something like 70,000 coins. Thankfully, the 'Coin Rush' mode is there to help, with one particular package giving you between 14,000 - 30,000 coins a time, depending on how successful you are, but possibly less if you make a mistake. Even then it's a long, long time to play and reach one million coins, aside from the fact it's tedious playing the same levels over and over again.

When I first set off on this journey back in August I feared that the reward would be one of two things: unlocking Luigi or changing the title screen, small rewards that Nintendo have dolled out in the past but aren't particularly exciting. With the former reward unlocked upon completing the game I hoped it wouldn't be the second and would be something much more appropriate for the level of work required in getting all one million coins, like the original 'Super Mario Bros' recreated in the new engine or new worlds or something like that.

Sadly, having completed my quest, the game unlocks a small gold Mario statue on the title screen and that's it. Not at all worth all the hours put in to complete in.

Come on Nintendo! If you're going to shake things up and give us an interesting and challenging, well, challenge, at least give us a decent reward!

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New! Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) (Review)

Like Mickey Mouse is to Disney and Sonic is to Sega, Mario is Nintendo’s key character and synonymous with the company. Ever since he stepped out onto the world stage in the mid-eighties the Super Mario franchise has been a core part of Nintendo’s magic and one that has been consistently good over the past twenty-five years. Just don’t mention the Mario Movie.

And here we are with the latest instalment in the series, the mouth-numbingly titled ‘New! Super Mario Bros 2’ on the 3DS, the spiritual follow-up to the 2006 DS game and the more recent Wii version, and the next in line before the Wii U iteration hits within the next twelve months. The series sees a graphical and gameplay kick added to the classic Mario games of the 1980s and 1990s to bring them up to speed with modern gamers, with this edition landing on Nintendo’s flagship 3D handheld.

Now I’m a big fan of the Super Mario games but I am a little nervous. From a company that only released one Mario game for each console in the 1990s after the handful on the NES, we’ve had a lot of Mario recently with one DS game, three Wii games and now two 3DS games and that’s without including all the numerous racing, party and Olympic spin-offs. Are Nintendo in danger of killing their prize cow?

Not at the moment, thankfully, but ‘New! Super Mario Bros 2’ won’t be winning any awards for advancing the franchise like the excellent Galaxy games did. It’s very much business as usual with the Princess captured by the Koopa Kids and Mario in hot pursuit to rescue her, travelling through six worlds of eight to ten levels each including ghost houses, fortresses, castles and world’s themed around different elements. Each world contains a mid-world and an end-world boss and then there’s the traditional huge boss at the end, so no surprises there.

The game sees the return of classic power-ups. You have the usual mushroom, fire flower and starman that give you an extra hit, the ability to fire fireballs and limited-time invincibility respectively. On top of that the mega mushroom, which makes Mario temporarily massive, makes a couple of appearances and both are very fun, and the mini mushroom that does the opposite makes half-a-dozen showings, often involving secrets. These power-ups are joined by the return of the raccoon feather which transforms Mario into, well, a raccoon that allows him to temporarily fly if he gets a good enough run up, which allows you to get to bonus and secret areas throughout the game and, though not used as much as in Super Mario Bros 3, is useful a lot of times for passing by big obstacles either by flying over them, or floating down to avoid them. As usual a power-up can be stored away to be called out when you need it.

These power-ups help you progress through levels which involve traditional platforming, avoiding enemies and solving puzzles, before hitting the flagpole at the end to complete the level, as you would expect from a Mario game. Amongst the leaping and attacking there is a half-way save point as well.

But there is more on top of that and that’s where this game’s special shtick comes in. There are coins everywhere. Hundreds of them scattered through each level and power-ups that help you get even more. It’s like Super Mario directed by Gordon Gekko. The overall challenge of the game is to gather over one million coins and you do this by grabbing as many coins as you can in the level, either in boxes or in plain sight. You are helped along to this total by the occasional gold flower power-up which allows you to fire golden fireballs which turns blocks into coins and kills enemies for mega coin bonuses – which is really fun, and the gold mushroom which gives you a gold bonus.

There are blocks that give you a coin bonus of between 5 and 50 coins depending on when you hit them, and there are the usual red hoops that give you eight red coins and a bonus if you collect all of them. Plus, there are gold hoops that when hit turn all enemies golden and as they are killed give you bonuses, with Koopa Troopas creating a long chain of coins as you kick them away and pirana plants spurting out coins when you destroy them. There are other ways of making lots of coins scattered through the game – including trigger points that make coins appear in places – to help you get to this million coin total, including coin rush mode which I’ll come to later. It’s an interesting mechanic and does bring an extra level of skill to the game and each level is marked by how many coins you get to keep track of that.

Obviously the results of this coin overload is your lives, and I’ve currently got over 300 of them, so don’t expect to see a game over screen ever in this game, with normal 1-ups scattered liberally around the game as it is.

I enjoy the focus on coins as it does give a bit of a fresher challenge to a game and it’s fun to collect lots of them and beat your scores but a million is a challenge. I’ve put 14 hours into this game so far and collected just over 75,000, or just over a fifteenth of the way there. That gives you a good idea of the mountain to climb in that respect.

In relation to the game let’s get the negatives out of the way. Though the game looks beautiful for a 2D platformer with rounded graphics and well drawn solid enemies and characters, it’s not a massive leap from the DS original of six years ago. I’m sure side by side the new version will look better but it’s nothing outstanding. The 3D effect adds a little bit of depth to the game but mostly only makes the background blurry, making the 3D slider more redundant than a dodgy journalist after the Leveson inquiry. Naturally, the game play is no big change from the previous games in style.

Now onto the positives, and there are some big ones. This is the first Mario game since 1992’s ‘Super Mario World’ where I feel Nintendo has really embraced the idea again of multiple exits and lots of hidden secrets. There are many, many levels in this game that are not immediately available and if you skip through the game without collecting the three, often tricky to find and collect, large star coins in each level or exploring every nook and cranny of the levels, then you will miss the vast majority of the game.

It took me a relatively impressive six hours to complete the main game but so far an extra eight hours to continue and I still haven’t unlocked all the extra levels or got anywhere near finding all the gold coins. There are three full hidden worlds – one unlocked when you complete the game so keep at least ninety of your star coins unredeemed to access eight more levels, that unfortunately are no more tricky than your standard levels – with two with hidden access points in two levels in the ordinary worlds. They are tricky to find – and thankfully more imaginative than the DS version’s ones – and it will be a real reward to find them.

Other secret levels within the ordinary worlds can be found by either paying five star coins to open up some paths – a technique which also gives you access to mushroom, one-up and bonus houses that give you power-ups – or by finding, often cunningly hidden exits, within levels. Occasionally you’ll need a particular power-up to reach an exit, such as the raccoon feather, and some are hidden in great ways, so it’s a thumbs up Nintendo for this. This is probably the biggest game in the number of levels yet and to have so many levels not present straight out of the box is a great thing for me who likes to explore the game and not be spoon-fed. If you’re looking for a worthy successor to Super Mario World in the nature of secret exits and multiple pathways, plus ways of skipping levels if you find hidden exits, then this is the best one yet.

Speaking of Super Mario World, the bosses are ripped from that game, with Reznor – the rhinos on a ferris wheel – appearing in the mid-way fortress, with some interesting adaptations on that as you progress, with a Koopa Kid doing battle in the final castle, with most of these battles simple and straight forward but with some enjoyable twists. The final boss fight of the game is perhaps not as tricky as the Wii game or 3D Land but it’s difficult none the less with what it throws at you. It’s also repeated at the end of the secret world with the seriously creepy bone Bowser, this time much harder.

On top of all this there is the white raccoon power-up for younger players. As in previous games if you die too many times in a level you can activate this invincibility power-up to allow you to rocket through the levels, which I’ve never used but is a help to younger players in a game that has its moments when it comes to the difficulty level.

There are a few other special stages as well alongside the familiar maze-filled ghost houses, such as cannon stages which propel Mario along Sonic-like through night-time levels, and rainbow levels unlocked by some nifty landing on the flagpoles.

Musically the game is fun with many familiar tunes amongst the levels. I don’t think any of the tracks are new to this game but that’s no big loss, and the tracks are all enjoyable to hear.

Placed alongside the single player and co-op game, which has plenty of levels and challenges to get your teeth into, is coin rush mode and this is where, with on one run-through up to 7000 coins a pop, you’ll be coming to to reach the million coin total. You get several packs – with more promised by DLC soon – consisting of three randomly-selected levels depending on which pack you select and it’s your job, either as ordinary or white raccoon Mario, to run through the levels, collecting as many coins as possible using all the techniques and power-ups you’ve found, to build up your total, keeping your eye on the rapidly limiting time you have to complete it and knowing if you die once you have to restart all three levels again (but you do get to keep the coins), hoping to land on the top of the flagpole at the end to double everything you’ve collected so far. This is a great idea and really extends the game and offers a new challenge, especially when it’s combined with the 3DS Streetpass system which allows you to try and beat other player’s scores and getting a bonus if you do. All high scores can be saved but it’s a shame that each pack isn’t always the same three levels so you can really perfect your abilities.

Overall ‘New! Super Mario Bros 2’ is a great addition to the Mario canon, even if the series is showing signs of overkill. The gameplay and graphics may be no major improvement over the previous game six years ago and the 3D effect is pointless, but the levels are more difficult than previous platformers (but not as hard as 3D Land levels) and the addition of so many secret exits and multiple pathways makes this the best one since Super Mario World and I hope it’s something Nintendo really embraces on next year’s Wii U version. The new power ups are great and the coin collecting theme timely in our recession-hit world and a good hook to hang the game off.

Don’t expect a revolutionary game but for fans of Mario platformers there is much challenge here along with lots of levels to play and it’s certainly no walk in the park for finishing, with completionists likely to find all the collectables and goals very enjoyable and extending the lifetime of the game well passed the twenty hour mark, though there’s not much incentive it seems to get all the star coins as once you’ve unlocked all the secret pathways they’re only used for mushroom houses which are redundant if you’re a good player.

Now you must excuse me. I’m off to try and reach the million coin mark. I just hope that whatever the reward is at the end is good enough to justify the hours it’s going to take me. I’ll let you know if I think it is when I reach it but in the meantime hope someone doesn’t spoil it for me...

(8/10)

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Nintendo Direct Report (3rd June 2012)

Over thirty minutes last night Iwata-san of Nintendo revealed some new information about the WiiU – Nintendo’s next generation console – ahead of tomorrow’s E3 press conference.

So what did we learn about this Christmas’ console release? Well the Wii U tablet – the stand-alone controller featuring a touch screen – is now known as the “Game Pad”, has clickable analogue sticks rather than circle pads (which will make many games much easier to control) and new buttons on it including confirmation that it will be compatible with NFC (Near Field Communication, interacting with cards or devices placed near the device) and that you can use it as a limited universal remote with your television. They also confirmed the presence of motion and gyro controls alongside a slight re-tweak of the body form.

The game pad is looking to be an exciting piece of tech, one that can control the Wii U in different ways, working independently so you’re no longer shackled to your television but also working with your TV to create new entertainment experiences. Granted very little truly revolutionary information was revealed on this Nintendo Direct broadcast that we didn’t see last year but it was fun to see some clarification.

The rest of the broadcast was taken up with a description of the Miiverse which, for all the positive banter online, is really an exercise in catch up on services such as X-Box Live. When you boot up your Wii U you see a massive version of the Mii Plaza with descriptions of what your friends and other console players are doing with speech bubbles explaining their activity or what they are doing. It’s basically a huge Nintendo social network with the ability to write comments on the game pad and send them to friends or out to the general throng of players, for instance asking for help in a game as shown in perhaps the cheesiest American video game promo in a long time. It won’t be long before ‘none-specific action figure’ is set up on Twitter, I bet you.

(It comes just ahead of the explanation that Miiverse is Mii + Universe, which was a little bit of stating the bleeding obvious).

What is exciting about this network, though, is that you’ll also be able to access it on your smart phone or PC or, in fact, any internet-enabled browser, which definitely ticks the box of Nintendo’s convergence. Here’s hoping it can also connect to Facebook and Twitter for true integration.

A few other tit bits were also revealed such as the ability to take and post screen shots of games and a map from the new Mario game showing comments on levels by friends. In fact, this new Mario game shown looked gorgeous and with a Super Mario World-style map, so I’m definitely looking forward to playing that!

Throw in the new Wii U Pro Controller (many comments correctly compared it to the X-Box controller in looks) and hints at games to be revealed tomorrow the Wii U does look like a strong contender for Nintendo. The heavy focus on social networking is a definite step in the right direction but it will live and die on how much it integrates with the real world Facebook and Twitter universes and, of course, how much power the game has under its bonnet to take a leap forward from the current generation PS3 and X-Box 360 ahead of whenever Sony and Microsoft release their next consoles.

Did we learn much more from the Direct broadcast? Not really. We learnt the rumour of changing the name to avoid confusion with the Wii is not true, but the inclusion of analogue sticks is. We saw that there doesn’t seem to be an upgrade to the Miis – they don’t look particularly any more detailed – and no real clue on how powerful the console is. Hopefully this will be resolved on Tuesday.

The new Mario game looks exciting and the social aspects will be fun, and the relationship between the game pad and the tablet looks to be an inspired decision and with video chat and much more possible should make up for the weaker aspects of the internet connections of the Wii. Plus, we’ll be getting an update to the 3DS to the Miiverse. It would also be great if they could do it for the original Wii, too, so players with the older console could be part of the buzz and make it an even bigger global experience.

I’m excited now for E3 for the games and what Nintendo will do with these new powers and hope there’s something big and fresh they’ve yet to announce.

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