 Preview By: Siou Choy |
Developer: | Nintendo |
| Publisher: | Nintendo | |
| Genre: | Platformer | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | TBD | |
| Estimated Release: | 11/15/2009 |
They’re at it again – the same development team who gave you Super Mario Advance and New Super Mario Bros. DS has cooked up something new in the kitchen, and you’d better like it, or else. In keeping with the highly allusive and metaphorically dense titling convention of prior entries, our latest offering has been cursed with the appellation of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
As one might expect from the title, the latest entry in the saga of everyone’s favorite short fat plumber takes more than a few leaves from the book of classic gaming, going so far as to make a return trip to the land of 2D side scrolling platforming. Yes, the roots revival is on again: like the original trio of Super Mario Bros games for the Nintendo (Mark I), New Super Mario Bros. Wii will have you traveling through some strangely familiar worlds.
One of the more exciting features of New Super Mario Bros. Wii is that it will be a multiplayer platformer, allowing up to four gamers at a given time. How do they pull off four, you ask? I mean, there’s only two brothers in this plumbing business: Mario and Luigi, right? Well, here’s a weird touch: the other two get to play as either a blue Toad or a yellow Toad. Leave ‘em for “friends” you don’t like. Note to Nintendo: it might have been nice to play as someone with a bit more gamer interest, say Princess Peach? Hey, even if you like Toad, what purpose is served by giving us two of ‘em? Just seems lazy to me…
There are several advantages to multiplayer mode. While the obvious one (to the more unselfish among us) would be the option to work cooperatively and help out teammates, there is a more subtle benefit: rather than dying and having to start the level over again, you can pick up where you left off provided one of your teammates is still alive. That said, multiplayer mode has its disadvantages as well - gamers can pick each other up and throw fellow players at enemies (!) or find individual players hogging all the power-ups and coins. Finally, there’s a caveat to the in flagrante delicto revival bit - when you lose a life and come back, you’re trapped inside a bubble until a teammate decides to free you. If they do. And if they do before hogging all the coins and power-ups. Hmm…maybe it doesn’t sound like such a great feature after all…
Since up to four players can play at any given time, the game will provide power-ups accordingly. In other words, if three people are playing, three items will come out of an item block. So you have the option to play fair and let everyone have a power-up or (as would be more likely nowadays) hog all the power-ups for yourself.
Alongside the expected cast of Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, and Yoshis, some of the new power-ups in New Super Mario Bros. Wii will include a Propeller Suit (which allows you to jump higher) and a Penguin Suit (which allows you to freeze enemies and maneuver through icy areas better).
Control in New Super Mario Bros. Wii is, quite appropriately, done NES style. The Wii Remote actually has to be turned on its side and operated like an old NES controller. Wii functionality isn’t totally absent, though - there are still a few actions that can be done with the shake of a controller, such as jumping higher with the Propeller Suit.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii is expected to be released this holiday season.
Posted: 2009-08-24 15:42:26 PST