New Super Mario Bros. U (2012)

A brilliantly polished 2D Mario title that doesn’t do much new, but doesn’t do much wrong either.

To start with I’d like to point out I’m hardly a 2D Mario expert, Mario 64 was my introduction to the series and my only real experience of 2D Mario games up until recently was the original Gameboy titles, I’m reliably informed those are outliers in the series. I very quickly found out that removing a dimension instantly made me rubbish at a game I’m usually good at and it took me a lot of practice to get good. Once I did however I started having a ball.

Visually it looks great, things popping out nicely in HD although if I’m going to be picky a little more vibrancy in the tone of 3D World would have been great.

The overworld is great and I’ve always liked the all levels fit a certain theme in the worlds approach, whether it be jungle, ice, or desert, there’s plenty of variety and I got a nice feeling of excitement on completing each world in anticipation of what the next world would be and how the levels were going to look. The individual levels are brilliantly designed too and all have some sort of level characteristic that isn’t repeated again making each level feel individual and ensuring that things never get repetitive, a rarity in the platformer world.

The gameplay - like the rest of the game - is polished to perfection with Mario’s mechanics feeling spot on, you feel in control despite his heavily momentum based mechanics. The difficulty curve is great and things get plenty challenging later in the game. The star coins add another level of difficulty for those who are up for the challenge.

Although I wasn’t compelled to collect all those star coins, doing so certainly adds length to a game that already has plenty of content. The star coins are very challenging at times and I found it too frustrating to go for them all but someone with more skill will likely enjoy the challenge and will be rewarded with some extra levels. I was more inclined to find the secret exits and their associated secret levels which I very much enjoyed. The secret levels were generally pretty short, but a lot of fun.

I hear that the music is basically recycled from all the previous ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ entries but as this is the first entry in the series I’ve played this didn’t bother me. I liked the music in general, it’s not amazing, but more than adequate although a little more variety would certainly have been welcome. I’m sure if you’ve played all the previous entries things will be starting to get a bit stale on the musical front by now at this point however and it’s a shame Nintendo didn’t put as much effort into the music as they clearly did the rest of the game.

The ability to play with 4 players is cool too, it’s certainly not the most optimal way to play the game, but a welcome addition nonetheless and I had a lot of fun playing co-op with a friend - even if I was losing lives like nobody’s business.

Overall this is a perfectly polished 2D Mario title with excellent and varied level design, a great overworld featuring plenty of secret exits, and plenty of content. The only things letting it down are the music, uninspired bosses, and how it doesn’t try much new. These nitpicks aside however it’s a brilliant polishing of a very enjoyable formula.

Score: 9/10