New Super Mario Bros. 2

A fun Mario experience unfortunately hampered by some questionable aspects, August 19, 2012

Before you down-vote this review in a knee-jerk reaction to my rating, please lower your pitchforks for a moment and hear me out. Know that it hurts me to write this review. Whenever people bash Nintendo for releasing too many Mario games, I’m always one of the first to defend them and point out how there’s more creativity and effort in a single Mario game than almost any other “AAA” title released in any given year. I love Mario games, and some of my fondest gaming memories are of playing the classic Super Mario Bros. games at my grandma’s house on her old NES. When it comes to New Super Mario Bros 2., there is a lot to love, truly, but sadly there are a few glaring issues that kind of bring the rest of the package down to me, especially when compared to other games in the series, even recent ones. To be fair to the game and to you, the reader, I’ll try to be as detailed and informative as I can. I do not hate this game emotionally, but it is lacking in comparison to the other games in the “New Super Mario Bros.” series, without a doubt.

Let’s talk about positives first though, shall we?

– It’s a Mario game with the tried-and-true classical 2-D Mario gameplay all faithfully intact. Mario controls splendidly and the game does a wonderful job capturing that nostalgic NES Mario feeling (Once you beat the game, you can play as Luigi as well by holding the L and R buttons at the same time while loading your game. He controls no differently than Mario, however). What more needs to be said? All Mario bros. games are known for delivering the undeniable, jubilant joys of running and jumping, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 has nailed that core tenant wonderfully. Classic Mario power-ups like the fire flower and Super Star make a return of course, but I was most excited by the return of the Raccoon Leaf from Super Mario Bros. 3. What a nostalgic delight it was for me to play as Raccoon Mario again, flying through the sky, complete with Fox-ears and fluttering tail. This game is FUN to play, plain and simple, and what more can you ask for with a Mario Bros. game?

– In a new twist on the traditional Mario formula, Nintendo decided to throw a big curveball regarding the way you approach the core mechanics. See, the game places a big emphasis on collecting coins and the way they designed the game makes coin hoarding not only a focus, but an addicting joy. New power-ups are introduced that are incredibly fun to use, such as a gold-flower that turns Mario into the Mushroom Kingdom’s own version of Midus, where every shimmering gold fireball hurled turns all blocks and enemies into coins you can grab. Golden koopa shells spew coins in in its wake as it spins along the level. Green pipes shower the world in gold coins. It’s definitely a unique appraoch to a Mario game, but it does have its drawbacks as well (more on that later). Overall, though, I really enjoyed the unique focus on coin collecting in this game. It was an old-school Mario gameplay element presented in a new and exciting light. That’s great, and one of the more creative ideas the game has.

– The visuals are quite beautiful and are actually as detailed and colorful as NSMBW, which looks awesome on the 3DS(XL)’s screens. Little details like mini-Mario blinking his little eyes just scream attention to detail. As is expected from a Mario game, the visuals are vibrantly colorful, expressive, and super imaginative. That’s all I ever expect or want from a Mario game. World themes are a little derivative, but have enough variety to keep the game from getting too stale, which is good. The 3-D effect, while being nonessential, is really cool and gives a genuine feeling of depth to the Mushroom Kingdom. It is worth noting that the higher up you have the 3-D slider, the more the background image becomes blurred on purpose to give a sense of depth. While it succeeds in that endeavor, it really eliminates details in the visuals. Personally, I played the game with the 3-D slider halfway up.

If this all sounds great to you, it should. Mario games almost never fail to deliver the goods, and NSMB2 definitely does where it counts in these areas. However, there are some glaring issues with the game that simply restrict me from scoring the game higher. Here are some of the bigger ones:

– The game is way too short. It took me 4 hours to beat the game… 4 hours to beat the game… 4 hours to beat… FOUR HOURS… Wow. Even for a Mario game, that’s far too short…

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The good, the greedy, and the familiarity. (Stuck between 3.5 – 4 star), August 26, 2012

NSMB2’s unveiling was met with a lot of praise and criticism by fans of the 3DS. After superb sales on the Wii (New Super Mario Bros. Wii), NSMB2 follows in its predecessor’s footsteps but maybe a bit closer than some will want to admit. Of all the discussing I see some bickering fans partaking in, the word “rehash” seems as synonymous with this game in discussion as it is with a franchise the likes of Call of Duty or Madden. So the ultimate question probably should be “Is this really bad or not”?

Gameplay, more money more problems?:
NSMB2 brings back just about all the gameplay elements of its Wii (and of course DS) predecessor in terms of gameplay style, mechanics and so on. As you can tell by the marketing campaign and the game case itself, NSMB2 takes pride in encouraging greedy players this time around. In addition to your usual princess rescuing routine a sub-goal of the game is to collect 1,000,000 gold coins throughout the course of your overall time playing the game. With a task as arduous as this you’ll probably wonder if it’s possible without sinking your life into the game. The answer is in a sense yes. There are a plethora of means to gain coins which range from the overpowered gold fire flower (which can destroy many enemies, blocks, and even rocks while giving you coins for everything destroyed by the spicy golden meatballs of death you fling), or turning enemies (such as koopas) into gold and kicking them away in which case they leave trails of coins for you. There are several more ways to earn quick coins but half the fun is in finding all the different ways the game will toss coins your way. Thar be gold in those hills!

Sadly the 1,000,000 coin goal falls relatively flat when you actually achieve your goal. You would think with such a hefty feat you’d be getting some amusing reward in return but the actuality of the situation will more than likely disappoint you. While I won’t spoil the surprise I imagine there will be MANY facepalms when it comes time for the 1,000,000 coin revelation (there have already been for those who’ve spoiled themselves). Suffice it is to say that if you could deal with the disappointment that was Super Mario 64’s completion reward then I suppose you could handle this well (hint, it’s worse than that reward). I think the game may have been a bit better off without this “hook” but ultimately if you have fun playing for coins then the goal has arguably served its means.

Co-op, bros before toads:
I’m going to be honest, I’d always rather play a Mario game solo, NSMBW was no exception. Unless you liked trolling your friends or bumbling around the stages, more (than 2) players tended to feel like a chore in performance from my experience. That said NSMB2 jumps down from 4 players to just 2: Mario and Luigi. This works out well enough since on a smaller screen 4 player co-op would likely be very uncomfortable. When you play a co-op game (which mind you you can’t do this over the internet) the host takes the role of Mario and the guest becomes Luigi. Mario (the player) will select one of their own files and both players continue from the Mario player’s file. Luigi’s player will not get any progress in their file but they will be able to bolster their coin count while in a co-op game.

The whole game is up for grabs in co-op so you can play beginning to end. The same mechanics in place for NSMBW are at play here, players can bubble themselves out of some situations in which case their partner can tag them back into safety. This can be used to cooperatively aid lesser skilled players through more tricky segments of the game, provided that the remaining player is never harmed. Should there ever be only one of the two players actively onscreen (non-bubbled) and they lose a life then both players lose and will need to restart the stage or at that stage’s checkpoint. Another cooperative tactic one can use is sharing stored power ups. Each player can hold one reserve power up item should a situation go bad for them. Said items are called in and dropped above the owner’s head but either partner can pick the item up provided they touch it first. On a co-op level, NSMB2 can still be a bit chaotic but it feels proper (and fun) at the 2 player count.

Graphics & 3D, itsa me! Familiarity!:
NSMB2 essentially matches NSMBW’s graphics, but on a handheld. The game even retains NSMBW’s solid frame rate consistently, even with 3D on. Character models are fluid and well done for the most part and the game looks as good as its predecessor. One can also argue that most of the game’s assets literally feel directly lifted from NSMBW though. The character models obviously would be but the map designs/themes, stage designs, and so on literally make the game sometimes feel like it should be called NSMBW portable or an expansion to NSMBW. Much of what you’ll see in the game will look familiar if you come from the previous NSMB…

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