New Super Mario Bros. Wii: A Warp Pipe to 1985 – 1995 (Game Review)

This game really came out of left field at E3 2009. I distinctly remember the playful samba music coming from the speakers above the floor along with the multitude of smiles and laughs coming from the people lining the kiosks. The game was released at the end of 2009, and has sold a slew of copies, so I guess it’s obvious that Nintendo knew right from the start that it had something big on its hands.

As we’re not likely to see a soundtrack release for the game based on our interview with New Super Mario Bros. Wii Sound Director Kenta Nagata, I thought it’d be appropriate to take a look at the game and its music in a review. While there was a lot of marketing that went into the multiplayer aspects of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it was also designed to work as a single player game, and I think fans of the Mario series will be pleased not only with the game design, but also with the fan service Nintendo provides with countless throwbacks to past Mario games including Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64.

Hit the jump to find out what we thought in our review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

This game put a smile on my face right from the start. From the amazingly catchy and funky title screen theme (one of my favorites in Mario history), to the Super Mario 64-style castle, to the return of the awesome Koopa Kids, NSMBW is all about appealing to gamers both old and new.

There’s a lot of things that haven’t changed.  The minimalistic story (yes, Princess Peach has been kidnapped once again), vibrant graphics, and classic 2D gameplay should be familiar to anyone who’s played a Mario game in the past twenty years.  There are familiar level designs that oldschool Mario fans will appreciate along with new and unique elements that utilize motion controls in a tasteful way. There are water levels, haunted houses, fortresses and end-of-the-map castle stages where you’ll do battle with the Koopa Kids. Locales include deserts, tropical islands, and an awesome cloud world, not too unlike the areas featured in Super Mario Bros. 3, and the moving parts that are integrated into each map make each world come to life in interesting and unexpected ways. Hidden areas are tucked away in every corner, and collecting the three golden coins in each stage (which you fortunately get to keep on repeated play throughs) will unlock extra (and very difficult) levels later in the game, creating an incentive to go back and replay already completed levels. Stages feature escalators to ride, chain-linked gates to climb, spiky pistons to avoid, and plenty of yoshis to ride. There are even side-scrolling airship levels and a castle stage that scrolls to the right and makes you repeat sections until you select the right path, all of which should get the nostalgia meter running high.

I want to mention the last two worlds in particular, as they feature some of the best level designs of all. The cloud world not only features some amazing pop-style music, but also some of the most unique level designs. There are stages with blocks that both rotate and move across the screen, creating a rather dizzying effect, and even an amazing level featuring floating spheres of water in the sky that Mario can swim through and jump out of to the next sphere. The best part? Bullet Bills are also subject to the water physics as they pass through the spheres, which was really cool to see. The last world is epic, with meteors that rain down from the sky and destroy even question mark blocks, to waves of lava that flow along the bottom of the screen and mean instant death. There’s a water level that takes place in the dark, and a vertical stage where lava rises from the bottom as you hurry to the top. The final castle is absolutely epic, and I think players will be pleased with the nostalgic final battle. The ending credits even provide a fun multiplayer coin collecting mini-game where you bash through the blocks that display the letters of the team members’ names.

Regarding controls, NSMBW is played with the Wii Remote tilted on its side, in classic NES format. Players can perform a number of moves similar to New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, including wall jumps and stomps along with triple jumps from Super Mario 64 and jungle gym-style climbing ala Donkey Kong from Yoshi’s Island DS. Players can also waggle the Wii Remote to perform a spin that knocks out enemies and picks up nearby objects. I have to admit that the controls took some getting used to, as I constantly found myself misjudging distances and landing on the front of an enemy and dying rather than killing them, and I constantly performed wall jumps and stomps over pits that led to my death on multiple occasions. However, once I got used to the controls, I was surprised by the complex maneuvers Mario was able to perform throughout some of the game’s most difficult levels. While Nintendo could have gotten rid of some of these moves and simplified the controls, they worked out most of the time. Regarding motion controls, they are scattered throughout, and never really take center stage, allowing players to tilt and move certain platforms and control the light on a ship in one of the game’s stages.

There were some extra little details that I also enjoyed, including the return of on-map enemies that whisk you away to a battle with the reward of items along warp pipes to later worlds, familiar boss battles that require three stomps to achieve victory, and some new suits, including the penguin suit which allows you to easily navigate ice and water while turning enemies into ice blocks, and a propeller suit that allows you to fly up in the air with a flick of the remote. The tiny Mario suit also returns, but is only used twice in the game.

Oh, and there’s some music in the game, if you care about that sort of thing. Nintendo’s Shiho Fujii and Ryo Nagamatsu were responsible for the music. While it’s mainly MIDI-quality stuff (I’ve come to expect this from Nintendo), some of it is quite good. I already mentioned the amazing title theme and the poppy cloud world theme, but there is a lot of great music here. Starting with some of the classics, the game opens with the Super Mario 64 castle theme, and ends with the lovely Super Mario Bros. 3 ending music. The castle stages feature bits of the ghost house theme from SMW, and of course, there are the familiar underground BGM and “Athletics,” which is always a joy to hear. There are also numerous nostalgic sound effects, including the end-of-the-stage fanfare, the death jingle, and of the jump, coin collection, and star themes.

As far as new music, the main overworld BGM appears multiple times throughout the game, and is a fun samba piece. I have to say that the map themes are rather short and repetitive, but I did enjoy the jingle bells in the snow area and the lazy, tropical vibe in the island world. The ending credit theme is an upbeat jazz tune that references the title theme, which, again, is fantastic!

There are also a number of cool “rhythm” elements that the team worked into the audio section, including map elements that move in time with the music, a few stages that feature swinging platforms that also move in time with the music, and most significantly, the fact that all of the enemies on the screen stop to strike a pose during the choir “ah” portions of the overworld themes. These attentions to detail are always appreciated, even though these poses caused me to miss my target mid-air on more than one occasion.

THE VERDICT

New Super Mario Bros. Wii offers a lot for both old and new fans of the Super Mario Bros. universe. You’ll constantly be reminded of your favorite Mario moments of the past 25 years, and you’ll be able to do so with up to four friends at once. I found this game to be pretty challenging, and while I was able to complete it playing alone, I think doing so with multiple people on the screen at once could prove exceptionally difficult. I loved many of the unique level design choices, and the fact that motion controls were used to enhance the gameplay rather than take it over. The game’s music, while not of the highest sound quality, is catchy and upbeat as you’d expect from a Mario game, and there is also a healthy dose of classic tunes to bring back memories from the past. The interactive audio elements were also a much appreciated detail. Fans of old Mario games should enjoy New Super Mario Bros. Wii . I know I did. If you’re not one of the several million people to have picked it up already, I highly recommend doing so!

SCORE: 8.5/10