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. The best part? Bullet Bills are also subject to the water physics as they pass through the spheres, which was really cool to see. 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 cloud world not only features some amazing pop-style music, but also some of the most unique level designs. I want to mention the last two worlds in particular, as they feature some of the best level designs of all.
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. Stages feature escalators to ride, chain-linked gates to climb, spiky pistons to avoid, and plenty of yoshis to ride. 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. 3, and the moving parts that are integrated into each map make each world come to life in interesting and unexpected ways. Locales include deserts, tropical islands, and an awesome cloud world, not too unlike the areas featured in Super Mario Bros. There are water levels, haunted houses, fortresses and end-of-the-map castle stages where you’ll do battle with the Koopa Kids. 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. 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’s a lot of things that haven’t changed. 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. This game put a smile on my face right from the start. Hit the jump to find out what we thought in our review of New Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64.
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. While there was a lot of marketing that went into the multiplayer aspects of 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. 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.Īs we’re not likely to see a soundtrack release for the game based on our interview with New Super Mario Bros.
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. This game really came out of left field at E3 2009.