New? Super Mario Bros

What a difference a year makes, this time last year the game Nintendo had for "core" gamers was Animal Crossing: Let's go to the city (a very quiet "yay" is heard at the back of the room), this year there's a brand new Super mario Bros game, which is always a good thing.

Whilst it is new I've yet to experience many new surprises or set pieces like I did with say Super Mario Galaxy but is that really a fair comparision? The two are quite different games even if they are the same on the surface, different dimensions make the core gameplay very different so best to compare this to previous 2d Mario games. It's in relation to those games that this one excels, nostalgia is very present, none more so than with Super Mario Bros 3 (the greatest of 2d Mario games if I might add) so it'll certainly be enjoyable to battle through the koopa kids once again.

The main draw with this game though is multiplayer. So far I've only played this with 1 other person so I've yet to feel the full on 4 player carnage but 2 player Mario Bros is still rather fun. Play it competitively and it's a right laugh that no amount of comically timed head bopping can ruin, scrambling for both the items and coming out with nothing is more funny than it is frustrating. Play Co-operaritevly and results may vary, if you're very cohesive then eureka moments where you've worked together to reach a far away star coin will feel great but if you just go ahead doing your own thing then there's a chance you'll get in one another's way which can be a bit annoying to say the least. Maybe there could have been more though, no online support means multiplayer is more of an extra as your chances to play is limited which is a real shame because it's still jolly good fun. Extras modes would have been nice too, the DS version had a star battle mode that was huge fun and very competitive, throw in 2 more players and it would have been brilliant, even a few minigames would have been welcomed.

One thing that has been mentioned is the difficulty is fairly high for a Mario game and I would have to agree, this is quite the challenge but a welcome challenge. It's one of those games that tempts you to have one more go adn with practice you will eventually crack it and with the introduction of "Super Guide" you have no excuse not to play through it. I should explain that super guide is a new feature that you can activate after dying a certain amount of times and should you choose to use it the game will guide you through the stage and even let you take over once you're past the tough part. Whether you're not very good an use this to see a level through or it hasn't even appeared for you, it's still a neat feature that can help increase replayability. By the way I've had the opportunity to use it once so far and declined, I see it a sign that I need to improve rather than a soloution.

Even with a sense of "it could have been better" you still won't be able to play without a smile on your face because what this is is good old fashioned fun and a great piece of social gaming. So if you have a Wii, you won't regret buying this game, it can appeal to anyone without making others feel left out, I think I'll leave the innovation to Super Mario Galaxy 2 though.