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New Super Mario Brothers Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Platforming

Buy/Support:
Support Rowan, click to buy via us...

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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Family Gamer (Wii)
Scared Gamer (Wii)
Frugal Gamer (Wii)
Family Guide Gamer (DS)
Haiku Gamer (DS)

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Everyone I know has played Mario, and New Super Mario Brothers Wii is the perfect chance to relive those classic SNES memories.

Although I'm an old school Mario fan, unfortunately I wasn't all that taken with this modern rendering. In single player mode it's pretty much the same old Mario we've all played with a couple new items to play with but nothing special. You run to the right, jump on the enemies' heads and get to the flag. Same old, same old.

There are a few new game play elements to use the gesture function of the Wii-mote controller. For instance, platforms and you can tilt and a Helicopter suite you shake to use, but nothing that makes this stand out from the others in this series.

Multiplayer is a different story though. This is something I've never seen before. Sure, most of the old Mario games had a turn based multiplayer mode and New Super Mario on the DS had a one on one versus mode but none of that compares to playing Mario with 3 mates - or just me and my girlfriend.

The game becomes strangely harder and easier at the same time. Making sure everyone stays at the same pace takes a while to get the hang of. I can't run at full speed through the levels like I usually enjoy doing, unless of course your team mates are at the same general skill level as you.

The fact that you can jump off each other's heads is very helpful for reaching high platforms but needs to be used with care - if you try to jump a gap at the same time as your team mate and he ends up kicking off your head, you get knocked down the hole you were trying to avoid - infuriating moments to say the least.

If you do die during multiplayer, as long as you have a team mate still going you'll come floating back in a little bubble ready to be popped back into play. If you feel there's a part of a level you cant do then you can just press A and jump back into your bubble until your team mates have cleared the difficult areas. This trick became popular with my girlfriend.

Me and my mates got surprsingly into the hint videos that you unlock by collecting the star coins. Such was out desire to watch each and every one, that we tasked ourselves with finding each one. We had all the fun of finding the coins then spent about six hours watching the videos and learning all the secrets. Some of the video guides are hilarious to watch, although a lot harder - if not impossble - to recreate yourself.

The final boss fight is a real stand out moment for me. I don't want to give anything away so I'll just say Bowser is back and bigger than ever. It is the most fun I've ever had on the Wii, along with the excellent 4 player Super Smash Brothers.

I enjoyed Super Mario Brothers Wii thoroughly, as will any old school fan. Although there's not a lot new in the single player, the amazing cooperative play is worth the price alone.

Written by Rowan Brown

You can support Rowan by buying New Super Mario Brothers



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Rowan Brown writes the Teen Gamer column.

"I write about my favourite games from a younger person's perspective. It's often surprising how different this ends up to other more grown up reviews."

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