New Super Mario Bros. 2

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO8xe2AUY4c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO8xe2AUY4c</a>

Mario's clearly been hanging around with Wario too much of late. Karting, Tennis and Parties, the
yellow rival's money-mad ways were bound to rub off on our hero eventually, and in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for 3DS, that appears to be exactly what has happened.

Bowser has kidnapped Peach (surprise, surprise) but there's additional trouble in the Mushroom Kingdom, with every level packed to bursting point with gold coins. Gold pipes, gold enemies, even gold flowers mean Mario has the Midas touch like never before. And yet, 100 coins still grants you a 1-Up. Proper Raccoon Mario is back too.

The aim of the game is to collect a million coins, a mind-boggling number which the developers are hoping will keep you playing for a long-ass time. A Gold Rush Mode will add an additional multiplayer aspect, where you have one life to complete three random courses you've completed before. Complete them back-to-back, without losing a life, collecting as many coins as you can (as quickly as you can for extra coins) then send the results to other players through Streetpass.

In addition, two players can work through the game together in co-op mode, a feature teased at with the original NSMB on DS six years ago, and obviously built upon for Wii. The game will be out in the States in August, and hopefully not far behind on European shores. It will also be the first full Nintendo 3DS game available as both a downloadable and physical title at launch.

So, a) Will you be getting this; and b) Will you be going digital or physical with your copy?

[hisak]

So... ehh.

First of all, I'm probably going to get this. Even a disappointing 2D Mario game can be a lot of fun and a perfectly serviceable way to pass time. It should make for good late-summer entertainment.

But now that I've had a few days to think about this game's concept, I've come away incredibly bored with it. We've heard Miyamoto (I think?) talk about how the developers are trying to incorporate stereoscopic 3D into 2D gameplay, and their solution is...more coins? Bah. Thankfully there are some cool level design bits and bobs going on in the trailer, but I don't see how this "premise" ends up paying off (no pun intended) in any satisfying way.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Nintendo Direct brought with it a new trailer and new gameplay information. Well, more detailed information on what we already know. Gold rings, gold blocks, gold Marios and Coin Rush mode. Also: Koopalings.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0LWV5RmUNY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0LWV5RmUNY</a>

During the EU presentation (may have been in others, I haven't watched 'em - sue me), Satoru Shibata announced that fan feedback will be used to create more Coin Rush levels which will be available as paid-for DLC. On the one hand, DLC in my Mario? On the other, it makes it sound like they are going all-out to make Coin Rush one of the biggest social/multiplayer features in a Mario game ever.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Another trailer? That's three in a little over a month! Nintendo's strategy of announcing games closer to release means all those long drawn out waits for trailers just don't happen any more. What have they got for us this time?

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHdu3slBIY8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHdu3slBIY8</a>

Yep. Twilight-shaded ice levels with a nice blue hue, Mini and Mega Mario, golden Banzai Bills that crap coins as they fly along, Hammer Bros that throw gold at you in triplicate, Boos that still run away but do so with their own merry trail of money, a golden Raccoon Suit and now-you-see-them-now-you-don't Mega Man-like blocks.

[hisak]

Still not much that's tempting me to buy the game. I might get it if it's ever on sale (which it won't be for a long time), but it doesn't excite me in any way, sadly.

[JordAnime]

I'll probably end up getting it all the same, but I agree with the sentiment that Nintendo just isn't doing anything interesting with Mario these days.  I mean consider the risk they took with a game like Yoshi's Island as the second Super Mario World game, it was totally different but also a great, classic game in its own right.  These New Super Mario games just seem to be pandering to nostalgia and really aren't adding much in the way of innovation to the 2D Mario franchise.  I mean, the gimmick is collecting a ton of coins in this game, for goodness sake, you think they could have come up with something a bit more original...

[Hyruleansoldier]

There's a million Mario games, they can afford to forget about being original.  What was Galaxy 2's story again?  Just like in the game before, you say?  Hmm, both sold incredibly well, and no one really cared.  In most games (the Paper Mario games excluded) you're not supposed to take the story or "raison d'etre" too seriously.

I was just like "oh another NSMB game... this time with major coin happiness.  Anyone who played (and thus usually liked) the previous NSMB games will end up playing this one anyway.

You have to admit the actual stages usually ARE fresh enough, so the "underlying gimmick" or reason why Mario has to go through yet another adventure is not the most important part.   2D Platformers with a soul, yes, but not necessarily the most compelling story.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

I'm in both camps on this. Always happy for more Mario, rarely disappoints but it does feel like they're lacking the classic creative spark that brought us the likes of Yoshi's Island.

Bringing the Galaxy games into the argument is not remotely the same, though. The 3D games are a totally different beast to the 2D sidescrollers, they're a much bigger playground for the developers. With 2D Mario, you're going from left to right with the odd bit of jumping. It's harder to throw in curveballs like giant snake-like bosses, planet-hopping and enormous itchy bees.

Of course, Nintendo could be forgiven for giving up trying to be original and creative because the "hardcore" fan typically shoots that sort of thing down (Sunshine, Windwaker, handing the development of Smash 4 to Namco). We (using that collective term loosely) are absolute bastards to please. The casual crowd don't know any better, they're probably around the point the first batch of Nintendo players were with the release of SMB3. They're in no rush for a wild shake-up of the formula because they're just getting used to things.

That being said, I am a little concerned by the lack of enemies in that latest video I posted. You just stand around letting the coins come to you? That's not platforming. Even a half-blind monkey could tackle that sort of level...

          ... With its feet.

                                       ... Upside down.

                                                                ... In the fog.

[hisak]

There's a million Mario games, they can afford to forget about being original.  What was Galaxy 2's story again?  Just like in the game before, you say?  Hmm, both sold incredibly well, and no one really cared.  In most games (the Paper Mario games excluded) you're not supposed to take the story or "raison d'etre" too seriously.

I was just like "oh another NSMB game... this time with major coin happiness.  Anyone who played (and thus usually liked) the previous NSMB games will end up playing this one anyway.

You have to admit the actual stages usually ARE fresh enough, so the "underlying gimmick" or reason why Mario has to go through yet another adventure is not the most important part.   2D Platformers with a soul, yes, but not necessarily the most compelling story.

As much as I'd rather see a fresher presentation, along the lines of the way 3D Mario shakes things up every generation (I don't mean story-wise; don't pretend I'm talking about story), I'm not inherently opposed to the NSMB series. The Wii U game looks like a lot of fun, and I plan to get it whenever I end up owning the system. This game, in contrast, looks remarkably flat.

And as I said earlier, it's even more disappointing when you consider that Nintendo had teased neat applications of 3D for this game. Those seem to have been cut during development.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Think you're going to get a lot of coins? What if all of the coins of every player were added together via SpotPass?

Prepare for some big numbers... If NSMB2 has NSMB-like sales figures and every player collects the target 1 million coins we could be looking at 26,200,000,000,000 coins. That sound you heard? It's Wario slipping into a pre-emptive coin coma.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

It's review time! First one I've bothered to read, anyway. From Nintendo Gamer, giving the game a score of 80%. By no means disastrous, but certainly a bit on the low side for a new Mario title.

Highlights?

When we died in 3D Land it was occasionally due to perspective-based confusion over where we’d end up after a jump, but in the NSMB games every death is your own stupid, careless fault.

After 3D Land's occasionally awkward camera it's nice to go back to only having yourself to blame. I think...

As for that other 3D – you know, the one that lives in your upper screen – well, it makes far less of an impact than it did in Mario’s previous outing. Many 3DS platformers use the effect to enhance parallax backdrops (Mutant Mudds and Mighty Switch Force are both good examples), but here Nintendo has put it to use as a sort of extended camera lens, to bring the foreground into greater focus when it’s flipped on. Basically, you won’t miss anything by playing the game in 2D mode, which is a little surprising for a first-party 3DS game.

Yes, unfortunately hisak's worst fears have been realised. Those of us who aren't playing 3DS for the 3D though aren't going to lose sleep.

If this is your first New Super Mario Bros, you’ll likely have a smashing time, but it’s a slightly less impressive feat second – no, wait, make that third – time around. This is still a great 2D platformer, but it’s lacking the vital creative spark that turns a great 2D platformer into a classic one. We’ve come to expect more than straight sequels from mainline Mario games, and until this generation we hadn’t truly been offered one. That’s a definite disappointment, but on the upside, more NSMB is hardly a bad thing.

So, irony of ironies, the New Super Mario Bros games are offering less variety than their 8- and 16-bit forebears did. But those early days were very much about finding what works for the franchise. They're in danger of hitting a rut now, though, it seems...

[hisak]

Reviews are making this game sound like I thought it would, which is "good, but not worth $40." I'll be getting NSMBU whenever I end up buying a Wii U, and fingers crossed they decide to do something a bit more interesting with this sub-series next time around.

To its credit, New Super Mario Bros. 2 does have this amazing print ad.

[JordAnime]

Yeah that is one serious nostalgia trip, Nintendo sometimes can come up with good ads(I was a bit underwhelmed by Skyward Sword's marketing though). 

Oh and yes, I got it.  I guess I felt my 3DS had largely been collecting dust since the release of Kid Icarus.  I was considering getting Kingdom Hearts 3-D(Drop, Dream, Distance...whatever) but I feel WAAAAY too out of the loop in that series to get back in.  I didn't beat the first one all the way and really have no idea what's going on in the story and I don't really care.  I do appreciate that it's a large-scale production for the 3DS from Square-Enix though, and would like to see more of that type of content for the 3DS, I still have to play through The Last Story and maybe finish up Xenoblade one of these days, I just feel getting involved in another large-scale JRPG would be too much. 

As for Mario, I didn't really feel the need to get this game on its own merits.  I felt I wanted to get a 3DS game and "Not-So-New" Super Mario Bros. 2 seemed the obvious answer.  Though, I have to admit, the game has proven me wrong so far.  I was expecting an experience similar to New Super Mario Bros. for the DS.  Honestly, it's been so long since I played that game, it's kinda faded into nostalgia itself.  My main memory of it, was that I wasn't that impressed.  Yes, it was fun, but for a new 2D Mario game it left me wanting.  I found NSMB Wii to be a generally superior title, with excellent multiplayer and more interesting platforming challenges.  NSMB 2 feels more like a sequel to NSMB Wii than the original game, though it does a lot to gimmick the original game, such as maintaining the exact same world progression for the early parts of the game(though each map features totally new levels and layouts, of course).  It's got some great level design and awesome platforming, augmented by a less intrusive help system in the form of the golden Toonoki Suit.

As for the main complaint, that it doesn't do much new, and that true, it doesn't.  The main addition is the addition of a lot of gold coins.  The game tasks you to collect one million on the back of the box(yeah I bought it at the store, I like to actually own my games, thank you.)  You get a crap load of coins in this game and a huge coin counter!  It's viewable in the world map of your save file; I'm only at about 15k and I'm in World 4.  There's also a coin rush mode which lets you challenge other people's coin collection via street/spot pass, and a somewhat limited co-op mode compared to NSMB Wii.  So there is a lot of repeatability here.

The visuals are nice, crisp, clear and over all very in keeping with series, though I do feel like a lot of in game assets were courtesy of NSMB Wii.  It's still pretty, if not that imaginative.  I do wish I had a 3DS XL to play it on, having demoed it recently at Gamestop it's a pretty solid feeling and playing system.  Still I'd like to keep my original 3DS for now and don't have the spare money to get the XL, especially if I'm to save enough to get a Wii U at launch. 

Oh and there's the 3D effect, it's pretty lousy in this game, I wouldn't really recommend turning the slider up higher, all it does is blur the background.  It helps create nice depth of field but takes all the detail out of the back grounds. 

The music is solid, some nice new remixes of previous music, though I hate what they did to the end of a world dungeon music.  Arguably the best music in the entire series has been wrecked by unnecessary "bahs"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQ5ZXsKY28  Though I think the new version of Athletic is pretty great.  Is it too much as for an orchestrated soundtrack for NSMB U to make up for this disaster?

It might be the best of the NSMB series, but I just feel that the coin gimmick is there to hide for the lack of anything "original"  I feel that every Mario game contributes something to the series longevity, form a design choice to move Mario into 3D in 64 or for something as simple as a new mechanic, like the ground pound in Yoshi's Island, there's something in each Mario game that built upon the past.  The problem with this game would seem to be its total lack of anything that progressive to the franchise. 

Get it if you've got cash to blow(and who does these days?) are an absolute die hard fan of Mario and own a 3DS(if so, you probably have beaten the game already and are nearing the million mark), or are an over-worked mother looking for a way to keep her kids quiet for a few hours.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Good review, Jord.  I guess there's not many impressions for me to add.

I've been enjoying the game so far, I'm at world 4 now.  At the moment I would rank it somewhere between NSMB and NSMB Wii, though the later stages will probably decide things.

I think anyone who really loves high-score (and/or time-based) challenges, this will be their new favorite.  There's so many ways to up your coin total in every stage, it's going to take people many months to come up with the best strategies for each stage, and keep improving the high score.

Then there's the Coin Rush Mode, which also deserves some attention.  Even if you don't care about comparing your scores with other people, it's still a fun "random dose of Mario" - 3 stages from several worlds, with a limited time limit, but like in SMG2 you can pick up clocks to add time, so you won't have to leave behind too many coins.  These challenges are quite good, really, and add to the fun of it all.

I like how replayability is drastically increased because of the potentials of really high high scores per stage.  In previous incarnations, you would maybe go back to the stage once or twice for missing Star Coins, or an alternate exit, but most people wouldn't obsess about the coins too much (and it was always much easier to get a realistic high score).

True about the lack of innovation that can actually carry over.  I mean I'm sure some particular gimmicks and designs can make future games better too, but not one big thing like the ground pound, wall kicks, new powerups (that don't involve turning stuff into gold), etc.

It's convenient how even when you die, you don't lose the coins you got.  Oh and the Coin Rush coins also count towards your grand total.  The coin average per stage is easily 500, so you won't need to play one particular stage a hundred times to get close to 1 million.

[Rew]

I've heard if you REALLY want 100% in this game, it's possible to get up to 9,999,999 coins. I predict HS will be the first to accomplish this.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Haha, well it's doubtful   Would get old too fast and I wouldn't really do it for the bragging rights.

In NSMBWii I just aimed for the closest big number (using all the digits - I don't remember if it was 1 million points or 2 or some other number but whatevs )

[JordAnime]

I've been playing the game a lot on my new 3DS XL, it makes for a much better experience for this game, I have to admit.  I beat the final Bowser and all, now I'm going back and collecting Star Coins to unlock, well, what else but

(click to show/hide)

Star World

.  My over all opinions haven't changed much, it's all good and fun, but it also feels very recycled in a lot of ways.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Picked this up last week. Traded in Mario Kart 7 and used some loyalty points to get it for the princely sum of 49 pence, but I digress.

I really, really see what people mean about it feeling oh-so-very familiar and the auric obsession feeling like little more than something to make it stand out from being just another Mario game. I'm pretty sure I don't have the super-leet skills to make Coin Rush anything other than an occasionally revisitable distraction, but I'll give it a proper go once I've finished the main game.