Eurogamer Expo: New Super Mario Bros Wii Hands-on

Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by Chris Evans in Eurogamer Expo 2009, Featured, Hands-on impressions, Wii

Throughout the day at EuroGamer Expo, I managed to get my hands on New Super Mario Bros Wii three times; once in a group of four (including No Added Sugar’s very own James Dilks), a second time playing with a Nintendo representative, and finally I played through one last level alone at the end of the day, as consoles and plasma screens were being turned off all around me.

The core gameplay is exactly the same is New Super Mario Brothers on DS.  The only major addition in this demo is the propeller suit, which allows you to fly upwards by shaking the remote, before gliding slowly back downwards.  The final game is set to include a number of other new power-ups, as well as being the first game to include the new ‘super guide’ feature.

My biggest fear before playing was that the addition of extra players to the near perfect gameplay of NSMB DS would bring nothing but chaos to proceedings, and my first play with the full four players did little to ease my worries.  We spent the majority of the first level bouncing off each other, fighting over power-ups and generally dying a lot more than I’m sure we all would have were we playing alone.  The second level, inside one of Bowser’s many castles, was a more co-ordinated affair as we all got accustomed to the game, but it quickly brought up another issue with having more than one human controlled character.  In the traditional sections of the castle where you climb upwards, dodging moving blocks and jumping across swinging platforms, it is far too easy to lose a life by simply getting stuck at the bottom of the screen.  If four of you go for a jump and only two make it, the others often fall to their deaths where they would normally just fall to a lower platform.

My second play through was more successful.  Despite my partner from Nintendo being, by his own admission, “terrible at this game”, we did a far better job of working together.  The balance between competition and cooperation seems to work a lot better with fewer players, and I imagine that three people working well together may just be the sweet spot.

But say what you like about gamers being social misfits, it was playing alone that I enjoyed NSMB Wii the most.  Without others to worry about, I was able to find secrets and hidden areas that you just don’t have the time to look for with three other people racing around the screen.  It’s pleasing to see that the level design hasn’t been toned down to accommodate the extra players.

It’s been almost 20 years since the last side-scrolling Mario console platformer, so NSMB Wii has a lot to live up to.  While I’m reserving judgement on the multiplayer side of things, it’s so far so good when it comes to re-capturing the magic that has always made Mario Bros games so special.