New Super Mario Bros Wii Preview

A retro preview

They say everything looks better enhanced …. High Definition TV? Amazing. The latest CGI Transformers movie? Uber cool! Jordan? Eww, not so much. There are times though when being flashy or better gets boring and you desire a bit of ‘Old Skool’  – well geeks, your prayers have been answered.

3D or not 3D, that is the question. For the great gods of Nintendo came down to the E3 expo in June and thrust upon us TWO Mario games for the almighty Wii: Super Mario Galaxy 2 in amazing spangly 3D and New Super Mario Bros in glorious retro 2D.

The whole focus of New Super Mario Bros is on playability. While Mario Galaxy is all about collecting stuff and exploring new worlds, New Super Mario Bros is just traditional side scrolling, button bashing fun with a retro music score to boot.

The characters look fantastic – that’s because they are in a 2D style but modelled in 3D against 2D backgrounds. Nintendo are calling this effect 2.5D. It looks and plays a little similar to New Super Mario Bros DS but this is in no way just a clone.

It’s the first game in the classic Mario series with a simultaneous multi-player feature. You can play as up to four characters – Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad. Unfortunately there is no online play option but be prepared for some fantastic retro nights in with the lads (or lasses).

Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto is famous for adding new bells and whistles into each game and he’s done us proud here.

Most notably, players can pick up and throw each other either to kill enemies or access hard to reach areas. There are also many new items to uncover, including a propeller helmet that allows players to fly and a penguin suit which allows you to freeze the baddies. If that’s not enough, you can all ride on Yoshis simultaneously.

Control is via the Wii Remote, held horizontally so it will feel like you are playing NES style – although moves such spinning are done by shaking the controller.

New Super Mario Bros is likely to be a hugely popular addition to the series, largely because of the co-operative multi-play. It looks to have that Bomberman addictiveness to it and it’s also possible to play competitively.

There are a couple of concessions to the casual market too, for example the manner in which players are resurrected. You’ll be pleased to know Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding do not appear mid-game for a seance, but when you die you return on screen floating in a bubble which the other players need to burst to re-activate you.  This may make completing each level a little too easy for some Old-Skool Mario buffs.

Everything about this game reminds me of Christmas morning back in the nineties.  I would rush downstairs, tearing open all my presents leaving numerous Beano annuals and entire volumes of boring encyclopedias in a path of destruction across the floor. I’d be searching for the holy grail – the latest Mario offering from Nintendo. New Super Mario Bros will be out in time for Christmas so big kids can relive those glory days once again.