Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

Super Mario Wii: Retro in a Good Way

13 Written by Keith on January 12, 2010 – 1:30 pm

 

 

I have an Xbox 360 on which I play video games like Call of Duty, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed.  They’re all great games; my boys play them too.  However, sometimes it’s nice to sit down with a pleasant, yet challenging, classic game.  Super Mario Bros.Wii isn’t classic in the sense of Pong or Galaga, but it is most definitely classically Nintendo.  My friend and I used to sit for hours and play Super Mario Bros after school.  Games like Punch Out and Excite Bike were endlessly entertaining, but the king of them all (excepting The Legend of Zelda) had to have been Super Mario Bros.  With the race to improve graphics, and the rise of first person shooters like Doom, 2D side scrolling classics like Sonic and Super Mario Bros were lost.  The Nintendo Wii is a wildly popular console with some highly entertaining Mario Games – Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Super  Paper Mario are to name a few of the very best.  But, I missed the side scrolling greatness of the 80’s versions. They were both challenging and cute; graphics be damned.  With Super Mario Bros. Wii Nintendo came through with a great classic style game that entertains even a modern enthusiast! 

  

Super Mario Bros. Wii: 

  

If you loved Super Mario Bros in the 80’s you’re going to love the new version just as much.  It’s everything and more that the original was.  The graphics are not 8 bit (which is good) even though the action is all 2D; the graphics are not sacrificed for simplicity.  The cast of characters has hardly changed.  The goombas are as predictable and frustrating as ever, the Koopa shells still make great weapons, and there are still fire breathing plants protruding from tubes.  Also, we can’t forget the myriad hidden blocks that reveal vines leading to riches of coins high in the clouds.  It’s all there.  This time though they have added a few twists and challenges.  It is now possible to play with up to 4 players at a time with each of those players having an equal part to play in the action. You can use teamwork to solve problems and to help each other pass levels.  Some equipment has remained and some has changed.  The choice of suites that Mario can pick from along the way have expanded.  

  

Suits: 

  

1. Flower Fire Power: The classic fire ball shooting Mario. 

2. Flower Ice Power: Mario can shoot ice balls that freeze opponents.  He can then pick up the frozen enemy and throw it as a weapon.  

3. Penguin Mario: Mario has a penguin suit that allows him to run on ice without slipping and that also lets him swim easily and slide on his belly to break blocks and zoom past falling objects. 

4. Grow Big Shrooms: As trippy as ever. 

5. Shrink Shrooms: They let you walk on water.  Downside to them is that they make you small. 

6. Propeller Hat Mario: Mario wears a propeller hat that makes him zoom upward and hover for a bit.  Quite handy in the air world. 

  

Criticism: 

  

I have no criticisms about this game at all.  It’s classic all the way.  However, some other reviewers seem to have a problem that it is not playable online and there is no community aspect to it. I say that’s not a draw back at all.  It would be with a game like Call of Duty, but not hardly for this one.  The charm of the game is that it’s totally old school.  We just want to sit around, perhaps have some family fun, and enjoy ourselves like we did in the old days of video games.  No yelling into microphones about Leroy Jenkins or texting people your gamer ID.  Just call your friends, have them come over like we used to when things were simple, and play the dang game. 

  

This is not an easy game to defeat.  Some levels are quite easy, but others are mind bogglingly (is that a word?) frustrating. It has a feature that will, if things get too difficult, have Luigi take things over for Mario and guide you through the level. I had to use it once to get past one of the ice levels.  You can also never really run out of lives as the game will always replenish them for you; it keeps track of how many refills you’ve gone through (I haven’t used any, but my kids have used upwards of 20 so far).  Thus, the challenge is to see how few lives you can go though before reaching the end.  There is no fear of getting sent back to the beginning in this game.  It’s fun for the whole family no matter the gaming experience.  There is only mild goomba squashing violence. 

  

I took a few videos of my boys playing.  They aren’t experts obviously, but they have fun.  This is level 7 I believe.  Neil (my 7 year old) is Mario and Alan, 5, is Luigi.  

 

 

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