I will be honest with you. I have been disillusioned with Super Mario Bros. games for a long time. The last game in this 35-year-old series I finished was Super Mario World on the SNES Classic a few years back with Beardsnbourbon over the course of a week. I tried Super Mario 64 sometime after it came out when Dr. Potts brought it over, I think for my 17th birthday (yeah, we were the cool fun kids)? That game did not stick with me and I did not like playing a 2D platformer in 3D (Conker's Bad Fur Day being the exception) I played a little bit of New Super Mario Bros. on Conklederp's DS 10+ years ago and that was actually a lot of fun, but I only played halfway through the second world. I think I just missed playing a 2D Mario Bros. game. Not having a Wii or a Wii U, I missed out on the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U. I had read a number of reviews/comments about New Super Mario Bros. U that essentially said that it was a fun, but redundant game, but from someone who was looking for something along the lines of a 2D Mario Bros. game, I decided that I would fork over the required funds to try this game out (being 33% off didn't hurt either).
I was a little taken aback when I started the game. I think I was expecting something akin to Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you select which game file you want to use, how many people are playing and you are off to the races! I was not expecting a whole host of options that meant nothing to me. Challenges? Is the game not a challenge? Maybe there are just short sections from various stages similar to Ultimate NES Remix where you try to beat a part of the game as quickly as possible? Or is that Boost Rush? Maybe that is where the game just throws various power-ups at you while enemies fill the screen trying to kill you? Coin Battle sounds like a mini-game where you play against other players and the person who collects the most coins wins, like something in a Mario Party game? And I am assuming that the "Play With Mii" means that you are able to import your Mii character to play with them in one of these non-story modes? That would actually be pretty fun, assuming that they would take on Mario's stats and be middle of the road for everything rather than basing any character mechanics on the height and weight you have set your Mii at; thinking too much again. Since I had just started the game, I knew I did not want to start in on Start New Super Luigi U because I was sure there were mechanics that had been updated over the last 30 years that I have been unaware of.
So I selected file number 1 and proceeded to start . . . nope. Now I had to select how many players I was playing with, so just the one. Lastly, I had to select which character I wanted to play with. I do not know if Mario and Luigi have similar abilities to the ones established in Super Mario Bros. 2, but without an instruction booklet of any kind, I would assume that might be the case? I have no idea about either Toad or Toadette and all I can think of is that this again is like selecting characters in SMB2. And Nabbit? I did not recognize Nabbit as a character from previous Super Mario games (see the first paragraph) and its rabbit-like design reminds me a bit of Rabbids but this one is purple and wearing a mask. Believe it or not, I decided to go with run-of-the-mill Mario, because I am boring like that and it seemed like the safest choice.
Well, the game (finally) started with Bowser stealing Princess Peach and launching the brothers Mario halfway across this iteration of the Mushroom Kingdom and sent his near-immortal and never aging children to man fortresses that he presumably had built prior to his invasion of Peach's Castle. And now Mario and company have to fight their way back through eight worlds to rescue the Princess. Again. And that is perfectly fine with me. I was not looking for a new take on the Super Mario Bros. formula, I was just looking for a solid platformer from a franchise that I used to love and had stopped playing when the games were going to (mostly) 3D. I 100% trust Nintendo EAD to develop and release (and in this case re-release but HDified) a platformer that is free from bugs, glitches, and just delivers a solid game.
After playing through the first world, I was having a great time with my only "eh" about the game being that the main theme that plays during Acorn Plains Way was alright. I was not expecting to hear the Overworld BGM from either Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario World, but something along those lines and just as catchy. I will probably cover it in an upcoming MIDI Week Singles article now that I find myself talking about it. The quality of the music was there, just not what I wanted to hear from a Mario game. Maybe I just need to play it more and then maybe it can become hummable?
So if the themes in the music is going to be my only gripe (currently) then I think I can say that I am very much enjoying the port of a Wii U game that was released nine years ago. I enjoy the flying squirrel suit that both Conklederp and I just refer to as Tanuki Mario, probably because it sounds more fun than "Flying Squirrel Mario." Maybe Nintendo is testing the waters for another 2D Mario game for the Switch? I hope so, but that is just me and I feel that I am not really Nintendo's target demographic and audience. Or maybe I am because I bought the game, started playing it, and now here I am, uh talking about it.
~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
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