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New Super Mario Bros Wii
Well Nintendo has once again delivered in co-op awesomeness. I've so far, seen nothing but great reviews for this game, and I couldn't agree more with what they say. This game brings back the same fun I enjoyed back when I played Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and Zelda: Four Swords with my friends. Here is a game where you work together and also at the same time still do silly antics and eventually just be assholes to each other.
They've combined many awesome features of the previous Mario games, such as Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and New Super Mario Bros (DS). There is also the addition of the Propeller Helmet and Penguin Suit. The Propeller Helmet is a bit hard to control, but the Penguin Suit is awesome because not only can you slide easily on ice and through bricks, but you can also shoot ice balls that can also be done by obtaining the Ice Flower.
With saved items, when you use them from the main menu, it applies to all the players and not just one. There are many ways you can get items other than from item houses. You can collect all 8 red coins per level when you pass through the red ring to get more items. There is also the three Star Coins per level. Some of them are ridiculous to get, but the challenge makes it more fun. Similar to Super Mario World 2, there are secret areas that only reveal themselves if you go near a wall.
Another cool feature is the bubble save. By pressing A, you can put your character in a bubble if you are on the verge of dying. Also when a character dies, they come back in a bubble and the other characters have to release them by touching the bubble. My friends and I have exploited this so much, however be cautious if everyone is in a bubble, you have to redo the level.
You can freeze objects and pick them up to throw at enemies and friends. Heck, you can also pick up your teammates and toss them vicariously to their doom. (Video example will be provided.) There are just so many great things about this game that I forget to mention.
As Rym and Scott has said in previous podcasts about FF: Crystal Chronicles (GC) and Four Swords, this is the sort of game that is enjoyed not on just the gameplay but the overall experience you have with your friends. I can't tell you how much my friends and I laughed on Sunday evening over this game.
I'll just go ahead and show you some of the game play, with commentary. Sorry for the quality. It's actually better if you view them in HD.
55pXPmoIs1s
HT5MtK5fz_A
DKcYWfunX0A
They've combined many awesome features of the previous Mario games, such as Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and New Super Mario Bros (DS). There is also the addition of the Propeller Helmet and Penguin Suit. The Propeller Helmet is a bit hard to control, but the Penguin Suit is awesome because not only can you slide easily on ice and through bricks, but you can also shoot ice balls that can also be done by obtaining the Ice Flower.
With saved items, when you use them from the main menu, it applies to all the players and not just one. There are many ways you can get items other than from item houses. You can collect all 8 red coins per level when you pass through the red ring to get more items. There is also the three Star Coins per level. Some of them are ridiculous to get, but the challenge makes it more fun. Similar to Super Mario World 2, there are secret areas that only reveal themselves if you go near a wall.
Another cool feature is the bubble save. By pressing A, you can put your character in a bubble if you are on the verge of dying. Also when a character dies, they come back in a bubble and the other characters have to release them by touching the bubble. My friends and I have exploited this so much, however be cautious if everyone is in a bubble, you have to redo the level.
You can freeze objects and pick them up to throw at enemies and friends. Heck, you can also pick up your teammates and toss them vicariously to their doom. (Video example will be provided.) There are just so many great things about this game that I forget to mention.
As Rym and Scott has said in previous podcasts about FF: Crystal Chronicles (GC) and Four Swords, this is the sort of game that is enjoyed not on just the gameplay but the overall experience you have with your friends. I can't tell you how much my friends and I laughed on Sunday evening over this game.
I'll just go ahead and show you some of the game play, with commentary. Sorry for the quality. It's actually better if you view them in HD.
55pXPmoIs1s
HT5MtK5fz_A
DKcYWfunX0A
Comments
- The star coins. At first we were aiming to collect them all, and succeeding, but then we found out that all they get you are some movies that show you how to get other star coins. Fuck that.
- While the levels are mostly well-designed, there are a few parts in the game that suffer from Mega Man 9 syndrome. As in, unless you've played the level and fell for the trap before, death is pretty much unavoidable. I can think of one level in particular where the timing of the sand platforms is something you have to learn through trial and error. There are nine in a row and the first set of three you have to go slow on, while the next set of three you have to run as fast as you can on. You really just have to know that already in order to get past it.
- Bubbling. Once we got used to actually being able to save ourselves after a bad jump, we thought that this feature had broken the game. For one thing, bubbling and getting stuck when other people bubble is ALWAYS better than just dying, for the reason that you don't lose a life when you do it and there are no other consequences beyond starting the level over. For a while we were exploiting it to its fullest capacity, having just one person run ahead and complete the jumping puzzle while the other simply express transported themselves through it. However, we eventually found that the use of too much bubbling is actually very detrimental to your progress. Once the game gets harder, it makes the players who are not in bubbles extremely vulnerable to dying and making the level start over. This made us tone our bubble use down and a happy medium was found.
- Boss fights. They're trivially easy so far.
Other than that, this game combines all the best elements of previous 2D Mario games. Once you reach the happy medium with your bubbling skill, it solves the problem of accidentally kicking your teammate off the edge, which happens A LOT, but by using the bubble correctly becomes much less of a problem. We're planning on bringing in some more people and finishing the last half of the game on Friday.
It's a bit disappointing that the boss fights are easy, but when has a Mario boss really been THAT hard?
One thing that we found out when we completed it about the Star Coins: There is a world 9, similar to the Special World levels in SMW. The only way to unlock the levels is to collect all the Star Coins from each world. So, thankfully, they're not completely useless afterall.