Will somebody please pop me!!
I figure you may well be wondering what my title is about this time, and I answer. Its just a normal phrase we have all come to associate with a good old fashioned, completely normal multiplayer session of Super Mario Bros Wii. Nothing strange about that of course.
So, Supermario Bros Wii. Voted the Eurogamer teams game of the show at E3 this year it unsurprisingly proved to be a hard one to miss at their own expo this week. With cries of ‘Which mushroom am I??????!!!’ ‘Stop bouncing on my head you *******” “You killed my Yoshi!” and “Will somebody please pop me!” echoing across the Eurogamer hall, this game is set to be a huge party favorite for 2009. If the excitement of the game itself wasn’t enough the appearance of Mario himself was enough to whip a usually quite sedate crowd of gamers into a state of frenzied delight, making me pause to wonder, what can all this excitement possibly be about? and is it really justified? With the help of my three very willing volunteers and a good dose of teamwork we at Plus-Xp went to find out. Not at all for fun of course….purely for the sake of journalism.
Firstly, when asked to review this game I was well aware that any comment made about our childhood friends must be made with extreme-care and consideration. No, not because Nintendo are the type to break in in the night and smash your X-box, but more to avoid a inevitable lynch-mobbing from all of you out there who grew up with Mario as a faithful childhood friend. I am therefore extremely relieved to report to all you Nintendo kids out there that this game is honestly and truly a Mario title through and through. With the same colorful nieve graphics and 2d plat-forming we all know and love, I am sure that if you have grown up with mario you wont be disappointed with this new addition. The demo we played took us on journeys through a wide variation of fantasy lands. Together we ran jumped, swam (and in cased fell) through everything from the classic spooky underground caves with swinging platforms, to a deep sea full of poisonous fish and snapping clams filled with coins. Though we only played multiplayer mode, the rest of the game seems to tie in with the traditional Mario theme very well. I could go on to analyze every aspect, but we are all so familiar with it I feel compelled to summarize. The aim of the game is- Run, Jump, stamp on enemies, avoid sharp things, collect coins, find the end of the level and then fight a boss. Classic really.
Though the theme of the game is solid I have had had shockingly little contact with the Wii since its release. I therefore found myself pausing to wonder how I would compete against my fellow gamers. After-all with many of them having grown up with Mario I had a secret feeling that I really wouldn’t stand a chance. I was however pleasantly surprised. Though I must admit my first few levels were quite shocking (In fact I died 5 times) Once I had realized which Character I was soon having just as much fun as the rest. I know what some of you were thinking, ‘Its Mario, its not rocket science’ but based on my previous, sometimes shaky encounters of the Wii console this game played very well. The secret to this seemed to be its simple controls, which were I am happy to report extremely reminiscent of the early mario we all know and love. You play with the Wii remote held sideways, with the 1 and 2 buttons being used for most of the action giving the game an extremely charming retro feel. The motion capabilities of the Wii remote were not however completely ignored. At times during the game you are asked to shake it, enabling you to perform higher jumps or even with the right hat on fly which even if you had nowhere to fly to would still be immense fun. New features to this game also included new toys which give the user extra advantages. These include not only the propeller suit which allows the wearer to fly, but the penguin suit which allows the wearer to hurl snowballs at unsuspecting enemies. The whole team seemed to really enjoy these new additions, and though we were supposed to be working as a team I must say I was shocked at how competitive some of the team became. No names mentioned of course!
That smoothly brings me on to the multiplayer mode itself. I will now confess, that though I was originally skeptical of the games hype I am personally recommending this game to anyone as one of the best party multiplayer titles for the coming year. Everyone from the site who played this game (no matter how quiet a personality) instantly became one of two things, Either intensely competitive or a real team player. The simple, yet compelling task of navigating the colorful 2d levels as a team brought about many minor arguments as well as much amusement and loud team tactics. Playing as a group of four had its own set of challenges, especially seeing as it was entirely your team mates responsibility to keep you in the game when you lost lives by freeing you from a floating bubble in order to resurrect you into the game. This became especially amusing when a teammate would be saved only to fall off of the bottom of the map almost instantly. This made some levels not so much team work as a scramble for the finish line, with an every man for himself mentality very much part of the game in places. Well, at least if i had anything to do with it. A final good point to the multiplayer mode is that if one team player dies the rest of the team can still progress through to the nest level. This could prove to be useful, especially when playing with family members, siblings, the cat etc…
Overall I am in agreement with my fellow site members in that this is going to be one of the big hits for Nintendo this christmas. With a classic format, beloved characters and a good use of the Wii remote this game will definitely be one to get your friends over, get the drinks in and play long into the night. I Think to sum it up Eurogamer were right. It is better with four. Though I think that they forgot to mention. If there is going to be four, the coins, mushrooms and indeed friendly green dinosaur to ride do help…
Be sure to check out the video footage from the expo later in the week. Until then I’m off to find a Wii and three more very willing volunteers.
Until next time
GuitarGirl24
