New Super Mario Brothers 2 for the 3DS is a joy to
play. While its DNA is very much rooted
in the same New Super Mario Brothers (NSMB) game that debuted on the Nintendo DS
six years ago, there are enough differences to warrant the purchase.
Interestingly, I had purchased the original NSMB on the DS,
got to around world 5 and got bored of it and stopped. It didn’t
grab me despite being the first
true side-scrolling Mario entry in a long time, though I suspect my MMO
addiction at the time also took its toll.
The same thing happened with NSMB Wii. I bought it feeling obligated to
due to the high praise from reviewers, but felt that it probably wasn’t for me
given that its strengths were in co-op multiplayer mode.
So what made NSMB2 different? The coins.
It’s a neat little gimmick, but the one million coin goal and the coin
rush mode is an incredibly potent hook. It forced me to complete the game in
the ‘story’ mode (doing so gives you a free gold flower in the coin rush modes-
an invaluable advantage) and in the process it made me appreciate the tight and
imaginative level designs. Coin rush is mind-numbingly addictive. Hearing the clanging of coins and watching
the coin counter grow is intoxicating, not to mention the sense of achievement
when I clear a streetpassed coin rush challenge and beat someone else’s
frighteningly high coin total.
In hindsight, I probably didn’t give the original NSMB on
the DS and NSMB Wii a fair shake (pun intended) , and this is where I
fundamentally disagree with critics of New Super Mario Brothers 2. While all three games shares a common DNA and
all had tight well designed levels, NSMB 2 isn't just a rehash. The original was the kick-off to the
franchise. The Wii game was multiplayer centric. This entry on the 3DS is aimed squarely at a gamers’
need to achieve, to get the high score and to find everything. Coin rush isn’t just about randomly getting
coins and clearing a level on a small time budget, it’s about earning coins
efficiently. Do I jump around near the
beginning to grab the floating coins and hit the blocks? Or do I skip those and rush right in spend my
time gabbing higher yield but more difficult to grab gold medallions instead? The coin rush mode introduces rationing and
scarcity of time, highlighting trade-offs and opportunity costs to maximizing
the amount of coins one can collect in each carefully crafted level. Coin rush also rewards repeated play and
familiarity to the randomly selected levels used in coin rush. Knowing each of the three levels in a coin
rush inside and out is also crucial to getting the highest coin totals as
collecting each of the three gold medallions yields exponentially more coins,
and the 1up Mushrooms in the standard game turn into golden mushrooms that
reward 50 or 100 coins in coin rush mode.
Revisiting the DS
original, it becomes plainly clear that NSMB
on the DS is several steps behind NSMB 2.
In the DS original Mario has fewer power ups and moves, the visuals are
full of pre-rendered, pre-baked sprites to keep a consistent visual look on a
more limited hardware, and the game doesn’t even scroll or animate as
smoothly. New Super Mario Brothers 2 in
comparison had fluid animations, better quality artwork, including a neat use
of the 3D slider to interpolate depth-of-field backgrounds, and power ups that I enjoy, especially the gold fireflower.
It is true that the leap from NSMB to NSMB 2 isn't in the
order of say going from Super Mario Brothers to Super Mario Brothers 3, and
that is a legitimate complaint for those who felt discouraged that Nintendo
insisted on keeping the same (even if improved) aesthetic style on the
3DS. But to me, that’s not a rehash,
there’s enough there for it to be considered a true sequel.
If there is one thing I would knock it is how the streetpass
system works. While there is plenty of
room to store streetpassed Coin-rush levels and even favourite streetpassed
levels you like to avoid them being overwritten. Each player only has room for
1 coin-rush pack that they can share with others via streetpass. Want to show off your high coin run on a
relatively easy Mushroom Pack (stages randomly selected from Worlds 1-2)? Need to
use your one slot for streetpassing. Want
to show off your leet skills on a difficult coin rush challenge? Need to use
your one slot. Want to show the guy you
streetpass every morning you beat his 13,000 coin total? Need to use your one
slot for streetpassing. Also, outside of
your one save slot for streetpassing, there’s no way to save and archive interesting and fun coin rush packs the game creates for you
unless someone else you streetpassed sends it back to you. I wish there is a more robust option here,
perhaps three slots to allow players to save
a selection of coin rush stages. That said, it is a minor quibble. If you can streetpass someone daily or even
weekly, there’s plenty to do in terms of beating other people’s coin rush
records.
New Super Mario Brothers 2 is a great game and one of the
finest platformers out there today. It is also a game that knows its platform
very well, playing to the 3DS’ unique features, including 3D, while avoiding
its weaknesses, including 3D. Each
level is no more than three to five minutes long, and coin rush modes randomly
string three of these levels together.
I’m amazed by how well the game works around rationed time. If I have 20 minutes here or there, I can do
a quick coin rush or two and before I know it, my time is up.
Fun Fact: World Wide coin total sits at 184 billion and counting, updated every few seconds.
