New Super Mario Bros. 2

By: Robert Murphy

In an effort to make my purchase of a 3DS more worth my while I have started playing more handheld games and ever since I was a kid I have loved the Mario games and so I picked up New Super Mario Bros. 2. The little Italian plumber is still hopping his way through big platform levels, all in an effort to save Princess Peach from Bowser and his evil spawn. As many of you already know there have been a large number of changes to the game and this new addition to the series brings a few more to enjoy, along with new levels and new challenges.

The classic appeal of jumping through levels as one of my favorite childhood icons returns as levels continue to be evenly balanced and enjoyable to jump your way through for the surprisingly acrobatic yet pudgy Italian plumber. Levels in the Mushroom Kingdom are colorful and comical as always and classic enemies return to the screen such as koopas and grumpy goombas, who dance along to the catchy tunes accompanying the game play. Also the return of classic Mario power ups are back to help you along the way such as the flame flower, red mushroom and raccoon feather, along with newer power ups like the mini and mega mushrooms. World progression is also a similar setup to what we’ve seen in the past where each world has a final castle along with a smaller castle or a ghost house which come with a large amount of secrets and different passageways to trip you up. Then there’s also the different hidden ways to complete levels that open up different paths in certain levels, leading to other levels to play through, leaving all the things we loved from the past Mario games and the new ones as well.    

My initial excitement to buy a new Mario game to play eventually was dashed though much to my surprise, I didn’t get the old tingly feeling I use to get when playing a Mario game. New Super Mario Bros. 2 seemed to detract focus from playing the game in favor of collecting the iconic golden coins we’ve seen throughout the series. It’s not so much a bad thing but the game seems like it desperately wants you to collect all the coins you can but yet I still didn’t find it all that important. Also riddling levels with a ridiculous amount of ways to collect coins gives players an almost infinite amount of lives and removes a level of challenge to the game. Players now are also given the ability to turn blocks into golden coins through the golden flower power up which allows you to turn most anything into gold to the point where you could dive into a pile of them like Scrooge McDuck. Mario players are also accustomed to the brown blocks that can be hit multiple times to earn coins, well now if hit these blocks with good precision, the block turns gold and can be worn by Mario earning a golden stream of coins as you progress through the level for a short time. And finally we have the appearance of golden rings which unlike the red rings that spawn red coins, the golden rings turn enemies gold and earn you even more coins. So yeah, coins, REALLY big deal this time around.

Another unfortunate aspect to the game is the difficulty of the game itself, Mario has always been an enjoyable kid’s game and over the years the difficulty has been lowered and lowered and this time around that fact is even more present. It is doubtful that you’ll ever run out of lives in New Super Mario Bros. 2 in failing levels but what makes things worse is that if you do manage to fail a level a few times you are rewarded rather than punished. Failing a level a couple of times will get you the white Tanooki Suit which basically turns Mario into an invincible white raccoon that can not only not be hurt by anything in his path but can also fly a lot easier and can build it up a lot quicker too. The only thing that can stop you in the Tanooki Suit is falling in lava, falling in the purple acid and just plain falling in a hole. Even bosses can’t hurt you when you’re in this form, in a test to see just how powerful it was I failed the Bowser castle a few times and tested it out, Bowser was beat just by touching him in the Tanooki Suit which was just sad.

 As for other features there is co-op multiplayer which is fun, but is not anything new either for the game, it basically lets you play with friends or online through levels in the game together much like on the Wii and Wii U. And then we have Coin Rush Mode has a which can be played alone or against players online and is a competitive mode where you challenge one another across three randomly selected levels to see who can collect the most coins. This adds a little bit more of a lasting appeal to the game but not much and also adds a little bit of a challenging element for players as well.

In short, all the major appeals of a Mario game are here still in New Super Mario Bros. 2 but as far as a challenging game goes, you may want to try somewhere else. The game will barely take you a few hours to get through and a few more to find the hidden routes and the three large golden coins hidden throughout each level. Also with the massive amount of coins and the ability to get the Tanooki Suit for each level makes any semblance of a challenge disappears. But as I said before, all the appeal of the Mario universe is still here for players to enjoy and it is a fun game while it lasts, I just wish it lasted longer.

Good:

- Still a charming and enjoyable game and addition to the Mario series

- Levels are still evenly made and in the world of platformers there aren’t many better

- Coin Rush Mode adds a few more hours of fun and some replay value to the game

Bad:

- The Tanooki Suit isn’t a good addition to the game and removes any challenge you may find in playing the game

- The game is overall very short and won’t take more than a day

- The focus on coin collecting was overall irrelevant and hurts the game rather than adding to it

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10