In my head I keep games in roughly two categories, the trailblazers and the polishers. Trailblazers attempt to move genres forward by leaps and bounds, break existing norms of how games are made, and establish new norms and traditions moving forward. Good examples of this kind of game would be Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Final Fantasy IV, Wolfenstein 3D, and Grand Theft Auto 3.
I love a good trailblazer, and really appreciate them for what they are. But the games to which I generally keep returning are the polishers, or the games that come after the trailblazers, clean up the ashes in their wake, and fix the problems that are inherent in creating things from scratch. Donkey Kong is great, but I'd rather play Super Mario Bros. Pac-Man is great, but I'd rather play Ms. Pac-Man. Final Fantasy IV is great, but give me Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy VI any day of the week. Wolfenstein 3D is fantastic, but I'd much rather play Doom. Grand Theft Auto 3 is extremely fun, but I'll play Grand Theft Auto 5 instead, thanks.
New Super Mario Bros. U finds itself in this polisher/iterator framework, and does a very nice job of it. It explicitly adheres to the formula laid down in Super Mario Bros. 3, and doesn't try to fix anything or take any huge risks. It just says to itself, "let's make 85 great levels and let the kids have fun." And that's exactly what it does.
The graphics for the game are very nice. They're cutesy and colorful, everything you'd want to see in a Mario game. The music is really good, and follows the basic formula of the soundtrack of Super Mario World, which features basically the same song written in different keys/instrumentation to fit each world or stage variation.
The controls are absolutely perfect, which is the hallmark of every successful Mario game.
When the game does take a few little risks and introduces new features, they're truly awesome. The new flying squirrel suit is (gulp) my favorite flying mechanic in any Mario game, ever. There are little levels in which you have to chase a thief down in a level, requiring you to not slow down at all, but sprint through each level to try to catch them. These levels are very fun, and getting the item he's stolen is a nice reward layered on top of the endorphin rush that chasing him provides. The penguin suit in the game is probably my favorite Mario power up every, and the fact that it was only really used in one level disgusts me.
As mentioned before, the levels are the real draw of this game. There are a ton of really inventive and interesting levels, and using your imagination to explore each to find every little secret is a ton of fun. The level design is excellent, and that will keep you engaged to the very end.
The difficulty level of the game was a bit too low for me, although not so low that I didn't enjoy it. I finished with well over 90 lives, but there's also just a ton of opportunities to get lives, so I didn't feel like I skated through the game, but rather that the game was engineered to give you plenty of chances to spend time in each level.
The game represents an even smaller jump in design than other polishers in the Mario franchise, including my beloved Super Mario World, so it'd be difficult to give it full marks. But it sets a goal for itself, and accomplishes it in delightful fashion. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone. I'll give it a 9.4/10.
Up next on What I'm Playing is another game I recently finished up with my son. Check back (hopefully) tomorrow for another review!
-TRO
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