There was no doubt that I was going to instabuy a new Mario game. It might not be a sequel to Super Mario Odyssey, but New Super Mario Bros U was one of the best Mario games, if not, actually, the best and this is the first 2D outing for Nintendo’s pipeman since that came out, so I was hyped. All the new “wonder” effects shown in the trailer and Nintendo Direct, with crawling pipes and turning into a Goomba …
This too was the All-Stars version of the game, and like the All-Stars version of the original Super Mario Bros, it still looks fantastic today. I used some warp pipes, but did play through more levels than just the bare minimum. I got lost a lot on World 8 and seemed to go round in circles on the map, so I obviously don’t remember it as well as I thought I did. Bowser was a lot easier than I remember …
Yes, I’ve completed Super Mario Bros yet again. But this time it was, at least, different in that I played the Super Mario All-Stars version rather than the original as it appeared on the Switch Online service this week. It’s still excellent, and the 25-year-old “new” graphics still look amazing even now. And yes, I used warps. Because why would you not when they’re part of the game, eh?
Yesterday, Nintendo finally enabled their online service and with it came a big old pile of NES games for free[ref]Or at least “free while you have an active subscription”[/ref], one of which was – of course – Super Mario Bros. Like Sonic, it’s a game I have many copies of and of course have played and completed many times. Also like Sonic, I played it again today and completed it again today. Whilst on a bus. It was great.
Super Mario Bros 2 appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console months ago. I think it may have been one of the 30p games from a year ago. Either way, I’ve not played it since it came out, although I had reached level 5. Spurred on by playing NES Remix 2 recently, of which Super Mario Bros 2 is a part, I thought I’d best finish up the full game properly, and so did. It was much easier than I …
Nintendo lovingly gave lots of 3DS owners a free copy of this GBC game (on the 3DS Virtual Console) for Valentine’s Day. Ah, bless them. Seems that all that play on NES Remix recently has really paid off, as a I stormed through SMB Deluxe without losing a single life. OK, yes – I used the 1-2 to 4-1 and 4-2 to 8-1 warps, but I’ve never managed to do World 8 this easily. And that’s with the GBC version’s …
And that’s it! Well, mostly. The main thing is that I’ve rinsed the levels – all five (shiny) stars got, just like on New Super Mario Bros U. It didn’t take me quite as long as on the Wii U game, mainly because NSMB2 is a lot easier. In fact, bar a couple of the cannon levels, I don’t think any levels were particularly challenging. Sure, I don’t have a million coins yet (in fact, I have barely 70,000), and …
The thing with New Super Mario Bros U is, that sadly, it doesn’t have an infinite number of levels and doesn’t carry on until the end of all time. That is pretty much its only failing, but nonetheless, it means I ran out of game. Which is why I bought NSMB2. As it’s sort of more of the same. In actuality, it’s not as good as NSMBU. It’s a lot easier. There’s no proper world map. There’s no Acorn power …
And that’s it. All done. Every level completed, Nabbit Nabbed on every world, every Star Coin in every level, every level on Superstar Road unlocked, completed, and coins grabbed, and the final level unlocked and done. All five stars now adorn my saved game. And what a superb game. I loved it from start to finish, never felt the coin hunt was “filler”, never found a single level – regardless of how difficult – that I didn’t think was doable, …
I may have already completed it, but the game just keeps giving! Today, while trying to get all the big coins (I’ve all of them on the first two worlds, and most on the fourth now), I stumbled across a secret exit in a ghost house. That opened up yet another level for me to do! I also had a great time playing with my daughter helping on the game pad. She was laying down blocks over holes, and helping …
My first completed Wii U game! And a fantastic one it was! I genuinely believe this is the best 2D Mario game since Super Mario World. It’s just perfect. Varied worlds, secret exits, challenging levels (all pretty much missing from the other “New” SMB titles), and for the first time, the 3D Mario character actually works. In every other game with a 3D Mario played in 2D (even as far back as Mario vs Donkey Kong) he just looks wrong. …
This is lovely. I mean, really lovely. And not just the graphics (which are also lovely) either. It’s a massive, varied, pretty and inventive platformer. It’s harder than the far-too-easy DS and Wii NSMB games too, and better for it. Sure, I’ve completed four worlds (1, 2, 4 and 7, for some reason) and have about 90 lives, but some of the levels along the way have been real gamepad smashers. Take the Paratrooper Beetles level. It’s a vertically autoscrolling level, …
Yes, the original Super Mario Bros. Yes, I’ve completed it before. Lots of times. But I’d not completed it for a while (how did it get harder?!) and certainly not on the 3DS, where I’d barely played it. So today I completed it. And very lovely, and hard, it was too.
Of course, I’ve merely defeated the end of game boss. And I even accidentally found a warp from World 5 to World 8, so haven’t even done 6 and 7 yet. Or got all the gold coins so far. Or rescued all the Toads. But I do have 42 lives and haven’t seen the Super Guide or the Game Over screen yet, so that’s all good, yes? And, of course, I will go back. In fact, I’m going back now …
At first I thought “Hang on, isn’t this supposed to be hard?” as I got to 2-2 without losing a life or even finding it particularly tricky. Sadly, there’s a bit in the middle of 2-2 which seems totally impossible. So I lost all my lives. Bah.
