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, where you have to jump up flying beetles. When you land on the smaller ones, they rise. Land on the bigger ones, they fall. Simple – only rise too high and you hit things off screen and die. Drop too far and you’re unable to progress, and die. Fail to notice the coins arranged in a massive Bullet Bill shape, so you can’t avoid the massive (as in, screen-sized) Bullet Bill that appears, and you die. Hit the tempting P-block only to realise it makes more massive Bullet Bills appear, and die. And die. And die. AND DIE.
And the Ghost House with the doors that lead round in circles and the ? blocks that aren’t lively coins or power-ups, but instead turn evil and home in on you and you die. And die.
But that’s great. That’s what I want. And boasting on MiiVerse when you’ve nailed a level? Awesome.