That changes with “New Super Mario Bros. 2” (Nintendo, for the 3DS, $39.99), which takes the whole money-grab concept quite literally. The whole point of the game is to grab money — namely, the sparkling gold coins that have littered almost every Mario release since the mid-1980s. It’s an oddly mercenary approach to Nintendo’s lovable little plumber, and the result is one of the least inspired outings in his storied history.

That’s not to say this is a bad game. It’s exactly what you would expect: a collection of cleverly designed, two-dimensional environments for Mario to scamper through, dodging monsters and collecting treasures. The usual power-ups — flowers that let Mario shoot fireballs, a raccoon suit that lets him jump farther — are available in convenient locations. And most of the levels include alternate pathways, so there’s motivation to return after you’ve conquered them.

But while I enjoyed my time in Mario’s latest world, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d been there before. The major new power-up is a golden block that screws onto Mario’s head, creating a trail of coins. The familiar POW blocks now turn obstacles into, well, coins. And hoops scattered across the skies deliver … more coins. Some sort of prize awaits if you collect 1 million of the things, but I only made it to 10,000.

And then there’s Coin Rush, in which Mario has one life with which to race through three randomly chosen levels, collecting as much gold as possible. You can then challenge other humans to beat your score using the 3DS’ StreetPass function. There’s also a multiplayer mode in which Mario and his brother, Luigi, collaborate to collect double the loot. Both players need a 3DS and a copy of the game, and you need to be in the same room to team up.

Despite the “New” in its title, the latest Mario game is more of a look back to the 1980s, when we were all enjoying his antics on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Nostalgia aside, it just doesn’t offer the innovations and rewards of last fall’s “Super Mario 3D Land.”

Two stars out of four.

You know, that weird feeling you get when you think you’ve done something before? I had that feeling this week, thanks to a stereotypical, Italian plumber. Lucky for me, no unsightly plumber crack was involved.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Nintendo 3DS is the sequel to the 2006 game released on the Nintendo DS. And if you own that game, I suggest you go back and replay it again. Seriously, it’s like the exact same game, outside of a couple of changes.

That’s not to say the sequel isn’t fun, because the original was a classic Mario 2-D platformer on the go. But after starting up the 3DS game and playing for a few hours, it’s impossible not to get that “here we go again” feeling. Everything from the overworld map layout to the gameplay remains nearly identical to the original.

There have been some changes. The power leaf and Raccoon Mario makes its triumphant return from Super Mario Bros. 3. There is also an emphasis on collecting as many coins as humanly possible, turning the game into a regular coinucopia as it were. There are coin block helmets that multiply the number of coins you can collect, and a gold flower leaf that turns blocks and enemies into currency. It’s like everything and anything pukes out a coin or 10 or 50, which results in plenty of extra lives. I racked up over 100 extra lives in no time.

But just because it’s easy to get a life, doesn’t mean your quest to rescue the perpetually kidnapped Princess Toadstool will be a cake walk. The difficulty has been ramped up in the sequel, and presents a challenge to the most seasoned Mario veterans. There’s also the option of playing two-player wirelessly in either co-op or a coin rush mode. In coin rush, you collect as many coins as possible over three stages and put your high score up against the world to beat.

Unlike the far superior Super Mario 3D Land, the 3-D functionality is near useless this time around. It barely adds any depth to the graphical presentation, and the difference between 2-D and 3-D is minimal. That’s pretty disappointing, considering we’re playing what’s supposed to be a 3-D handheld.

When you think about it, it’s fitting that collecting coins is at the forefront of the New Super Mario Bros. 2, because it seems Nintendo is going back to their cash cow series. There’s a certain amount of fun, but there needs to be an injection of new gameplay. Shake things up a little, and please, just put the cookie cutter away.

As blasphemous as this sounds, I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

On The Bit Life Blog this week:

I look back at a Nintendo 8-bit cult classic Milon’s Secret Castle, and to keep with the this week’s theme of collecting as many coins as possible, I came across a neat Super Mario Bros. coin bank complete with sound effects. Ka-ching!

By night, T.J. Colello is a sports reporter at the Cape Breton Post. Even later at night, he plays way too many video games to be considered healthy for a normal human being. He can be reached via email at tjcolello@cbpost.com, on Twitter @tjcolello, on Facebook at facebook.com/thebitlife or visit his blog at thebitlife.capebretonpost.com.

Hey Nintendo. I’ve got something to say.

Yesterday I received my brand spanking new copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for my Nintendo 3DS. I literally have not been following it in the news, knew nothing about any premise or setups, and chose to be pleasantly surprised by whatever the game had to offer. But I didn’t think one tiny iota that I would be disappointed right off the bat with a new graphical feature.

As a person with a strong opinion on a number of things, I have been known to throw my weight around and open my mouth when I probably shouldn’t. Now that I am in my thirties I generally find myself a lot more forgiving of artistic decisions than I was in my teens or twenties. So for me, this is a big, rant-worthy one and I promise it doesn’t come from a fanboy “You ruined my favorite game brand” perspective.

I love my 3DS. I love it more than I thought I would. Games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 3D Land, and Mighty Switch Force! (shameless self-plug) look great when turning on the 3D mode. The already great graphics pop out and have a whole new feel. But New Super Mario Bros. 2, a game which delivers clean and colorful graphics, simply looks awful when 3D is turned on.

If you haven’t seen NSMB2 in 3D, you need to. Rent it, borrow it from a friend, see it in a store kiosk.  Whatever you do, see it! The mechanics of it are: as you slide the 3D slider on the top screen the objects “slide” horizontally in each eye to create the 3d effect, much the same as any other game. But in addition to this, the game is layering a blur effect on every background object being translated into 3d which gets stronger as the slider is pushed further. To reiterate, every object behind the playfield is being blurred, and the more 3d you want, the more blurry it gets.

This is a “feature” new to any game on the 3DS (to my knowledge). Up until this release every game has simply translated objects horizontally to enable the 3D effect, and for those of us who can see the 3D effect, and enjoy the 3D, this new effect is horrible. It sounds so subjective, but I have shown this to many people who are confused and turned off by the effect, and the only remote support was a Nintendo fanboy who was mostly playing devil’s advocate calling it a neat idea.

The blur effect is fundamentally flawed from a functional standpoint as well as an aesthetic one. It literally makes the objects in the background lose enough detail that your eyes can’t see the 3D on the background objects. Some playfield objects and those just behind the playfield begin to pop out in 3D, and feel far in front of the hot blurry mess in the far background, but the subtleties of items existing at different depths is completely lost. Ultimately what you are left with is a game which looks great in screenshots, and without the 3D turned on, but the very key feature of this specific console completely obliterates the great graphics into a blurry mess.

As a developer who has worked on the 3DS, I can see where someone would get this idea. And as the phrase goes “There is no such thing as a bad idea”, but I am sure there is a quote out there that finishes it out with something along the lines of “…but if that idea comes to fruition make sure it doesn’t suck.”

I am surprised this feature saw its way to release for a number of reasons. I do not know if this is an “East vs. West” kind of situation, but I know many people on any of my dev teams would see this in action and say “This doesn’t work very well” or “This sucks, you’re an idiot for wanting this.” (And others may simply commiserate while out at lunch with coworkers, but when more than one person complains about the same thing it usually finds its way back to management to try to be fixed or addressed.) I welcome this kind of an open discourse, but wonder if employees at a Japanese developer and publisher keep these kinds of things to themselves more often, because I have to believe some people didn’t like this during the course of development.

I am also surprised by how strong the blur effect really is. It reminds me of when I bought my first computer in 1999 and had a copy of Adobe Photoshop 5.0. The first weekend I had the thing I stayed up until six in the morning for three straight days just fiddling with filters and creating neat art (which I look back on at times, and find the art to be riddled with lens flares.) There was never a hint of subtlety: you did an effect to showcase the effect. The NSMB2 blur effect feels like more of a tech demo than a feature to be praised or showcased, and I really feel it should have stayed in the demo stage.

But a part of me is not surprised to see this thing out there because I have seen this kind of thing before on other games I’ve worked on (as I am sure many other devs have as well). Someone with some clout had a neat idea and really, really wanted to see it in the game. I can imagine meetings over the course of development going:

• “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a blur?”
• “Hey guys, make sure you get that blur in.”
• “Hey, it’s that blur, I love it.”
• “I hear what you are saying, but I really like the blur.”
• “Tell the testers to stop sending bugs about the blur.”
• “Stop bringing this up, we are 2 weeks from beta. I’m the boss and I like it. The blur stays.”

Blur occurs in films and photography, and we have all seen how blur works: focus on one object, things behind or in front get blurry. The blur helps to distinguish between foreground and background objects, and even Penny-Arcade started using this from time to time for dramatic purposes. But in 3D simply turning the 3D mode on makes the depth distinct, and you don’t get confused about the location of the player and what exists in the background and what exists in the foreground.

The thing that frustrates me the most is that the whole point of the 3DS console is the 3D effect. No other device is doing it. It’s in the name. I am stating the obvious so hard it is hurting my fingers typing it. This blur effect ruins the very feature that makes your system unique and wonderful.  This is Nintendo making this happen, not a third party developer. This would be like Tesla Motors releasing a diesel engine vehicle. This would be like Apple putting a 56k modem on their iPhone. It would be like Smith Wesson selling a black powder musket for law enforcement. It is counter to the very thing that makes their product a unique standout.

Nintendo, by doing this you are saying one of two things to consumers. 1) “Some people have a hard time with 3D so we are turning on this blur to make 3D easier to see”, which is essentially apologizing for the key feature of your best device currently on the market. Or 2) “We don’t feel the 3D effect is important enough for our customers to keep the game looking good when 3D mode is turned on.”

Every game developer should see this for themselves and come to their own conclusion. I for one genuinely hope this is the last time I ever see this effect in a 3DS title.

Whenever video-game companies stretch out popular franchises for financial reasons rather than creative ones, disenchanted customers call it a “money grab.” It’s a charge Nintendo has largely been immune to, even though its most popular character, Mario, has starred in hundreds of games.

That changes with “New Super Mario Bros. 2” (Nintendo, for the 3DS, $39.99), which takes the whole money-grab concept quite literally. The whole point of the game is to grab money — namely, the sparkling gold coins that have littered almost every Mario release since the mid-1980s. It’s an oddly mercenary approach to Nintendo’s lovable little plumber, and the result is one of the least inspired outings in his storied history.

That’s not to say this is a bad game. It’s exactly what you would expect: a collection of cleverly designed, two-dimensional environments for Mario to scamper through, dodging monsters and collecting treasures. The usual power-ups — flowers that let Mario shoot fireballs, a raccoon suit that lets him jump farther — are available in convenient locations. And most of the levels include alternate pathways, so there’s motivation to return after you’ve conquered them.

But while I enjoyed my time in Mario’s latest world, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d been there before. The major new power-up is a golden block that screws onto Mario’s head, creating a trail of coins. The familiar POW blocks now turn obstacles into, well, coins. And hoops scattered across the skies deliver … more coins. Some sort of prize awaits if you collect 1 million of the things, but I only made it to 10,000.

And then there’s Coin Rush, in which Mario has one life with which to race through three randomly chosen levels, collecting as much gold as possible. You can then challenge other humans to beat your score using the 3DS’ StreetPass function. There’s also a multiplayer mode in which Mario and his brother, Luigi, collaborate to collect double the loot. Both players need a 3DS and a copy of the game, and you need to be in the same room to team up.

Despite the “New” in its title, the latest Mario game is more of a look back to the 1980s, when we were all enjoying his antics on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Nostalgia aside, it just doesn’t offer the innovations and rewards of last fall’s “Super Mario 3D Land.” Two stars out of four.

———

The release of “NSMB2” coincides with the arrival of Nintendo’s newest hand-held game device: the 3DS XL ($200), an extra-large version of the 3DS machine introduced last year. So you get your dual screens — one a touch screen, the other a three-dimensional graphics display — but they’re both about 90 percent larger.

That’s a huge difference to a gamer like me with vision problems. My eyes usually get tired after about 10 minutes of looking at the original model’s 3.53-inch-diagonal 3-D display. The XL’s 4.88-inch screen means I don’t need to squint as much, so I can play for about half an hour without needing a break. As a game reviewer, that’s a blessing when I’m facing a deadline, but I think you civilians will like it, too.

The entire package is still reasonably compact, fitting into an adult-size jeans pocket — though not exactly comfortably. If you resisted the 3DS when it came out last year, now’s a good time to give it a second look.

———

Online:

http://newsupermariobros2.nintendo.com

http://www.nintendo.com/3ds

WE won’t patronise you by going over the Mario basics – this is the same running, jumping, coin-grabbing formula that’s delighted for more than 25 years now.

Nintendo, again, deliver a ?tour-de-force in terms of level design, striking the perfect balance between challenge and fun, ingenuity and invention.

Mario is as acrobatic as ever and, using all the skills at his disposal to uncover every secret, will see a standard five-hour playthrough easily double.

There’s a greater focus on coin collection than ever before, with the game sometimes raining the shiny stuff in bucket loads as you collect different power-ups, giving Mario the Midas touch.

Hit a million and Nintendo promise a nifty secret, though we’ve not had the time to hit that mammoth milestone just yet.

Visually, New Super Mario Bros 2 is as vibrant as any Nintendo classic but the 2D action really doesn’t suit the console’s 3D capabilities.

There’s little added depth with the 3D slider pushed up, instead muddying the detailed backdrops to each level.

For all the fun to be had, this is one of those rare occasions where a side-scrolling Mario game isn’t a must-have.

New Super Mario Bros 2 gives you the nostalgic hit that you’re most likely looking for, yet it feels a slightly pedestrian tread through Mario’s usual stomping grounds, particularly when lined up alongside the brilliant Super Mario 3D Land with all its bells and whistles.

When the familiar action is as good as this, it’s not that much of a criticism, but there’s a slight spark missing here.

Mario isn’t showing his age just yet but the launch of the Wii U and the promise of fresh adventures it will bring just can’t come quickly enough.

Out Now on Nintendo 3DS
£29.99

Whenever video-game companies stretch out popular franchises for financial reasons rather than creative ones, disenchanted customers call it a “money grab.” It’s a charge Nintendo has largely been immune to, even though its most popular character, Mario, has starred in hundreds of games.

That changes with “New Super Mario Bros. 2″ (Nintendo, for the 3DS, $39.99), which takes the whole money-grab concept quite literally. The whole point of the game is to grab money — namely, the sparkling gold coins that have littered almost every Mario release since the mid-1980s. It’s an oddly mercenary approach to Nintendo’s lovable little plumber, and the result is one of the least inspired outings in his storied history.

That’s not to say this is a bad game. It’s exactly what you would expect: a collection of cleverly designed, two-dimensional environments for Mario to scamper through, dodging monsters and collecting treasures. The usual power-ups — flowers that let Mario shoot fireballs, a raccoon suit that lets him jump farther — are available in convenient locations. And most of the levels include alternate pathways, so there’s motivation to return after you’ve conquered them.

But while I enjoyed my time in Mario’s latest world, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d been there before. The major new power-up is a golden block that screws onto Mario’s head, creating a trail of coins. The familiar POW blocks now turn obstacles into, well, coins. And hoops scattered across the skies deliver … more coins. Some sort of prize awaits if you collect 1 million of the things, but I only made it to 10,000.

And then there’s Coin Rush, in which Mario has one life with which to race through three randomly chosen levels, collecting as much gold as possible. You can then challenge other humans to beat your score using the 3DS’ StreetPass function. There’s also a multiplayer mode in which Mario and his brother, Luigi, collaborate to collect double the loot. Both players need a 3DS and a copy of the game, and you need to be in the same room to team up.

Despite the “New” in its title, the latest Mario game is more of a look back to the 1980s, when we were all enjoying his antics on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Nostalgia aside, it just doesn’t offer the innovations and rewards of last fall’s “Super Mario 3D Land.” Two stars out of four.
 

© 2012 Associated Press/AP Online under contract with YellowBrix. All rights reserved.

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The original and ultimate casual game for many —Mario — dons a new avatar in the New Super Mario Brothers 2 and brings back a lot of nostalgia. Mario, perhaps, is one of those iconic virtual characters that will easily make it to the video game hall of fame, if one ever gets to that.

And, while most of us might have moved on to complex gaming platforms like the Xbox or PlayStation consoles, revisiting Mario on a Nintendo hand-held promises to be a highly satisfying experience.

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Gameplay
The New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS brings back the traditional side-scrolling adventure game featuring Mario, Luigi and other favourite characters from the popular Mario series.

Though it is a sequel, New Super Mario Bros 2 mimics the titles before it. Bowser steals the princess from under Mario’s nose, sends his kids to take out Mario, who tries to find and save the princess. Jumping on enemies is the standard line of attack, the mushrooms will make Mario grow bigger, flowers bring the ability to shoot fireballs, leaves lend the ability to fly, and gold coins are the currency to really up your ante on points and a variety of added options.

This 3DS game, it seems, has a serious focus on collecting of coins. In the previous Mario games, 100 collected coins meant an extra life for Mario. In New Super Mario Bros 2, while 100 of them still get another life, they also give the ability to unlock some bonus stages.

With coins strewn across levels, we felt it adds almost nothing to the gameplay beyond granting more extra lives and making the game even easier than it already is. Some of the star coins are well hidden and will require some serious exploring to discover them, and this may please hardcore gamers who can diligently put in hours finding every single star coin on a particular level.

Some new tricks
Gold begins to overpower the screen with new power-ups like golden flower that turns all the enemies golden for a short time. Hit a turtle and launch it in a direction, and this will leave a trail of golden coins. The other new powerup is a coin block head. If you bash a block with coins, the block gets stuck to Mario’s head until you hit an enemy again. As Mario moves about, the coins fall out of the block and can be collected.

One also has the choice to take the mustachioed plumber on a Coin Rush mode, where a gamer attempts to speed through levels while collecting as many coins as possible. The new co-op mode allows a gamer to play against a friend (only wirelessly), but the two will have to own a copy of the game.

From running, jumping, stomping to floating in the air or swimming through water, controls are spot-on, and as good as any 2D platform game gets. Given that this is a 2D-based game, the 3D slider (on 3DS models) adds depth to the backgrounds. The game is enjoyable with or without the 3D slider on. It can be played in both the modes and both look decent.

New Super Mario Bros 2 doesn’t take the earlier 2D Mario games to a new level, and is certainly not as disruptive as last year’s Super Mario 3D Land, but that does not mean we should be writing it off the new version. New Super Mario Bros 2 is as good as Nintendo’s finest 2D platformers, but doesn’t give the desired highs.

Availability: The suggested retail price across online stores is about Rs 3,500. The game is available on the Nintendo 3DS platform (to be purchased separately).

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It’s been three years since the last New Super Mario series entry, but less than a year since Super Mario 3D Land jumped onto the retail scene. With Mario making an appearance on the Wii U this year as well, some fans may be wondering if Mario is making his plumbing services a little too accessible.

Title: New Super Mario Bros. 2
Publisher/Developer: Nintendo
System: Nintendo 3DS
MSRP: $39.99
Release Date: August 19th, 2012
ESRB: E for everyone
Players: 1-2

If you’ve played just a few Mario games, then you know what to expect here. Peach has been kidnapped again, and Mario must traverse treacherous terrain to get her back. Mario hops across the usual fire, snow, grass, sky, and beach areas, mercilessly stomping on anything in his path. Each world has around six to seven standard stages, a ghost house, a tower, and a castle.

The controls of the game are as great as they’ve ever been. Mario has a feeling of weight and momentum, and it’s something that may need getting used to. Personally I prefer the easier movement of Super Mario World, but the controls of New Super Mario Bros. 2 are practically flawless. Having the ability to make slight adjustments to Mario’s speed as he runs adds to the depth of gameplay.

As for the presentation, I feel that the New Super Mario Bros. series doesn’t quite get its due. Just about any object in the game has subtle gradations in color, a texture, and/or a hand-drawn pattern. The ground is not merely brown. It has layers of colors, shadows, and rocks. People who say that the game doesn’t have good graphics, or that it isn’t detailed aren’t looking close enough. The one detriment in New Super Mario Bros. 2, unlike its Wii counterpart, is that the open sky sometimes has a film grain look to it that isn’t pleasing to the eye. I don’t think it has to do with the resolution of the screen because I didn’t have a problem with any of the other background graphics. Thankfully It’s not too noticeable while you’re focusing on playing. The 3D effect slowly blurs the background as you move the 3D slider up, giving a razor sharp focus on the foreground. It’s a nice effect, and it gives a greater feeling of the background being distant, though there is a major loss of detail because of it. I often kept the slider in the middle to retain more of the background details.

The bosses of the game are simply too easy, and with no extra boss rush mode with added challenge, they remain a disappointment. The towers are populated by an ancient relic from Super Mario World, the triceratops standing on platforms that rotate. They are slightly different in each tower, but they’re never difficult-I think I was hit once. Maybe. The Koopa Kids who inhabit the castles of each world mostly feel like rehashes from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Some of them are slightly different, but slightly doesn’t take away the sting of disappointment.

A whole horde of old foes are in attendance in New Super Mario Bros. 2. What would a Mario game be without goombas? Empty, I say. The koopa troopas are also back, dancing to the music. Then there are a handful of enemies from Super Mario Bros. 3: chain chomp, fire snake (several flames connected to one larger flame), fire chomp (the chain chomp that flies around and shoots fireballs at you), and micro goombas (the little guys who stick to you and prevent you from jumping). I won’t sit here and name them all, but there are plenty of enemies to keep you on your toes.

Some levels offer up a challenge, and most are more difficult and more fun to play than the bosses. One level has you munching down a mini mushroom to grow small so you can run across a level full of water while you spring off of flying koopa troopas and dodge giant balls of spikes. This level in particular has two versions of it; their structure is slightly different, and the harder version’s screen auto-scrolls at about twice the speed. Being an experienced player, I liked having the option to play a harder version of that level. It’s just too bad that more levels weren’t built this way to better cater to a wide audience.

There are a few cannon levels that blast you across a short level, with only the jump button under your control. They can be fairly challenging, and they’re a nice diversion from the standard fare. I wish there were more surprises like this. It seems that a lot of Mario games throw in a few levels like this, but like the rest, they seem like tantalizing experiments that leave you wanting more (stingray level from Super Mario Galaxy, anyone?).

The levels are mostly compact and linear, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some players may take a lot of time, struggling to get through a level. More advanced players may beat levels their first try, but they’ll also have Star Coins and secrets to go back for. The great thing about this game’s level design is that once players have explored extensively to find the secrets, levels can be replayed without those secrets bogging down the fun of dashing through to the end.

While Star Coins aren’t usually too difficult to find, and you can often get clued in on their location, finding the secret exits to levels can be unnecessarily frustrating. In Super Mario World, the game that started the trend in Mario games of levels having secret exits that open up different paths, you could at least tell which level had a secret exit to find because it was the color red on the map, as opposed to the one-exit yellow-colored levels. In New Super Mario Bros. 2, not only do you not know for sure which levels have secret exits, but sometimes finding the exit within the level is an absolute nightmare. Many of the secret exits are accessed via an invisible block hidden in the level. Most of the time there is absolutely no indication of where this invisible block is, so you’re left with having to jump around mindlessly, hoping that you’ll eventually find it. Rather than wasting my time with finding invisible blocks, it would have been great if Nintendo had included a time trial mode, and/or a bosh rush mode.

Coin Rush is a mode that gives players one life to complete three levels and collect as many coins as possible. The limited time in each level adds to the tension. The Gold Flower power-up allows players to throw fireballs that turn everything into gold. Obviously this is a very useful skill in Coin Rush, but given only one Gold Flower to be used in one of three levels, an element of strategy is added. There aren’t any leaderboards for Coin Rush, and I suspect it’s so that players compete locally, and thus have a chance to one-up each others’ scores and/or beat the scores of strangers they pass (via the street pass feature). With leaderboards in place, most players would just watch helplessly as their scores failed to approach the top ten (trust me, I know from experience). Though some players may not like the lack of a leaderboard system, I think that by not including it, most players will actually have more fun competing with people they know. A total of three courses can be found in Coin Rush mode, and players should be able to squeeze out at least an hour or two of fun out of it.

There is a two-player mode available, but I was not able to test it out.

Everything included, this is a fun Mario game that is worth your time. It’s the 2D Mario that you grew up with. It’s better than the DS’ New Super Mario Bros., but not quite as fun as New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Super Mario 3D Land. Dedicated fans of the Mario games may be disappointed that, despite the title, there’s not much new here; it feels like Mario was put on autopilot with this one. Though there are some challenges to be had, I would mostly recommend this game to the less experienced players. Advanced gamers will have fun with it, sure, but it only took me around six hours to complete, and a total of sixteen hours to find every secret and beat every level. If that doesn’t sound like enough to you for the retail price of $39.99, you might want to gift the game to a younger family member, and then borrow it. It’s great that this game exists, if only to introduce newer players to the land of Mario, but as a lifetime fan, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next time Mario and I can go on a more unique and fresh adventure.

Ryan Southard is a video game enthusiast, dissecting games down to their tiniest details. Whether it’s new or it’s old, as long as it’s awesome, he’ll play it.

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