New Super Mario Bros Wii PAX Hands-On Preview

Jim "txshurricane" McLaughlin September 10th, 2009 at 6:25 PM

Game: New Super Mario Bros Wii
Co-Op: Yes
Type of Co-Op: 4 player offline campaign
Publisher/Developer: Nintendo EAD
Release Date: Winter 2009

Here comes more couch co-op! Nick and I got our hands on the New Super Mario Bros Wii title, and we had some good, classic, clean fun! There were no naked ladies, no suggestive sword poses, no barfing zombies, no brown-nippled serial slasher emperors...and we still managed to enjoy ourselves!

New Super Mario Brothers has a short way to go to become a serious contender as a solid co-op hit, but it's coming along nicely. Don't get me wrong: if it were released tomorrow, it would still hold its own, but I have the feeling that Nintendo has more up its sleeve than we've seen so far, which admittedly isn't much.

Hammer Brothers gonna knock you out, fool!

The game itself hearkens back to side-scrollers of old, taking the vertical levels one step further by allowing players to trampoline from each other's heads and by adding wall jumps to the modest number of actions available to the player, who actually holds the Wii-mote sideways like a classic controller. The official "Classic Controller" has not been named yet as a valid option of character control, but considering that some actions (namely: picking up your co-op friends, and performing a spin-jump) require you to shake the remote...we doubt that it will be.

In addition to the two moves mentioned above, shaking the Wii-mote is the best way to ensure a quick respawn should you expire: your character will automatically appear on screen trapped in a floating bubble, and a couple of quick Wii-mote shakes will gravitate the bubble towards your co-op partners, so that one of them can pop it and release you back into play.

Like many of the arcade classics, players will share coin collections within the game levels, and collecting enough coins will present all players with a 1-up. However, the similarity ends when the level ends, grading each player on the number of coins collected, number of enemies vanquished, etc. This little bit of competition has gone a long way to keep the fun fresh, especially in casual titles, which is what New Super Mario Bros appears to be by all counts.

These dungeons are full of new gimmicks and hidden areas.

We have been told that suits will once again return to the series in the new forms of penguin, propeller, and various others. To use the propeller suit you simply shake the Wii-mote and begint o fly. The faster you shake the faster you rise. Sadly, much to Nick's dismay, we didn't see the penguin suit.

Yoshi will be back, emerging from eggs as we fondly remember his roots to be. We did get to see someone snag a Fire Flower, which behaves just as it always has...with the benefit of upgraded visuals.

Currently, New Super Mario Bros does not support drop-in/drop-out functionality, a bummer for sure. However, Nintendo is looking for a way to implement this before release, which is currently not scheduled. According to Nintendo EAD, look for New Super Mario Bros sometime this winter.

Tags: 4 player co-op pax 2009 new super mario bros wii

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13 Total Reader Comments

Psyclops at 01:31 PM on 9.10.2009

SWEET! Finally, something to replace my love for LBP! =">

txshurricane at 01:33 PM on 9.10.2009

Yes, good point. Even though LBP has the creation tools, NSMB Wii fits the gap the LBP left open: co-op worth playing.

Heretic Machine at 01:38 PM on 9.10.2009

I was just thinking the other day that I'd like something like this, while playing around with the original (not Super) Mario Bros.

blakepro at 01:40 PM on 9.10.2009

This does look like a lot of fun. They really need to do drop in drop out.

I had read somewhere though that you can put your character on auto-pilot if a section of the game is too hard for you. That could sort of function as a temporary drop out kind of thing.

txshurricane at 01:44 PM on 9.10.2009

Yes, I didn't see that in action, so I forgot to mark it down. You can pause it, and your character will keep playing, like in Left 4 Dead.

mook06 at 02:06 PM on 9.10.2009

saweet, cant wait to waggle co-op style!

BigBadBob113 at 02:08 PM on 9.10.2009

Your review on the coopticast was great. Im really looking forward to this. The fact that it has aspects of the traditional Mario games, then throws in four player co-op (where you share coins) is sooo awesome.

smurphster at 03:18 PM on 9.10.2009

woah, how did i miss this in the co-opticast? now i REALLY want a wii. we both love mario, co-op mario is even better! i need this.

Tasark at 03:24 PM on 9.10.2009

This is a perfect Wii game. i'm so gettin it

BigBadBob113 at 04:14 PM on 9.10.2009

If only it had online play, but the Wii is really, REALLY lacking in that department. Not only is the friend code thing a pain, but there are barely any online games in general.

Mrxknown_JG at 07:14 PM on 9.10.2009

I can't wait to play this!

Syphous at 08:02 AM on 9.11.2009

This would be a must if I had a Wii.

Shazoo at 11:12 AM on 9.11.2009

I dont think anything can save the Wii for me at this point, after spending nearly $1000 between the console, wii fit, a slew of other "must-own" games, and being disappointed by them all(with the exclusion of Dr Mario on WiiWare), I think I'll stick to my DS for any nintendo nostalgia gaming.