By now, you’ve heard. NSMB2 is bad and not original and all sorts of things that go bump in the night. Well, I’m here to tell you that if you own a 3DS or like 2d Maro games, this is a must and by far the best 2D Mario game since World 2 Yoshi’s Island, if not SMW itself.
What is everyone missing? This is the sequel to SMB3 that we have never gotten. THIS is the game that is what we expected would be the progression for SMB4, and despite what everyone is saying, it actually does add something new.
The coin collecting thing was something that I passed off as being absolutely worthless at E3. This actually made me wonder if I wanted to get the game at all since I was worried that the coin thing would become the focus. It is NOT the focus and is more like a fun little add on similar to the emblem sharing in Prime 3. It is, again, as if Nintendo is saying, “We have internet functionality. No seriously, check this out. You can collect coins, and then other people do, and then the INTERNET freaking keeps up with it and keeps you up with the coinz.” I have found myself enjoying this as it is not the focus. I can just look down and see I’ve gotten so many coins, and think, that’s kinda cool now let’s beat this world. This adds is the desire to go out of your way to get difficult coins. I was the type of Mario player that was only interested in beating the game, I didn’t care about coins and only really got them if they were “in my way.” Now, I try to get all the hard ones and it adds to the difficulty and excitement of beating levels. It also adds a power up that puts a coin box on Mario’s head so you can collect uber coins, and my favorite, gold fireballs. You are invincible and use your fireballs to break bricks into pure coins. This would be fun even without the coins, but with it is even better.
Bringing back the leaf and raccoon tail is huge. Sure, 3Dland had the Tanooki suit. The deal that was made over that was as if they had ressurected some grand Egyptian Pharoah that was finally willing to explain just how the Pyramids were built. Aliens, of course, but the bigger point is that you couldn’t FLY with the tail. You could hover, but without flying it just felt nerfed. It should be a lesson that Nintendo should learn in general. If you give us old things, don’t make them worse than what we had. Having the raccoon tail, running, and flying takes us back to SMB4 and World, and is one of the reasons this feels like the first real SMB game in 20 years. The gameplay that is added/changed with this allows for much more creativity in level design and brings us back to the pinnacle of Mario. I never understood why Nintendo continually gimped Mario, OH BUT HE HAS A SHINY HAT they said, and this game proves that point for me. Fuck the shiny hat, by the way, give me tails and capes any day.
This is the best Mario game that has been released since Super Mario World. Despite being the best Metroid game ever, this game bests SMW2 in every way. Sure, it is Mario, which apparently some reviewers don’t like, but it is Mario at its best (well not best, SMB3 and SMW are still better,) and you NEED to play it. This is absolutely NOT recycled from the other NSMB games. The only things recycled are the world map and the god awful music. Speaking of that, Nintendo take away the Rugrats “wah wah” music and give us some music worthy of Mario Bros. Maybe Koji Kondo could take a break from directing Wii Music? Anyway, this game is great, go buy it right now.
