I went into this game fully knowing that it got a lot of dislike for being more of the same, as well as a lot of praise for
being a fun Mario game. I haven't played a core Mario game since Yoshi's Island on Gameboy Advance, so I wasn't really
sure how this would work out, but I was definitely interested in it. Little bit expensive, but I think I'll play this for
a long time to come. Getting that 1 Million Coins is going to be an arduous task!
Having not played New Super Mario Bros.(DS) or New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I don't really know what's new or not. The game
feels like a throwback to the old Super Mario Bros. games, with a few new things thrown in like pipe cannons, gates, doors
that don't work(Ghost Houses). There aren't very many new enemies, if any at all. I didn't happen to notice any, myself.
Reznors from Super Mario World are back, however. They're easy though.
Gameplay - 8/10
If it's not broken, don't fix it. Just add a few tweaks here and there. New Super Mario Bros 2 has the same essential
gameplay that core Mario games are known for. Tight, enjoyable platforming, with various items to help you out along the
way. This latest installment adds three(3) new things to the table, all related to NSMB2's premise of collecting as many
coins as you can; the Gold Flower, the Gold Block, and the Gold Ring.
The Gold Flower acts exactly like the regular Fire Flower, with two differences. First, it is much more powerful, and
bigger. And second, anything breakable or changable that it hits becomes coins. This flower is rather rare though, and
until you beat the game, you can't store it in your Powerup Box until after you beat Bowser. And they last one stage, and
you lose it after that.
The Gold Block is one of the blocks you can keep jumping on/bouncing on that will keep giving you coins until it turns to a
normal block. If it's a Gold Block, however, it will change to that, and if you hit it again, Mario gets to wear that
block as a helmet(which actually does function as another item, you get hit, you lose this first). For a set amount of
coins, as long as you're dashing around, jumping, bouncing, or using various cannons, you'll get a whole slew of coins.
Very useful, and some stages ahve more than one.
And finally, the Gold Ring(Sonic the Hedgehog would love this thing!). It's like your usual Red Ring you jump through, to
collect red coins, however, this one turns all enemies to a gold palette color. I haven't managed to experiment with all
of the different enemies and this ring, as they're a tad rare to find, but enemies yield five(5) coins if you kill them,
increasing by 5 for each simultanious kill. This combos with what a gold shell will do, and that is to lay down lines of
coins where they fly. Should you hit a bunch of enemies, you could find yourself with a bunch of extra lives, as well as
a good amount of coins. Be warned, however, this ring only lasts a short time. Use it wisely.
Those are the only new powerups, which is slightly disappointing. Otherwise, you have the raccoon tail, the fire flower,
mushroom, giant mushroom, and mini mushroom. It would have been nice if they could have given us a few more, as these feel
very dry at this point.
Replayability - Varies(My score: 7/10)
The main game is very short, and ridiculously easy to beat. This may be partially unintentional, however. With the amount
of coins you collect during the entire main game(This will most likely be anywhere from 30,000-50,000), you will never run
out of lives. Perhaps the Game Over screen might be the hardest thing to get of all! That said, there are a few worlds to
unlock(Mushroom, Flower, and Star) that give the main game a bit longer of a time to be relevant.
The second thing they added is Coin Rush mode, which is pretty much time trials and seeing how many coins you can collect.
This will very much help your quest to get 1 Million Coins(Or that insanely high limit of 9,999,999 million coins. Good
luck with this one). You pick a "pack" to play, and you play 3 stages from that pack in a row, at random. Collect as many
coins as you can, some things are changed(Green 1UP mushrooms become Gold 50 Coin mushrooms) to accomodate this. But you
have no lives, and if you die, you have to start from the beginning(The coins you collected get added to your total
though). If you finish, you'll be able to set it as your high score, and share that score over Streetpass and possibly
Spotpass, to compete with friends. Sadly, there's no online leaderboard or anything, so if you don't have friends to play
it with, you're kind of out of luck on this, and it just becomes a fast way to gather coins.
But that's it in the game. Getting to 1 Million Coins will certainly be a task, and a commendable one at that, but it
feels like artifical length in the game. Nintendo has said that this game will get DLC eventually, however, so we'll see
if that makes it worth it or not.
Music - 7/10
Many people have said New Super Mario Bros. 2 uses much of the same music that its DS and Wii predecesors used. While that
may be true, it doesn't stop some of the music from being subpar. The game has many great pieces of music in it, but they
get used either too often, or not often at all. The game feels rather bland in this department, unless you're on world 6.
Then the music is just amazing. The stage music alone is one of the best tracks in the game.
But it is definitely a downfall for the game, as there seem to be so few tracks, that they all get quite boring after a
while. But, what music is new or decent in the game, it's enjoyable enough.
Graphics - 8/10
The graphics in the New Super Mario Bros. series all use the same visual art style, as well as the same world composition.
I'd say this is both a blessing and a boon to the game. It isn't very unique, instead it's very plain and boring. This
would be the biggest complaint here, the art style is just overused at this point. They need to mix things up, give us a
new type. Maybe something like Yoshi's Island's style?
That said, the graphics in this game are great at what they do, and do the game justice. Stages look very pretty, and
everything transitions well.
Final score: 7/10(with 5 being average)
Overall, the game is very, very fun if you go into it with an open mind, and don't mind the reused graphics. Some will say
it's too much the same as New Super Mario Bros.(DS) or New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but really, it's a Mario game, a core one
at that. What else would you expect? It's Mario, you can't change much without it not being "Mario" after that
(Innumerable spinoffs discounted). But despite the easy difficulty, it's still fun to go around back to stages to collect
the big gold coins, get your high coin score even higher, and watch that Lives counter rack up!
However, unless the game comes out with that DLC, it is not worth the price of $40. That's steep for this short of a game.
If you have the money, and are willing to keep playing for that 1 Million Coins goal(or higher), than this is certainly a
game you'll enjoy.
