New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 3DS

An All-Too-Familiar Walk Through The Mushroom Kingdom

Bryan Vore — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 15:15:00 GMT

I can’t believe six years have passed since Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. on DS. It showed the company’s willingness to revisit classic Mario 2D platforming, which hadn’t seen an original entry since the early ‘90s, and offered many new tweaks. The latest game, New Super Mario Bros. 2, is actually the third game in the series, but it doesn’t have an engaging new hook to entice players.

NSMB 2 is all about collecting those same gold coins you’ve been picking up for decades. A universal counter keeps track of every one you nab, but it in no way figures into the standard-issue kidnapped princess plot. The back of the box says to collect a million coins but that’s the only instruction you’re given on the matter. I scored over 30,000 in my first playthrough, and all I got was a growing pile of coins on the title screen. To get the whole million is an enormous undertaking, and you aren’t even given any unlocks or teases about your reward along the way – just a few notification messages. Even worse, if you do manage to reach your goal, the million-coin reward is supremely disappointing (though I’m not going to spoil it here).

The Koopalings return as bosses

The new focus on amassing coins comes through in several of Mario and Luigi’s new abilities. The golden flower power-up is like a dream come true; Mario turns into a moving golden statue that shoots gold balls that turn blocks and enemies into coins. These projectiles also have a sweet explosion effect on contact that takes out a large area of enemies. Sure, it’s overpowered, but it gets taken away when you’re hit or reach the end of a stage to keep things fair.

New gold rings temporarily turn all the enemies to gold and change all of their projectiles into coins. You can also jam Mario’s head into a gold brick block that he wears as a helmet. It grants more coins the more you move and adds in an extra layer of defense (though only for a limited amount of time).

As much fun as these new golden moves are, they’re mostly brief thrill rides rather than vital tools. I love that the raccoon tail returns from Super Mario Bros. 3, but it doesn’t help the game’s case in bringing fresh concepts to the table. Most of the assets and songs seem reused from the previous two entries, and many levels are easy to forget. NSMB 2 feels like more of an expansion pack than a unique entry.

One promising new direction is coin rush mode, in which players have to survive three random stages in a row on limited time without dying while collecting as many coins as possible. You then send your record to other players via StreetPass. When receiving a challenge, you don’t know what coin tally to shoot for, so you get a dramatic drumroll at the end to reveal who’s the best. This would have been so much more effective if you could send challenges online or see a leaderboard of the best rushers in the world. As anyone who’s dealt with StreetPass knows, you can’t count on your friends to have their system and game on them all the time. Good luck trying to track down strangers for challenge swapping.

The new auto-run minigame takes inspiration from mobile and Flash gaming

The two-player co-op mode could also benefit from online capabilities, but at least it runs without hiccups in local wireless mode. Players control Mario and Luigi (not those lame Toads) and earn twice the coins while teamed up. Only one player’s save file can be used, so it will rack up all the level progress, hidden star coins, and the outrageous bounty of extra lives (I got up to well over 400). At least the second player gets to keep whatever coins they earn. Depending on who your partner is, they can be as much hindrance as help, just like in the Wii game. Things are much less chaotic with two plumbers than the full four.

A Mario expansion still beats out most other platformers out there in the control and polish department. I can’t deny that I still enjoyed kicking koopa shells, climbing fences in castles, and hopping on the flag at the end of a stage. On the other hand, players have grown to expect innovation out of Mario, and this game makes a strong case that perhaps it’s time for Nintendo to move on from the “new” formula.

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New New Super Mario Bros. 2 Trailer

Jim Reilly — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:37:00 GMT

Get a load of some of the new power-ups in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS. The game comes out August 19 in North America, the same day as the 3DS XL. This new version puts an emphasis on collecting lots of and lots of coins. There's also a new Coin Rush mode where you can challenge friends to see who can collect the most coins.

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New Super Mario Bros. 2 Is Every Bit As Good As It Should Be

Dan Ryckert — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:14:00 GMT

Nintendo may have focused on another Mario game during their E3 press conference, but they didn’t completely ignore the plumber’s other title on the show floor. 3DS units made their way to the publisher’s booth today, and I had a chance to play three levels of Mario’s new portable adventure.

Despite being on 3DS, I didn’t notice anything that stood out as particularly gimmicky when it came to 3D effects. The first stage was reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros.’ levels that tasked players with avoiding mobs of Cheep Cheeps while crossing a bridge. Previous New Super Mario Bros. games have featured rings that trigger timed formations of red coins, but this game introduced a new type of these. These new rings caused a string of coins to follow all of the Cheep Cheeps, who temporarily turned gold.

The focus on coins was present throughout all three levels I played. One new golden flower power-up causes Mario to glow gold and throw giant golden fireballs, and it also causes this writer to write the word “gold” more times in one sentence than he ever has. These fireballs turn enemies and most blocks into coins, which can lead to an explosion of currency if you’re in a block-filled area. To give you a sense of how extensive the focus on coins is, I saw a counter at the end of the third level that told me I had collected 1,832 of them (although it wasn’t clear if this was for that single level or all three in total).

During the second, desert-themed level, I came across a power leaf that grants Mario his iconic raccoon suit. Note that this is the standard raccoon suit from Super Mario Bros. 3, not the Tanooki suit that was recently resurrected in Super Mario 3D Land. It behaves just as you remember, complete with the p-meter icons in the lower left. It can be used to fly and to swipe enemies and blocks, with the only difference being the behavior of the feathered descent it allows. In SMB 3, the tail could be wagged to slow your fall. In New Super Mario Bros. 2, it’s more of a Yoshi-like hover. A small detail, I know, but one that longtime Mario fans will most likely notice.

After beating the first two levels, I was treated to a final stage that was similar to the vertically-scrolling levels from SMB 3 and Super Mario World. Mario rode sliding blocks and avoided Dry Bones as he made his way to a boss door, where I was greeted by an old friend (well, foe). When I entered the door, I found myself against some Reznors. For those that haven’t played Super Mario World since 1991 (or not at all), they’re the triceratops that stand on rotating platforms above a fire pit. I dispatched of them just like I did on the Super Nintendo, which involves hitting the block they’re standing on from underneath. They fell into the lava, and the demo concluded.

Nintendo doesn’t seem to be drastically changing the Mario formula with this title, and I couldn’t be more okay with that. This series in particular exists purely to remind longtime fans of the gameplay they fell in love with, as well as to introduce a new generation of kids to an experience that created so many gamers. The publisher has a perfect track record when it comes to the core Mario franchise (in which I include the New Super Mario Bros. games), and my taste of New Super Mario Bros. 2 assures me that I’ll love this new entry just the same.

This Mad Coin-Grab Includes 2-Player Co-op

Tim Turi — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 02:49:00 GMT

Today, during a press conference at E3 2012, Nintendo revealed more information about the upcoming 3DS game New Super Mario Bros. 2. We learned the game is all about earning one million coins, saw a new power-up in action, and saw 2-player co-op in action.

The live demo began in World 2.1, a desert stage. Coins are in no short supply in New Super Mario Bros. 2. According to the game, the goal is to snatch up one million of the shiny little suckers. Mario does this by traditional means like smashing blocks and destroying enemies, but the where you might see three coins in a normal Mario game, here there are a dozen. A kicked koopa shell leaves a long trail of coins, blocks explode in a geyser of cash, and there are just generally way more coins. We saw the new golden flower power-up in action as well, which functions much like the fire flower, except everything Mario shoots turns into coins.

Players can compete with friends via asynchronous multiplayer enabled with StreetPass. Players strive to earn the most coins per level in the shortest time possible, pitting them against other Mario players to earn the best score.

Nintendo also revealed simultaneous two-player co-op throughout the entire campaign. The original New Super Mario Bros. for DS included two-player modes, but this marks the first time Mario and Luigi can truck through an entire portable 2D adventure together. Co-op worked well for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and we can’t wait to do it on the 3DS.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 for 3DS is available in stores or for download August 19.