It's kind of a shame Super Mario World never got a proper sequel. After Nintendo successfully expanded and opened up the Mario formula with Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World refined its predecessor's concepts to create a 2D platform game that truly showed off the new Super NES, and it still stands as the peak of traditional 2D Mario titles. Yoshi's Island brought its own wonderful twist to that formula, but it wasn't really Super Mario World 2 no matter what the subtitle said.
By the time Nintendo finally got back to 2D Mario games with the New Super Mario Bros. series, that Mario World magic seemed lost to the ages. The first New SMB title on the Nintendo DS was too straightforward and too short, and the recent 3DS sequel had an off-putting focus on coin collecting. New Super Mario Bros. Wii provided its share of imaginative fun, but it was a bit too focused on the new gimmick of playing co-operative multiplayer.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find that New Super Mario Bros. U, the first real Mario title to launch with a home console since the Nintendo 64, is the best two-dimensional Mario title in decades, and the first since Super Mario World to really capture the appeal of the 8- and 16-bit classics that came before it.
Putting the pieces together
Part of the pleasure of playing is pure nostalgia. The return of long-forgotten enemies like Torpedo Ted and the tiny hopping Thwimp put a stupid grin on my face, as did watching the branching World Map grow and come to life as I beat levels, just like in Super Mario World. But the real strength here is the sheer inventiveness in the level design. Each new stage seems to introduce a wholly new concept from what came before: caverns with shifting floors and ceilings, castles with hanging metal chains used to swing over lava pits, sky levels where the floor is made of trampoline-like clouds, elevators with narrow paths through exposed electrical sparks, and an underwater level with an ever-present giant eel in pursuit. I was a particular fan of the maze-like Ghost Houses, most of which took me down multiple paths and dead ends before I found one of the exits.
It never feels like the game is just padding out the level count with a slightly altered repetition of a previous idea. Even the end-of-world boss Koopa Kids, which have often been barely distinguishable copies of one another in the past, each have their own unique attack style and personality this time around. Most of the enemies and concepts are familiar from old Mario games, but the new ways they're arranged here is nothing short of genius.
Of the truly new introductions in New SMB U, the most significant is probably the flying squirrel suit, which I felt was a pretty weak addition to the ranks of Mario's flight items. Instead of really flying, the new suit lets you glide long distances, with a single mid-air boost into the sky once per jump (after which you have to endure an annoyingly slow drift down to the ground). The multicolored Baby Yoshis return for a few occasional appearances, acting as a great shield that eats any small enemies in your path. While I liked the red Yoshi's balloon-like floating abilities, the blue Yoshi's bubbles and yellow Yoshi's light-up effects were less compelling.
New Super Mario Bros. U is also one of the most difficult 2D Mario games Nintendo has ever created. While the first few worlds are easily manageable even by beginners, the challenge ramps up quickly after that. I consider myself something of a Mario expert, but by the game's last few worlds I saw my maxed-out total of 99 extra lives dwindle down to the low 60s as I tried to make difficult jumps and manage tight spaces filled with enemies. To be fair, I brought some of this on myself by trying to find and collect the three challenging hidden star coins in each level. Beginning players willing to ignore that temptation might have an easier time of things.
Outside of those coins, the levels are absolutely packed with hidden secrets, including coin-filled rooms, 1-ups, and hidden exits which unlock secret levels (there's even a nice twist on Super Mario World's Forest of Illusion, where players can easily get trapped until they find the hidden exit to the next world). Just rushing through to the end goal is kind of missing the point. The challenge continues after the game is complete with a surprisingly wide-ranging Challenge Mode. There's the requisite time trial race through selected levels, but there are also dozens of other tasks, including collecting (or avoiding) coins, earning 1-ups, or completing miscellaneous tasks under tight time limits.
As the first ever high-definition Mario title, New SMB U does a decent job of showing off the Wii U's pixel-pushing power, even if the 2D viewpoint kind of wastes the system's 3D capabilities. The bright, sharp, highly animated environments make it hard to go back to the Mario games on the Wii. The game is also fully playable on the touchscreen GamePad if the TV is being used by someone else. Truth be told, I often found myself looking down at the GamePad screen even when the TV was available. Despite the lower resolution, there's something nice about having such a large, bright screen so close to your face.
One control note: I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't use the Xbox 360-style Wii U Pro Controller to play the game. Holding the GamePad was comfortable enough, even for long periods, but using it requires keeping the touchscreen on, which drains the battery more quickly. You can play with a regular Wii Remote, but that means shaking the controller to do spin jumps, which is much more annoying than just tapping a shoulder button.
Boost Mode: New and improved multiplayer Mario
You can play New Super Mario Bros. U with up to four players on-screen at once, but the levels seem tuned particularly for a single player this time around. Things are generally manageable with two people playing together, but once three or four characters are on-screen, it starts to feel crowded really quickly. You'll find yourself accidentally bumping people off platforms, bouncing off a fellow player's head to your doom, struggling to squeeze into a tight space with your fellow players, or threatening to scroll other players off the screen when chasing after an item. The frustration tends to outweigh the happy chaos when large groups of varying skill levels are involved.
I had much more fun with Boost Mode, the new cooperative option that lets a player with the touchscreen GamePad help out by tapping away at the screen like an omniscient guardian angel. Most of the time this means placing temporary blocks that can be used as stairways to hidden goodies or protective platforms to prevent a fall into a pit, but tapping the stylus can help knock over enemies (or stun larger ones), temporarily freeze moving platforms, light up dark corridors, or reveal hidden "3-up moon" blocks that only appear on the touchscreen.
The new mode felt like a good balance between the limited second-player support in Super Mario Galaxy, where I felt like my star-shooting was barely having any effect at all, and the active co-op mode in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, where I constantly felt like I was getting in the way. Trying to coordinate how best to use these new abilities was a bit cumbersome at first, but after a short while I developed a sort of unspoken, sixth sense about where blocks were expected and needed, communicating without actually speaking. Eventually, you just sort of know what the other player needs almost before they do, and the other player can trust that you'll be there to catch them as they perform a trusting leap into the void. It's a connection that's put to the test in the Boost Rush mode, where you need to work together to collect coins and advance through an automatically scrolling level.
I'm not sure that this Boost Mode is really the killer app that proves the value of the Wii U GamePad, but it comes pretty close. Add it to one of the best designed 2D Mario games ever, and you have a package that ably serves the launch title role that Mario games have so often served in the past. While it probably doesn't justify a $300+ system purchase all by itself, New Super Mario Bros. U is sure to be a keystone in any game library for the system.