5.4 KiB
| title | date | score | game_release_year | howlongtobeat_id | howlongtobeat_hrs | game_name | game_developer | game_genre | tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Super Mario Bros. 2: Catchy Coin Galore | 2023-10-22T10:00:00+02:00 | 3 | 2012 | 6535 | 5.5 | New Super Mario Bros. 2 | Nintendo EAD | 2d platformer |
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In anticipation of the first truly new "wonderful" (hint) 2D Mario game in over a decade, it appeared like a good idea to revisit a few older entries in order to jog my memory as to why everyone---myself included---loves fooling around with that Italian plumber so much. I bought a copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 (NSMB2) for my wife several years ago, just before the honorary state funeral of the 3DS, and never got around to trying it myself, hence it seemed like the perfect place to start.
I was wrong. In essence, NSMB2---by the way confusingly called "two", while in reality it's the fourth entry of the New series---is just New Super Mario Bros. painted in gold, literally. There's little new to be found here, which is perfectly fine if you're not expecting it, but it also makes NSMB2 hard to recommend if you've never played one of the 2D New Mario games before. Let's take a closer look.
In NSMB2, you'll be yet again facing off against Bowser's children who kidnapped the princess. Mario is quick to give them a proper beating though: with only six main worlds you'll be staring at the credits before you know it, although we all know that hunting for secrets and collecting the three star coins is the real appeal of the game. However, I just couldn't be bothered with it. Not that the level design isn't up to snuff: the expected Nintendo EAD quality certainly is present and correct. The themes, soundtrack, and overall design of NSMB2 simply felt a bit bland: it's all been done before. By the end of the game, I was really getting sick of the typical overly cheery and too rehashed NSMB-style sound design.
The levels are arranged in a typical world-like fashion, and yes, rest assured, world two is the desert and world six is full of lava. In the world map, Mario jumps from dot to dot where visual cues give away possible alternative routes, perhaps even to one of the two hidden worlds if you exclude the more challenging star world that unlocks after beating the game. Again: you've seen this before, it's virtually identical to 2006's New Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo DS, and that even includes the enemies, the music, the backgrounds, the wiggly mushroom platforms, the power ups (remember tiny Mario and the occasional smaller tube leading to secrets?), the three star coins, the typical NSMB look and feel, and so forth.
For the faithful Mario fan yearning for a proper 2D adventure on the 3DS, that's a great thing, but for the adventurous feeling platform enthusiast expecting something novel, it's not. But what about the "catchy coin galore", then?
To me personally, I couldn't care less about the coins. Make no mistake, I think the premise of NSMB2 is, as usual, original and fun, but in practice, more coins just means more lives. The core run-left-to-right-avoiding-platforms gameplay isn't altered. About halfway through the game, I had 70 lives. The low difficulty of this New installment didn't bother me, and some (but arguably too little) of the star coins are still very much a challenge to collect, but I've never been a greedy coin-collecting plumber. When I'm playing a Wario game, however, that's an entirely different matter.
The power-ups that come with it, such as a coin block that has you spitting out coins or a golden fire flower that temporarily turns everything into gold, are fun to use, but not as ground-breaking as the level and gameplay altering ones such as the tanooki suit or the mini mushroom. I even liked the penguin and propeller suit of the Wii version more, as they too alter the way you traverse the levels. I ultimately even ended up skipping a few of the coin-related challenges in the level: I'd rather be challenged by the tight structure and design of the levels themselves---which thankfully is still very much present here. As long as you don't mind facing a few ridiculously easy (sub)bosses along the way.
In the end, I wondered: who is NSMB2 for? Super Mario 3D Land is the better Mario game on the 3DS, but it's not a classic 2D platformer. If you don't have access to the original game, NSMB2 is still a great fit on a great handheld device, even though it doesn't offer anything new. I think the NSMB games on the Wii and WiiU are better because of the 4-player couch co-op chaos that never disappoints. The consensus tells us NSMBU houses the most interesting level design, so I might have a crack at that one next, since the Switch deluxe version comes with the alluring New Super Luigi U expansion pack.---or perhaps I should simply revisit the original DS one that started the "new old" formula.