I recently came into possession of the new Mario Bros game for the Wii. I have only had the opportunity to play it for about an hour's time, but I'll dish on my first impressions. Also keep in mind this game was designed to be a multiplayer experience, and I will certainly touch on that later during the full review.
For starters the game seems nearly identical to the original super mario bros franchise in that it's a side scrolling 2D (with partial 3D features) linear level game. Each world is composed of courses, not levels, but don't let the name fool you. Just like Super Mario 3 this game has a world map with colored dots that act as courses you must beat in order to advance to the castle. It appears that Bowzer's minions are waiting for you in each castle (I have only seen the first castle, so I'll report back on deeper worlds) and there are several (approximately 5) courses before reaching the castle. Of these courses one or more are toadstools, which are bonus mini games that allow you to win prizes. These prizes can be power ups which are accessible from the map menu.
Now for the big question, how does it play? The game moves at a somewhat slow pace. Running doesn't seem as fast, but control seems almost identical to the old mario franchise. I was disappointed by this at first until reaching sections of each course which require the use of the Wii's motion sensing remotes. The player can shake the remote to cause propeller mario to fly, or to cause ice mario to spin and shoot multiple ice balls at enemies. Also you can tilt the remote at an angle to change the tilt of certain bridges you are standing on. These small inputs of motion sensing are a lot of fun and certainly add a new dimension to the side scrolling design. I never realized that I hold a control at odd angles until playing this game, because you can slide off certain bridges if you are not careful. While I've only played about an hour's worth of the game, I'm highly entertained by the vibrant colors, familiar foes, and new design aspects.
A couple of new power ups are present in this game. The aforementioned propeller mario wears a hat with a propeller and can fly and then float back to earth while shaking the wii remote. This is trickier than it appears and usually ended up getting me injured or killed, though reaching high altitude coins and power ups was a worthy goal. The mario bros franchise has the traditional fire flower, but this game has the new ice flower. This ice flower allows you to shoot ice balls, just like fireballs, except hit enemies are frozen solid. Mario can then pick up the cube and throw it at other enemies. The cube shatters once it hits a wall, so it won't come back to get you like those pesky turtle shells. There is also a penguin mario power up, which appears to allow sliding and other fun features, but I have no yet encountered this item so more details are coming.
All in all I was a bit surprised at how plain this game seemed. However, Nintendo does a great job of slowly introducing new features and then combining them into new obstacles. I can't wait to play more, and I certainly hope there are more new features than I've encountered so far. If not, this game could seem like a bit of a bust, especially at the $50 price tag. Stay tuned.
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