To be fair, short of removing Mario’s ability to jump, New Super Mario Bro 2 was always going to be a great game. It’s built on the framework of more than thirty years of platform gaming supremacy, so it’s a pretty tried and tested formula.
It’s old school in the extreme with times when you feel like you’ve been transported back to the 90s. It combines a lot of the best elements of Super Mario 3, including Mario’s flying tanooki tail, and Super Mario World. While Yoshi is sadly not in the game, there’s revolving dinosaurs mini bosses, volatile wigglies and Koopa Clan bosses to bring the fun.
However, it’s not all throwbacks to the history of Super Mario, there are the odd one or two new additions, including a mini-Mario that’s a lot of fun in slightly submerged levels where Mazza can run on the top of water. There’s also a very cool gold fire Mario that looks amazing and kicks out a block busting level of flame power. Nintendo also look like they may have taken some inspiration from the Indie Game community with levels that look inspired by games like Super Meat Boy.
The ability tag team in the game with a friend over wifi is fun, but it doesn’t really leverage the online capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS far enough. If New Super Mario Bros 2 3DS also let you go online, find a random or friend to tag into a game like Mario Kart 7, it would be a a lot cooler.
With the allure of a “special prize” when you collect 1,000,000 coins, New Super Mario Bros 2 has a lot of reasons to keep playing for a long time to come. It’s instantly tough at times, dishing out hot lava death at the slightest slip, making it much more difficult than Super Mario 3D Land, although both games have get out power-ups to make it easier for younger players to get through levels where they’re really stuck (we didn’t have that back in the day, tsk). It’s fun, nostalgic and adrenaline pumping as you get later in the game.
New Super Mario Bros 2 3DS review: 4.5/5
