Its a me! Agony!

[Dasher]

So yeah I bought Mario Bros Wii, Its cool and all but man! working as a team is a betch!! as you can push people to their doom and what not!

I love The Koopalings and their voices, Bowser Junior is still around and this time they are all riding Bowser jr's ship? well...I don't want to spoil the surprises, but man! even as a 1 player game this game seems to be harder than the DS ver. Its a crazy game ill tell you that.

[Esrever]

I played through the first two worlds last night. It feels very much like the DS game, although the stages are escalating in difficulty much, much faster. It seems like the levels are shaping up to be a bit more imaginatively designed, as well, but it is probably too early to tell. The highlight so far was in World 2: a stage set entirely in the dark, where the only sources of light are the fireballs being shot by Piranha Plants (and by you, if you have a fire flower).

Mini-Mushroom Abuse Watch: So far, there have been two stages that have had special routes only accessible by mini-Mario. In one stage, you had to take a mini-pipe to get a star coin. In the other, there were a bunch of mini-mario tunnels that allowed you to skip portions of the level -- they were clearly designed for speed-running.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Do the Bros. still run stiff-armed like Sonic?

[Esrever]

Yup!

[Dasher]

Stiff-armed? like Sonic? please explain.

[Dasher]

Also the return of SMW Yoshi in terms of bush fruit eating and music changing!

This game feels like Mario 1,2,3,SMW and Yoshi's Island put together!

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Yup!

Man, what the hell is up with that?

[G.Silver]

My copy is still in the mail. :(

Do the levels with the mini-mushroom paths actually have mini mushrooms in them? Not having the needed items in the particular stages was rather annoying in the DS game.

[Shadow Hog]

Yup!

Man, what the hell is up with that?

What? He's only done it since friggin' 1988 with Super Mario Bros. 3. Cut the guy some slack...

[Esrever]

My copy is still in the mail. :(

Do the levels with the mini-mushroom paths actually have mini mushrooms in them? Not having the needed items in the particular stages was rather annoying in the DS game.

In the level where you needed one to get a star coin, there definitely was. I didn't find one in the other level, where it just opened up an optional speed run route, but there might have been one there somewhere.

I have a feeling the agony of the DS version is going to be somewhat alleviated by the fact that you now collect and horde powerups on the map screens, Mario 3 style.

[Segaholic2]

I disliked the DS version a lot, but I'm pretty excited to play through this one with three other people. It should arrive today or tomorrow, and I should have plenty of complaints about it after a few sessions.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

What? He's only done it since friggin' 1988 with Super Mario Bros. 3. Cut the guy some slack...

True, but his arms were extended outward, not backwards, and that was to facilitate the raccoon tail/yellow cape. Here the flight power-up doesn't take a running start.

Do the japs not know how to run or what?

[Esrever]

If you are playing the multiplayer competitively and basically deliberately trying to murder one another, it is pretty damn entertaining.

But man, if you actually want to play through the levels co-operatively... well, it's certainly no anyone-can-play party game. The other players need to be Good At Mario. Otherwise, you'll find that they just get in your way and accidentally shove you off of things. It can be pretty irritating for everyone involved.

[Blount]

I was afraid of that. Speaking of, what if someone loses all their lives while other players still have some left? When/how can that person get back into the game? I asked this some time ago, but I don't think anyone knew the answer back then.

[Dasher]

Dang haven't tried that yet, too many lives to try it now.

[Esrever]

I used to have a lot of lives, too! Then I burned through about 20 trying to get all the gold coins in 3-1. Augh! I don't remember dying this much since Mario 3.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

I thought Galaxy was full of retro goodness, but with this every time I think it's brought back everything, it still manages to catch me off guard.

And it seems to pull inspiration from just about every platformer out there what with the Donkey Kong Country style barrel rolling and Spelunky style dark levels. It even pulls those shimmy bars from Flying Battery Zone, albeit ropes.

[Dasher]

Fought Iggy and Morton today, I really like the battles they're all really original, the 2nd battle against Bowser Jr is very funny I lol'd! They changed Iggy alot! Hes tall man! hes gone all skinny and tall and his hair is now green instead of multicolored and it has a different shape, I like it.

They all have awesome voice actors too, although all they do is screams and grunts...so far.

[Green Gibbon!]

How's the music? That was the thing that pissed me off most in the DS game and I'm not really sure why. It wasn't bad, I think, but really, really annoying. And I don't know why.

[Kogen]

How's the music? That was the thing that pissed me off most in the DS game and I'm not really sure why. It wasn't bad, I think, but really, really annoying. And I don't know why.

Ba ba-ba!

A lot more of that.

[Blount]

Oh feces.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

Yeah, it's really fucked up when the world map music is far more enjoyable than anything within the actual levels. The castle (not fortress) music rocks my socks, though.

[Esrever]

Yeah... there is some new music in there, but the default overworld, underworld and athletic themes are almost exactly the same as the DS game.

Actually, that is what is bothering me the most about this game... the reuse of all the graphic and sound resources from the original NSMB. I know the environment graphics are a nigh-inconsequential veneer in Mario's block-based level design, but still! Why would you take all these interesting, fresh new level designs and then "paint" them to look like the exact same 8 worlds as the original? It makes them feel more old-hat then they really deserve.

[G.Silver]

I have a feeling that the game was much easier to pitch to the higher ups when they told them they had nearly all the art or at least conceptual work already done (they probably built a lot of the assets in the DS version "upscaled" in the first place so they'd be read for this). It's weird that they did the two Toads, and I figured that was to cut down the number of characters they had to create, but the detail on the Koopalings is crazy! Each one has their own nuanced animation (Lenny bouncing on his ball is adorable) and they're packed with personality. The dev team clearly gets it, so you wonder how a group so capable of doing the Koopalings so perfectly, better than they've ever been, could have skipped them the first time around. And that's 7 extra characters! How strange that they're all different when the player characters are clones!

But I'm loving this in 2-player mode. I got my brother over here (he just finished up the DS game) and we're having a blast. I'm thinking three or four players might be too much in some stages, but two players seems like the right amount, and not being kicked out of the level every time you die (only if you both die or use the escape bubbles at the same time) makes it quite easy to power your way through. There've been some tough points but we just kept racking up the 1ups all the way through. You'd have to have a partner who is Good At Mario, but you definitely don't have to be That Good At Mario, because our play was quite sloppy. And frustration certainly never mounts, because we're laughing and having too much of a good time even dying over and over to feel that way.

One thing I really didn't expect to like is the Propeller Helmet. I love the Cape in SMW, and even the Raccoon Tail is acceptable, I like the extra flexibility those power ups give you (close up attacks), and the Propeller just looked like some concession made for players who'd have a harder time with more difficult modes of flight. But once I actually got the item and found the sorts of situations it's good for (keeping you out of holes is a really good one) I'm finding that I totally love it after all.

[Dasher]

Well, I beat the agony yesterday (I still need the coins) and all I can say is that it was a competitive game till the end...literally!

This game is a good game, but its more of a party game than an actual serious Mario game...or something like that. All that aside, the Koopalings and the 2 Player action are what really made the game and although its kinda agony it makes coop the more rewarding at the end as both players start as losers and end as mario masters, and as Silver said, you get lots of 1ups along the way so its all good.

The game seemed kinda short to me, I dunno...what game was shorter this or the DS one? well its not that short...I just play too much RPGs.

PS. You can play as hat less Mario in this game, I dunno how I did it but my Mario loses his hat sometimes when he dies, an end reward extra..dunno? very fun to watch.