At this year's E3, Nintendo unveiled its latest console Mario effort -- "Super Mario Bros. Wii." The latest Mario outing comes in the form of a four-player co-op experience, not unlike Media Molecule's 2008 hit, "LittleBigPlanet."
At E3, I had the chance to play a couple of the game's levels. I wasn't blown away, but I did walk away looking forward to getting my hands on the full game.
"Super Mario Bros. Wii," as its title implies, is a 2D sidescroller for the Wii. However, considering that up to four can play together simultaneously, this installment plays a little differently than past Mario Bros. games. The best way to describe the game is that it feels very similar to "LittleBigPlanet" -- only it's a Mario game.
On hand at E3 were 10 different stages. Not all of them employed significant co-op elements, but some did. For instance, in one stage, some players traverse an underwater cave while one player uses a search light to illuminate the area. The level is infested with enemies, so without the light, players won't last long. Obviously, the level requires that players work together to complete it.
However, in other levels, very little co-operative play is required to progress. In these stages, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" feels just like any other Mario Bros. game -- only there are four characters running around. Both in levels where playing cooperatively and levels where there's very little cooperation required, it's often more fun to work against your team mates. While the game is oriented around working together, it definitely has a competitive component to it. After all, the player with the most points at the end of the stage is declared the winner.
As a result, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" features a chaotic but fun combination of cooperative and competitive gameplay. For instance, at one point during my hands-on time with the game, I helped one of my team mates respawn by freeing them from a bubble, only to have that player immediately betray me. While I was jumping over a chasm, he jumped on my head, sending me straight into the pit. Why did he do that? No particular reason, other than it was funny (for him).
While Nintendo's latest Mario Bros. game is admittedly a fun four-player experience, at least some of the Mario Bros. experience doesn't translate to multiplayer. For me, at least part of what made past Mario Bros. games so much fun was trying to speed through levels as quickly as possible. However, that's not something you can really do in "Super Mario Bros. Wii." The Wii version is fundamentally slower, thanks to the addition of other players.
From my playtime with the game, "Super Mario Bros. Wii" seems to be an enjoyable and considerably unique addition to the Mario Bros. series. Essentially, it's a "LittleBigPlanet-style" refresh to the series, and while it's not really a very impressive game, it's hard not to have fun playing the game. I definitely look forward to playing more when it hits store shelves this fall.
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