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New Super Mario Bros 2 3DS Review
We review the latest 3DS Mario game – New Super Mario Bros 2! Does it live up to the might of its predecessors? Check out this video to find out, and read our full review below!
Opium for the masses? More like Mario for the masses. Nintendo’s been feeding us side scrolling platformers featuring the jumpy, plucky plumber for more than a quarter of a century, and we still continue to lap them up.
That’s largely due to their brilliance, of course. On top of a simple premise – walk right to save the princess from the monster – Nintendo layers beautiful artwork, ingenious level design, stark raving bonkers power ups and frantic, fun gameplay.
As a single player experience, New Super Mario Bros 2 is superb. Though the core mechanics have changed little since the first New Super Mario Bros outing on the Nintendo DS, busting Mario through blocks, over pipes and on top of koopas remains as addictive as ever.
Check out the Nintendo 3DS XL on video here
This time around, you’re aided by new power ups, including a Golden Flower that gives Mario the Midas touch to turn everything he can hit around him to gold. And new stage types include a cannon levels that see you flying along with no chance to stop. Weirdly, it’s a little bit like playing an Sonic game – but that’s far from a bad thing.
Visually, it’s a treat: not every game on the 3DS validates its reason for 3D, but this does. New Super Mario Bros 2 may be a 2D game at heart, but its visual have depth, and glorious it looks too.
Addictive new modes include coin rush, where you race through stages grabbing as much gold as possible, and co-op play, where you can team up with a friend as Luigi to work your way through levels. The latter isn’t quite as viciously fun as the competitive co-op mode in 2009’s New Super Mario Bros for Wii, but if you’ve got a buddy to pair up with it’s a joy regardless.
And even if you haven’t, Nintendo’s provided a compelling reason to take the game around with you, and even compete with others. Coin rush scores can be shared with others you pass in the street also carrying a 3DS using the console’s clever StreetPass tech.
So are there any cons? If you’re new to the series, not really. But we can see a few veterans, or those uninterested in multiplayer, becoming a bit jaded – it’s not entirely original.
The same format: levels, fortress, boss, levels, fortress, boss, is still in place. And how often does Mario have to go and rescue Peach before realising she’s too much trouble to be worth the effort?
And this time, it’s easier. Purists will certainly miss the iron hard difficulty level of the original Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES – you quickly pick up so many coins that you won’t ever be in real danger of having to restart a world over.
Still, there’s no doubt this is a AAA grade game that you could sink hours into without realising, and yet another reason to pick up a Nintendo 3DS if you haven’t already.
