New Super Mario Bros. Wii
It's not very new and it's not very super. It is, however, on the Wii and infused with all of that obnoxious Wii waggle and tilt nonsense you know and love.
And the co-op? Oh my, the co-op.
Do you remember back in Contra, the evil Waterfall stage? How it scrolled vertically and if one player jumped too far ahead, the screen would scroll up and kill the lagging player? You remember that? All those bad memories coming back to you now? Okay, good. Now rinse and repeat that for every level and you've got NSMB Wii's much ballyhooed co-op mode.
So, how does the single-player fare? Not much better. The stages are pretty sparse, probably to support four players bouncing around. But worse, they are simply unimaginative. The few inventive levels are lost in a sea of mediocre filler, just like in the DS game.
In fact, I wound up with the same feeling I had about NSMB on the DS. It seems like all the pieces are here - you run, you jump, you find interesting power-ups and suits, you even fight the Koopa Kids and tackle airships. But it doesn't gel. It comes off like a tepid fan remake rather than a proper Mario game, as though its uninspired creators could only reference past success with a wink and a nudge while presenting no new ideas of their own. There's simply nothing that stands out about this overrated game.
And the co-op? Oh my, the co-op.
Do you remember back in Contra, the evil Waterfall stage? How it scrolled vertically and if one player jumped too far ahead, the screen would scroll up and kill the lagging player? You remember that? All those bad memories coming back to you now? Okay, good. Now rinse and repeat that for every level and you've got NSMB Wii's much ballyhooed co-op mode.
So, how does the single-player fare? Not much better. The stages are pretty sparse, probably to support four players bouncing around. But worse, they are simply unimaginative. The few inventive levels are lost in a sea of mediocre filler, just like in the DS game.
In fact, I wound up with the same feeling I had about NSMB on the DS. It seems like all the pieces are here - you run, you jump, you find interesting power-ups and suits, you even fight the Koopa Kids and tackle airships. But it doesn't gel. It comes off like a tepid fan remake rather than a proper Mario game, as though its uninspired creators could only reference past success with a wink and a nudge while presenting no new ideas of their own. There's simply nothing that stands out about this overrated game.