Nothing here will wow the Super Mario fan, but its finely-tuned, addictive gameplay will please platforming enthusiasts
Gold is the shiny element central in this installment of the legendary series. Gold coins used to mean something back in Mario's eight and sixteen-bit days, but as the Mario titles scaled down in difficulty and gave coins out more liberally, the value of the coin dropped even more. Not to say that this game does not pour out the coins, because it does. There is an official coin count at the bottom right of the bottom screen, chronicling your progress en route to collecting one million coins.
Mario can get richer by bopping into golden blocks, which fall on his head (he becomes a golden blockhead), and as he runs, coins stream out from its top. The fire flower, which enables Mario to shoot fireballs, returns, but so does a new, golden variation of that power-up. The gold-flower turns the plumber gold and gives him something of a Midas touch. With it, he can shoot large, golden fireballs that turn brown blocks into gold coins, and Mario is rewarded with golden coins when he uses it on baddies.
Though collecting a million coins seems to be the primary goal of New Super Mario Bros. 2, this idea, aside from the marketing of the game and the huge amounts of coins in the stages, is not pushed to the forefront in the story or in any other way. Mario's story does not have to become complex or even change its basic foundation, but the gold coin gimmick is restricted to a number count on the bottom of the screen, and that's all. Earning the goods can be fun; a new mode called Coin Rush was implemented. In this mode you dash through previously completed stages (that are scaled down or made more linear), racking up as many gold ones as Mario's pockets can hold. It's a good way to get that money count up, but regardless of how one does it, reaching the million takes a lot of time and dedication.
I have completed every single stage in the game, including the secret worlds, and I have not cracked the one hundred-thousand mark yet. Granted, I have not put much time into coin rush, for now I am racking up all of the gold-star coins. I do not know what the payoff is, but from what I have heard, it is disappointing. So I still felt, having completed a bulk of everything this game has to offer, that I had enough experience under my belt to review it. And my final verdict is this: New Super Mario Bros. 2 is perhaps the most basic since the original on the NES, but that's okay, because the timeless formula that that game established still makes for a good time today.
If you have played a two-dimensional Mario platformer before, you know what to expect here. Mario will jump and fly his way through the Mushroom Kingdom, the desert, the sky, and worlds of fire and ice. The Tanooki suit is a welcomed return, and unlike in Super Mario 3D Land, the power-up is very useful in New Super Mario Bros. 2. It's good for whacking bad guys with a tail-twirl, but it helps Mario to reach hidden areas up high or on the far sides of the screen. And there are a good number of secret places that unlock paths to hidden stages and even hidden worlds. Finding all of the secrets, including star coins (there are three in each stage), is no easy task. This aspect, aside from the frenzied coin mission, is probably the most challenging in the game, and even Super Mario vets will get stumped on how to gain access to every area on each world's map.
Much of the levels are pretty straightforward, but Nintendo does enough to keep the game's rhythm and pace from becoming boring. Some stages are water levels in which Mario swims from beginning to end. Others are those that scroll on their own and Mario must keep up, and there are dangerous Tower and Castle levels as well as those tricky Haunted Houses (also known as Ghost Houses). At the end of the Tower and Castle levels are bosses. Ranging from yawn-inducing easy to fun and nostalgic, few of the boss battles really give you a sense of accomplishment after winning. A few are recycled from past entries in the series, and the originals do not present much of a challenge. The final battle with Bowser was satisfying, but compared to other encounters with Mario's shelled nemesis, it was decent at best.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 looks and sounds excellent, but the problem is that the aesthetics have not evolved much from the other "New" games. The animation is certainly impressive; the backgrounds and character models are colorful and pretty, and these graphical pluses is a reason why I prefer this entry to its Nintendo DS predecessor, but there still is not enough diversity in its paint. Musically, the same can be said about the soundtrack. You'll hear the tried and true New Super Mario Bros. theme song quite a lot, but you will also become accustomed to and jaded by other themes. You just know what tune to expect whether Mario is swimming with the fishes or hopping over lakes of lava in a castle.
Nothing here will surprise or wow the Super Mario fan, but there is more than enough finely-tuned, solid gameplay here to satisfy platforming enthusiasts. There could have been more diversity in the aesthetics, the coin idea is refreshing but perhaps too taxing on the perfectionist, and there is a lack of new power-ups. Nonetheless, this is a high-quality Super Mario that will get you hooked, and replaying those stages to find all of the goodies and unlock the secrets will prove to be a ton of fun worth your coins.