New Super Mario Bros. U - Review Thread

apesh1t said:
The ign review had a good point, if Rayman can look as good as it does in 2d why can't NSMB? I really hate the art style in those games. I realize that it's always been about the game play but the visuals just look phoned in.

I mean SMW looked 10 times better than SMB3 and it took some chances with art, than Yoshi's Island took a huge chance with art, both paid off pretty well.

I wasn't planning on getting the WiiU at launch anyways but NSMBu was the one game I was really interested in.
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right. Rayman Legends is the best looking '2D' platformer I've seen. while it's true that a lot of what you're seeing on screen in NSMBU is polygon based, Rayman Legends has a bunch of polygon based stuff too (more than Origins had) and is running at a crisp 1080p with anti aliasing.

Nintendo obviously said '720p it is' early on, and optimized for that. why? no idea.

I don't know about review scores, but Legends still looks like the better game from this chair.
 
The levels with the Van Gogh art style are remarkably cool. Why wouldn't you build the entire game around this concept? It sorta makes the other levels look really bland by comparison.
 
methodman said:
No way. Best part of the Wii version was multi. I wish they allowed the gamepad to be used in multi though, I guess I need to buy some more Wii motion + controllers. Ugh. The gamepad is only used as a block placer in multi, while the 4 Wii motes control players. Kind of dumb imo
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I think you can use standard wiimotes w/o motion plus for NSMB U. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I know various Nintendo land attractions require motion plus, and some dont, but I think NSMB U is good to go sans M+
 
Magnalon said:
I wasn't aware that a 78 was a "disappointment."

I also really enjoyed the game.
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Oh come on, 78 can easily be seen as a dissapointment for a Mario game. Personally I enjoyed the game too, but it felt short and didn't bring anything new to the table. So I feel an 8/10 was about right.


I'm looking forward to the Wii U game mostly because it's the first time I'll be playing 2D Mario goodness in HD, although sadly not in 1080p which feels like a step back after Origins.
 
Socreges said:
New! (Really) Super Mario Bros U2
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iTflFj6x9OmKv.gif
 
Michan said:
This is pretty much Super Mario World U, except the enemies don't look like dinosaurs.

• Yoshis
• Baby Yoshis
• The world map
• Multiple exits
• Ghost houses
• The cape, basically, along with all the other power-ups (the flying squirrel is functionally similar to the propeller hat
• Mechanics more akin to Mario World than SMB
• The clowncopter
• The koopalings

...and that's being on a media blackout for the last couple of weeks.

If all you're asking for is a game set in Dinosaur Land, then you've got your priorities wrong.
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Bolded are things NSMBWii already did. You can kinda add Baby Yoshi's, too, since they are functionally the same as the special blocks in NSMBWii like the light block and propeller block. And although the world maps did not all connect into a super world map, the individual world maps were more like SMW than SMB3. People really underappreciate that game.
 
Many of these reviews seem to be oddly omitting the fact that the flying squirrel suit also allows you to grip walls. I mean it's not a huge deal but it seems like a function of the power-up that would stick in your mind, no?
 
Joeshabadoo said:
Many of these reviews seem to be oddly omitting the fact that the flying squirrel suit also allows you to grip walls. I mean it's not a huge deal but it seems like a function of the power-up that would stick in your mind, no?
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The gamexplain one mentioned it. It does look like a really neat ability though I wonder if it makes avoiding bosses too easy?
 
My review should be up sometime in the next couple hours. But I'm going on a lunch date! So I'll be around to discuss it later. = D
 
shark sandwich said:
I'm very excited to see that's all there! But I still thought Dinosaur Land was a cool concept. I liked how there was this overarching prehistoric theme to the world. Even the music featured lots of bongo drums to give it a little bit of a "tribal" feel. It was like Bowser went back in time and created a kingdom where he could rule.

Sorry if I've got my priorities wrong :-p
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Well aside from dinosaurs there wasn't really anything particularly prehistoric about the place, standard Mario fare visually with less theme variety really. It's main appeal to me lies in its layout and the idea of a full world to traverse, this game looks to continue that idea but with less cohesion due to the greater variety of world settings.
Bongo drums is a Yoshi thing which has carried over into the other Mario titles with him being ridable, the rest of the music is once again pretty standard Mario stuff with steel drums and rag time like themes.
I mean if you want Dinosaur Land again I wont stop you from hoping but I don't think there's as much uniqueness to this location as you remember, though i'd like to think we all want Dino Rhino back, that was a great yet underused enemy.
 
Baconsammy said:
Gibberish is calling you out for stupidly calling the final score for NSMBU: "one of the highest rated launch games of all time" 5 minutes after reviews started being released? Yeah...I'm the one with the issue. But to be fair, this is consistent with your posting history.
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He was hyperboling a lot, but really it's probably not much worse than top 10, maybe around 15 or so at the worst so far.
 
Feep said:
My review should be up sometime in the next couple hours. But I'm going on a lunch date! So I'll be around to discuss it later. = D
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The drawing out the excitement of anticipating how much people will hate you, eh? Like a kid hesitating to open his gifts on christmas morning, hoping it's the lynch mob he asked for. :P
 
With regards to the classic visual criticism of anything NSMB, the irony is that it's always been this way with 2D Mario, but nostalgia for the pixel art of SMB3 or Mario World changes perception. Only Yoshi's Island was "out there" and experimental in art direction. Every traditional 2D Mario game was plain, "dull" and boring compared to flashier contemporary games. At the time Sega even premised their ad campaign around contrasting how exciting and elaborate Sonic the Hedgehog looked compared to Super Mario World which was supposedly slow with boring graphics.

We're quite literally in the same situation today. Where NSMB U is Mario World, vs Rayman Legends which is Sonic the Hedgehog. The same criticisms of Mario can be / are being made.

Hell, even the focus in gameplay and mechanics is a similar contrast. NSMB U is deliberate, technical platforming and impressions are saying it gets quite challenging. Rayman Legends looks focused more on speed and pure excitement, with timed levels made to run through non-stop.
 
Baconsammy said:
It's one of the worst aspects of NSMB Wii imo. Glad that it's being emphasized that single player is the strongest aspect of this new game. I personally have zero interest in sharing screen time with toads.
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funny thing that I thought the 4 players on screen was the best thing of the previous game, I had such a blast with that, I actuall never played the game on single player
 
Kaijima said:
With regards to the classic visual criticism of anything NSMB, the irony is that it's always been this way with 2D Mario, but nostalgia for the pixel art of SMB3 or Mario World changes perception. Only Yoshi's Island was "out there" and experimental in art direction. Every traditional 2D Mario game was plain, "dull" and boring compared to flashier contemporary games. At the time Sega even premised their ad campaign around contrasting how exciting and elaborate Sonic the Hedgehog looked compared to Super Mario World which was supposedly slow with boring graphics.

We're quite literally in the same situation today. Where NSMB U is Mario World, vs Rayman Legends which is Sonic the Hedgehog. The same criticisms of Mario can be / are being made.

Hell, even the focus in gameplay and mechanics is a similar contrast. NSMB U is deliberate, technical platforming and impressions are saying it gets quite challenging. Rayman Legends looks focused more on speed and pure excitement, with timed levels made to run through non-stop.
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Err... have you played Mario 3? Even the all-stars version of Mario 3 looks markedly different from Super Mario World. They had seriously different artstyle while keeping the same "mario" feel.
 
Kaijima said:
With regards to the classic visual criticism of anything NSMB, the irony is that it's always been this way with 2D Mario, but nostalgia for the pixel art of SMB3 or Mario World changes perception. Only Yoshi's Island was "out there" and experimental in art direction. Every traditional 2D Mario game was plain, "dull" and boring compared to flashier contemporary games.
Click to expand...

This is simply a lie, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World were clearly pushing for a cartoony look.

Mario 64 was also pushing the 3D at launch, not compared to later titles like Banjo ofc.

Nintendo could have done waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more for Mario's first HD outing instead of just uprezzing. Look at Rayman.
 
guek said:
Are you going to take another dump on people just for the fun of it? :-P
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More importantly, are you gonna hang around the thread with "oh man don't hate me guys I gave it a lower score then you hoped for pay attention to me" like you did with Skyward Sword?
 
KojiKnight said:
If Nintendo is to be believed, they don't plan on making any more New Super Mario games for Wii U or 3DS (limiting 1 per system). If that's the case, hopefully enough time will pass that when the next system comes around they'll be willing to experiment again.
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Yeah, I put my faith in this too. At least by the time the next NSMB game comes around it should be about five years at least.
 
ViewtifulJC said:
More importantly, are you gonna hang around the thread with "oh man don't hate me guys I gave it a lower score then you hoped for pay attention to me" like you did with Skyward Sword?
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I'm just wondering if there'll be more blatantly false claims in this review.

<3 u feep
 
Slightly OT, but I like that Eurogamer mentioned this at the very end of their review

This game was played for review at Nintendo's UK offices before we received our own Wii U. No other press were present, we received no hospitality and we covered our own expenses.
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Nibel said:
Slightly OT, but I like that Eurogamer mentioned this at the very end of their review
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Yeah they recently revised their code of ethics or whatever.

  • We do not attend "VIP" review events at hotels or abroad.
  • If it is ever necessary to review games at a company's offices then we will cover travel and accommodation costs ourselves and disclose the conditions under which the game was reviewed.
  • If we accept travel or accommodation from a company then we disclose it.
  • We will only accept games, items for reviews and things that enable us to do our job (i.e. consoles, peripherals).
  • Games and other items received through work may not be sold or traded. If they are no longer useful for work then they will be given to the GamesAID charity.
  • Staff and contributors are not permitted to do "mock reviews" for or provide consultancy to publishers.
  • Staff and contributors may not write about a company they have worked for in any capacity within the last two years
.
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http://www.eurogamer.net/policies.php?view=how-we-work
 
RagnarokX said:
The drawing out the excitement of anticipating how much people will hate you, eh? Like a kid hesitating to open his gifts on christmas morning, hoping it's the lynch mob he asked for. :P
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Dude, chill out. I like to share my work with people. It's as simple as that.
 
Baconsammy said:
It's one of the worst aspects of NSMB Wii imo. Glad that it's being emphasized that single player is the strongest aspect of this new game. I personally have zero interest in sharing screen time with toads.
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That's no way to refer to your friends!
 
Kaijima said:
With regards to the classic visual criticism of anything NSMB, the irony is that it's always been this way with 2D Mario, but nostalgia for the pixel art of SMB3 or Mario World changes perception. Only Yoshi's Island was "out there" and experimental in art direction. Every traditional 2D Mario game was plain, "dull" and boring compared to flashier contemporary games. At the time Sega even premised their ad campaign around contrasting how exciting and elaborate Sonic the Hedgehog looked compared to Super Mario World which was supposedly slow with boring graphics.
Click to expand...

Sorry Kajima, I usually agree with you, but this is revisionist history nonsense.
 
Bulzeeb said:
funny thing that I thought the 4 players on screen was the best thing of the previous game, I had such a blast with that, I actuall never played the game on single player
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I was the opposite. Tried to play it multiplayer many times and it never really did anything for me. Played the whole thing single player and thought it was alright. Not up to the standards of 3 and World but fun nonetheless.
 
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