Okay i've done all the stages and got all the coins, i'm pretty much done here so now I can reach a proper conclusion.
Is NSMB2 better than NSMB Wii? not quite, Mario games are never particularly tricky but they have a noticeable curve, NSMB2 sort of drops the curve around world 4 and it never really feels like the difficulty heads much higher bar one of two exceptions.
The hidden aspect of the game is a mixed bag, on one hand it may have the most fun to search for star coins in the NSMB games but there are a surprising amount of secret exits and coins hidden up in the sky through the use of vines/Beanstalk blocks and the bizarre thing is how most invisible blocks are poorly telegraphed, I can go through certain stages finding tons of invisible 1-up or superstar blocks in positions that makes some semblance of sense yet the vines are usually just baffling in their placement, rarely did I feel satisfied finding these exits aside from "well at least i'm no longer spending the next 20 minutes going up and down this stage". The fact that these games no longer indicate which stages have secret exits is just plain annoying leading you on a guess work run around.
Coin Rush seems to be a fundamentally flawed mode, as well as the coin cap mentioned recently in this thread there's also too much of a luck based element to the proceedings which is a shame because the mode in itself is pretty fun.
Without spoiling anything the Star World isn't much to get excited about, it's handily eclipsed by World 9 (NSMBwii) and the special World (SMW). The dash cannons is a nice concept that are too few in number yet also a bit "off" so to speak. I think it was the one in the flower world that made me feel that these stages are really designed specifically for Super Mario to the point even that regular/small Mario can get tripped up slightly , oh and have you entered these stages with say a raccoon tail? yeah it's kind of messed up.
But on some more positive notes it's still top notch Mario platforming in here, the level design can be smart, it has variety, there is a unique touch and feel from the newer team who designed these stages. Typically i'd say some stages are more varied or complex with their layouts, it's nice to have mountainous stages that head downwards or a water stage in the confined vertical space of a tower. On that point there is a lot of water stages in this game, some are kind of fresh while the others are some of the most bland in the entire series, I think we could've done without some of them. The cliff theme is underused, I always thought this was the best world theme brought in by the NSMB series so it's a shame how few cliff stages there are.
Ah the Music, not much to say here as it's mostly NSMBWii with more voice effects, sue me because I dig those voices, the athletic theme goes hilariously overboard with it which reminds me some Yoshi's Story style stuff. It still sucks though that they didn't come up with any new music for the most part.
I covered most of the game earlier on anyway so no need to go and repeat myself, it's a fun Mario game of that I don't doubt, it's just that there's not much new in this new super mario bros and at the same time it doesn't really excel over any other 2D Mario in any department really aside from how coin collecting is made much more enjoyable.
But it's fun so really that's the bottom line, do you like fun? I should hope so.
