http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=101809
As most of you know, EDGE gave New Super Mario Bros. Wii a 7 out of 10. When we posted the news, a few of you were just a tad upset! Now here are some more snippets from that review...
"Mario and his chums feel superimposed, like cut-outs from another game, hastily inserted."
"There's the question of the chicken and egg here: did Nintendo realise the game wasn't special and so throw in a feature to disguise its banality? That it's hard to tell says a lot about the level design and how apposite multiplayer eventually feels."
"It's certainly chaotic - and hilarious."
"Should you tire of rubbing your friend's noses in the dirt, and actually decide to complete the levels, then cautious alliances are required. After a couple of hours sadistically scuffling for coins, the atmosphere turns to muted, pensive co-ordination. Level progress slows to a methodical, sometimes even tedious, pace. Environments that would be facile in single player are rendered uncharacteristically stodgy by the need to chaperone a group through them. It's telling that surviving players opt not to release reincarnated teammates from their bubbles until tricky platforming has been complete."
"The levels are largely contrary to the game's multiplayer purposes, and the knockabout jollity of such an awkward reappropriation of design only last so long."
"NSMB Wii works as a pick-and-mix of multiplayer silliness which you will dip into on occasion with various groups of friends - Mario as designed by Wario, perhaps. That has its place, no doubt. But those looking for brilliance of invention in the Mushroom Kingdom might wait for the architects of Galaxy 2 to put their plans into action."
