New Super Mario Bros 2 3DS

New Super Mario Bros 2 Product Details

Released on 17-Aug-2012

Our favourite plumbers bounce back into action in New Super Mario Bros 2 for Nintendo 3DS

Princess Peach has been kidnapped once more by Bowser, but this time Mario has another objective as the Mushroom Kingdom is practically bursting with more gold coins than ever. Each level is dotted with gold as coins rain down from overhead pipes, trails of coins are left behind special gold enemies and gold pipes transport Mario into coin-filled caverns. It's up to you to collect as many coins as possible throughout your adventure.

• Mario and Luigi can both join the fun! Two players who each own the game will have the option to play the entire game in two-player multiplayer mode using local wireless.
• Completing a level is only part of the fun! The game records all the coins you collect, and with every level filled with golden opportunities, from gold rings that turn enemies into valuable gold versions to a Gold Flower that gives Mario the ability to turn almost anything in his path into coins.
• Coin Rush Mode lets you collect as many coins as possible across three levels and challenge your friends to beat your score via StreetPass.
• The return of Raccoon Mario gives Mario the ability to fly and access hidden areas.

Downloadable copy of New Super Mario Bros 2 Available

Please Note: New Super Mario Bros 2 for Nintendo 3DS is 2743 Blocks (342 MB). Check that you have enough space on your SD Card to download and install this title, if you need more storage space click here for our range of fully compatible SD Cards and how to download.

• Miyamoto would like to make a first-person shooter

  Cheery Nintendo man Shigeru Miyamoto is best known as the creator behind bright, family-friendly games such as Mario, Legend of Zelda and Nintendogs, but he's admitted that, if he had the time, he'd quite like to try his hand at a first-person shooter.

  "I actually do kind of want to make a first-person shooter but I don't have time," Miyamoto revealed in an interview with Kotaku. "Having that 3D space that in theory you are in and being able to look around and explore that, particularly being able to do that in conjunction with another person, is very interesting."

  He's even given some thought as to how the genre could work on the upcoming Wii U to create a fully immersive 360 degree experience using the console's touchscreen game pad controller. "If you're playing a first-person shooter and you have the game up on the television screen and you have your subscreen below, within that game world you're able to turn in all directions around you. Obviously that would be very fun," Miyamoto explained. "If you have two people doing that in the same room, that could create a very fun and unique gameplay experience."

  The Wii U launches later this year in Japan, with Miyamoto's Pikmin 3 slated to be one of the leading launch titles.
  

• New Super Mario Bros 2 - Review

  
  

  

  Familiar feel

  New Super Mario Bros. 2 doesn't deviate greatly from the formula established in past entries in the New Super Mario Bros series on DS and Wii. It's a side-scrolling platform game in which you travel through the Mushroom Kingdom on a quest to rescue Princess Peach from Mario's nemesis Bowser, collecting coins and jumping on enemies as you go.

  Much of it will feel familiar to anyone who has played one of the older titles, from the themed worlds you explore to the bosses you fight, but you can now collect three large hidden coins in each level to unlock extra ones, and as they're often tucked away in hard-to-reach locations this rewards skill in an otherwise rather easy game.

  Gold rush

  Another new element is the title's increased focus on coin collecting. As ever, amassing 100 grants you an extra life (half-decent players will be swimming in lives by the midway point), but they also act as an overarching high score. The game logs every single coin you collect, even across multiple save files, and lets you compare your total to that of passers-by using the 3DS StreetPass system.

  The game's coin obsession culminates in a new Coin Rush mode. With one life, and against a time limit, you have to collect as many coins as possible across three randomly selected stages taken from the main game. Again, your total number of coins collected will be recorded and compared with fellow players' over StreetPass.

  

  Suits you

  The game features a number of power-ups that give you special abilities, like a powerful golden mushroom that lets you unleash fireballs that turn everything into coins, a brick-hat that sits on Mario's head spewing out coins every second it's still attached, and a flight-capable raccoon suit which enables you to reach airborne platforms full of coins, pull off crafty shortcuts, and whip nearby enemies with its tail.

  Mushrooms increase your size and power, while invincibility stars make you temporarily invulnerable. The game also offers you a gilded racoon suit with the power of invincibility after you've died a few times in quick succession to make things easier for novices, although it does nothing to help avoid deaths by sheer drop.

  

  Co-op fun

  Perhaps the biggest new addition to the game is a co-operative mode which lets another player with their own copy of the title play alongside you as Mario's brother Luigi. It's a great option to have, although players are required to stay in close proximity to one another (stray too far and you'll be turned into a bubble and sent back to your partner). While this was understandable in New Super Mario Bros' Wii co-op mode, in which players shared a TV screen, it seems unnecessary to limit freedom of movement when each player has their own 3DS.

  With the last two New Super Mario Bros games having sold over 50 million copies between them, it might be unsurprising that Nintendo's not keen to take many risks with an established formula, but years of being spoilt mean we've come to expect more than straight sequels from Mario games. It's therefore a little disappointing that the series doesn't feel like it has progressed as much as it could have since the original NSMB title hit DS six years ago.

  But even a lesser Mario game remains an incredible title - it may play things safe, but all that it does it achieves masterfully. The physics and level design are so fine-tuned, and the overall gameplay so responsive and intuitive, that this is the best side-scrolling platformer available on 3DS, and a game that everyone should really play.

  GAME's verdict:

  The Good

  • Accessible, top quality platforming.
    
  • Some fantastic level design.
    
  • Co-op is a welcome addition.

  The Bad

  • Could be more adventurous in terms of new ideas.
    
  • Co-op mode could offer more freedom of movement.
    
  • Not the most impressive use of 3D.

  
  

  Published: 08/08/2012

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