Girls Guide to Video Games: Super Mario Bros. Wii
I know I’m not the only adult woman out there who still enjoys playing video games. My husband LOVES video games and, luckily, he isn’t that picky about what games we play and loves our Wii as much as our PS3. He plays “girly” games with me all the time and goes out of his way to find two player games for us to play together. It’s actually kind of sweet. I mean, he can’t remember my favorite flower, but he knows my video game preferences like it was scripture.
Many of us grew up playing a video game of some kind and I’m dating myself when I tell you my first video game system was an Atari 2600. Qbert and Frogger were my favorites until my brother and I got our first Nintendo, after that Mario was my main man. Can any of you remember the massive event the release of Super Mario Bros. 3 was? I do and I feel old.
The whiz-kids over at Nintendo have revamped the Mario game experience with the release of Super Mario Bros. Wii. It’s easily the most challenging Mario game in years and many of you will instantly recognize the style of gameplay and levels.
Your goal is the same: To make your way from point A to point B (still a castle with the flagpole) while avoiding various obstacles and enemies. All of your old favorites are back, Goombas, Turtle Shells and Hammer Bros, and they are all out to get you. Mario gets two new outfits, a penguin suit, which throws snowballs that can freeze opponents and helps with swimming. Then there’s the helicopter suit, which allows Mario to shoot himself into the air and hover for short periods of time (this is accomplished with the Wii motion control). All of Mario’s other abilities are available too, fire-flowers, starmans, and red and green mushrooms are all still here and in some levels you get a ride from Yoshi as well (too cute with a saddle on his back).
The main difference in Super Mario Bros Wii is that you can have up to four players all at the same time. Mario, Luigi and two toads can bounce, fly and fire-bomb their way through the levels and when that happens, hilarity ensues. It is complete and total chaos as you can pick up your fellow players and either carry them through rough spots or throw them into danger if you are one of “those” kind of players.
As I said, this is the most challenging of the Mario games, The first level is pretty easy, but it only gets harder from there on. There is a “cheat” option, if you lose eight lives on one level The Super Guide kicks in (I believe this is only on one player) and you have the option to have Luigi come in and lead you through the level so you can move on if you wish to. This is good for kids and grownups alike and will probably relieve a lot of video game rage and flying Wii remotes. As for the controls, the game can be played with either the nunchuck and Wii remote or by turning the Wii remote on it’s side like a classic Nintendo controler. The motion control is pretty good with only a little bit of a learning curve so don’t let that scare you, it’s not that difficult.
This is a great game, not only for its nostalgic feeling but the fact that Nintendo actually took the time to make the game good. The visuals are amazing and the game has great replay value. I’m sure there are a ton of secret little places I missed and find them all I will.
