The new issue of Official Nintendo Magazine is on sale now and it's the only place where you can read a review of New Super Mario Bros. Wii! ONM's Chris Scullion completed the game for the review and in his blog last week, he asked ONM readers and followers of GoNintendo if they had any questions they'd like answered about the game. Our answers are split into three parts. You can read the first part here, the second part here, and you'll find out more details about New Super Mario Bros. Wii by reading the final part below...
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About the soundtrack once again, are there many remixes of older tracks, such as the P block music or the Koopaling battles shown in the most recent trailers? Are they nice and well-made? The Koopaling music is remixed, as is the "dum dum dum dummmm" song that plays in Super Mario Bros. 3 when you encounter an enemy on the map. There's also a great old theme later on in the game.
Are there any level-exclusive power-ups, such as the Goomba's Shoe? No need to name them. No. Unless you want to count the Mini Mushroom, which I'm fairly sure only appears once in the whole game.
Is there anything you saw that you made you smile because you recognised it from an earlier Mario game? There are loads of nice nods to the old games. One World has a red switch (not a Palace, mind, just a switch) that turns silhouetted blocks into solid ones as in Super Mario World, and it's also nice to see the return of POW blocks, which are actually really handy this time. Not only do they make enemies die as before, but the shockwave also causes any coins on-screen to suddenly drop onto the floor. This makes it perfect for grabbing otherwise impossible-to-reach Star Coins, because if there's a POW block nearby you can just throw it and knock the coin onto the ground.
Is there anything that didn't please you in the game? I wasn't keen on the fact that you can't continue to ride Yoshi after finishing a level with him. He's limited to only the levels he appears in, which isn't actually that many. People buying the game just for Yoshi may be disappointed.
Is Boom Boom present in the fortresses, or did they replace him with someone else? Boom Boom go bye-bye. Here's how the boss structure works. There are 20 boss fights in total. Each world has a Koopa Kid allocated to it. You fight the Koopa Kid in the mid-map fortress first, and then when you beat them they jump away and run off to the castle at the end of the map. When you get to the castle and encounter them again, Kamek appears and flies over, dropping magic dust over the room. This then makes something weird happen: either the platforms will start moving or half of them will go missing or something like that. As well as this, most of the Koopa Kids will change their fighting style the second time around so the same tactics won't work. Some of you using your maths skills will realise that eight worlds with two boss fights in each doesn't come to 20, but that's because there are a few extra ones that I'm not revealing.
Will the player be missing out on a lot of stuff in the game if they don't have more than one person playing? No. As I said before, you're not punished for playing on your own, there isn't a single Star Coin you can't reach without another player. Granted, it may be harder getting them on your own, but it can definitely be done. The only thing you'll be "missing out" on is the co-op atmosphere, which can be hilarious if you all have a similar skill level.
Are there any secrets or unlockables that can only be found during multiplayer mode? No.
Also, would you compare the game more to Super Mario Bros. 3, or Super Mario World? It's a mix of both.
Do the Koopa Kids use any of their old tricks from the other games they were in or do they have all new moves and locations? The vast majority have all-new moves. The first couple will be similar but that's just because they have to be easy since they're at the start of the game. As the game gets harder, the boss fights become completely different to the ones in previous games.
Can you use the GameCube controller? Nope.
Do different coloured Yoshis actually have different powers, like in Mario World? No.
Does it have the dumb saving system as the DS one, where you can only save whenever you spend Star Coins? I hated having to play two more levels before I could save the game. That's changed. You can now do a quick save that lets you save where you are on the map (regardless of where it is), and the next time you play the game you can take over from there. Once you load that save once, though, it disappears and rolls back to a save from the last checkpoint you were at. This is stop you re-loading the quick save every time you die.
About how long would it take to play through the whole game with four players, assuming that there was a minimal amount of getting stuck? (I know this one will vary but any kind of idea would help since I'm planning on having a marathon play through of the game with three other people). This is a tricky one. It took me six or seven hours to play through the whole game in single-player, without getting all the Star Coins. It took me the same amount of time to do the first four worlds with four players. So it roughly takes just over twice as long to finish with multiple players because you'll find yourselves stopping at tricky bits and discussing how to handle it. Then there's the matter of going back and getting the rest of the Star Coins too. As a very rough estimate I'd say, getting all the Star Coins and "doing" all the "secrets", you're talking about 14 or 15 hours with four players.
Is multiplayer supported through the entire game? Or only for certain levels? Entire game.
Are there any remakes of old worlds from previous Mario games? For example, a redux of world 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros., or something along those lines? Nope. One of the Coin Battle levels is similar to Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. but it's not a complete remake.
Is the progression of the difficulty of levels gradual, or is there a sudden increase at some point? It's gradual, but it's a fairly steep curve round about World 5.
Does each character handle differently (jump, speed, traction, etc)? No, they're all identical.
Have the graphics been improved considerably since the E3 2009 showing or is really a "freshened up DS game"? They definitely have been improved since the E3 demo. Not only does 1-1 look much better now than it used to (you can see Peach's castle in the background now, giving the sense that Mario has walked over from there), the level is also laid out differently. It's a little longer and has a lot more blocks in different areas. This means all the impressions you've read about the difficulty of the E3 version are no longer valid because the levels have been made more complicated from as early as World 1-1.
Did you ever consider (even for a split second) using the Super Guide mode because you got stuck or frustrated and not just because you wanted to review all aspects of the game? Nope. I actually didn't check out Super Guide until I'd finished the game, just so I could see how it worked and I could report on it. And even though I'd finished the game already and was only looking at it to see how it worked, I still felt dirty and useless using it!
Any chance for a return of Kubiro's Shoe? Nope, sorry.
Does the game contain a medal/grading system? No.
How is the level design? Does it have a lot of variation? Absolutely. It's similar to the DS game in that every single stage offers a new and unique gameplay mechanic. Most of the levels on the map actually have those mechanics nearby in the environment so you can identify the level by its surroundings on the map. That screenshot of World 5 that's floating around the net is a good example, since you can clearly see what to expect in each of those levels.
How does the Title Screen look? Is it like the DS Game's title screen or is it more like Super Mario World's Title screen where it shows a demo of a level in the game? By that I mean will it show Mario getting on a Yoshi or just getting out a shell and throwing it or will it show him dying by way of Goomba like in Super Mario Bros. for the NES? It shows the four characters running from left to right. It's actually fairly basic.
Also, is it still fun to go through levels you've already completed if you play with friends? I remember when I played Zelda: Four Sword Adventures single player I never had as much fun as I could have with friends afterwards since I'd already seen everything. I completed the whole game on single-player first then played through it with three players. I had a great time each time because, as I've said above, it feels like two different games altogether because even though the levels are the same, the tactics are very different.
Are the world themes the same as in New Super Mario Bros., just in a different order? No, there are a few different ones. Can't say what though!
How tough is the toughest level in the game? Does it come even near to the difficulty of Lost Levels? Nothing will ever come near that! But the toughest level in the game is mental. I lost count of how many times I died in it. I was frustrated but in a good way because I was glad to see that it was a challenge.
Is there any sort of achievement system present, such as found in the Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy games? Achievements being fast times, infinite 1ups, original ways of defeating enemies etc. No, nothing like that.
Do we get the usual three save slots? Yes.
What is your favourite world/level? I like World 4 the best.
Can you reserve items (like in the DS version) or did they take it out? Also, if you can, how? You can no longer reserve an item on the bottom screen (for obvious reasons), but the game instead has the Mario 3 style of item storage. You can bring up a menu while on the map screen and choose from a list of power-ups you've collected. You get more items by playing the Mushroom house "match two" mini-game and by encountering and defeating enemies on the map. Just like Mario 3, in other words.
What was the best moment of this game for you ? The final boss battle.
Does having to shake the Remote ever get annoying? Does it respond to a very slight shake? Did you ever perform the shake move when you didn't mean to on account of the Remote being too sensitive? Is there a button that the shake command is also mapped to? The shake command is only mapped to shaking the Remote, nothing else. It's very sensitive so you don't have to shake it too much, but it's not so sensitive that you'll spin jump without meaning it. The only times I did that was when I put down my controller to type up notes, but you're not going to be putting down the controller halfway through a stage anyway so it doesn't matter!
And finally - how would you describe this game in exactly 3 words? Read my review!
You can read my review in the new issue of Official Nintendo Magazine which is on sale now. Click here to buy it!
