the daily scoop:new super mario bros. wii q/a

Does the game feel like a classic Mario game? And are there moments in the game where you think "this feels oddly familiar"?


While the feel and physics feel more like a DS game, there are loads of nods to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World that make it feel very familiar and old-school.



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Can the Classic Controller be used to play this game?

No.



Is there a feature where you can take snapshots?

No.



Is the DS version compatible with it in a way that it might unlock a new feature, level or item?

No.



Is the game Nunchuk compatible? I hate the D-pad.

No.



What's the Super Guide like?

It's decent. Fail eight times and a green block appears at the start of a level. Hit the block and you'll be asked if you want to use the Super Guide. If you choose "Okay" Luigi will appear and play the level for you, without collecting any Star Coins or anything like that. You can then jump in and take over whenever you want. There's no need to get annoyed about the Super Guide as if you're good enough to get by without it you don't need to use it. It's only really for people who need help.



Are there any other new power-ups other than the Helicopter and Penguin suit?

Nope, other than the Ice Flower.



Any Mini games?

There are three different kinds of Mushroom houses. The red ones let you play a 'match two cards' game similar to the one in Super Mario Bros. 3. Yellow ones have Toad giving you a Starman from a treasure chest. Finally, the green ones have you trying to win 1-ups by jumping in a cannon and firing it to hit as many balloons as possible. In terms of there being mini-games similar to the ones you played Super Mario 64 DS though, there's nothing like that.





Are there any features/secrets/surprises that we don't know about?

Absolutely. One in particular is fantastic but I can't spoil it. Experts will appreciate it though.



Are there new world themes such as a space world? A Galaxy level!?

Nothing in space, nope.



Are there any duck-like enemies?

If you mean the Cataquacks in Super Mario Sunshine that toss you up into the air, nope.



You know at the end of levels in the DS version, sometimes you get fireworks because you finished with a certain time and then mushroom house things showed up? Will this be included in the Wii one?

There are certainly fireworks, though I'm not entirely sure how to trigger them this time around.



In the DS version they had changeable backgrounds that you could buy with the Star Coins. Will this be included?

No. Two reasons for this: firstly, those backgrounds were for the bottom screen and obviously a TV doesn't have a bottom screen; and secondly because the Star Coins are used for something far more important this time.



Are the worlds and levels similar/identical to the DS version?

No. These are completely new levels. There isn't a single one of these 74 levels that you've played before.



Can you play as Luigi in single-player mode?

No.



How many blocks does the save file use?

I don't know. I was playing the final review version on a debug Wii that I couldn't use to see how many blocks a save was. I'd guess only one or two blocks though since it's literally just what world you're at and how many lives/Star Coins you have.



Can you confirm that the game runs in 480p/16:9 widescreen?

Absolutely.



Is King Boo a boss?

No.



In the new trailer, you see Mario in a new suit which allows him to freeze enemies. Is this ability still available for the penguin suit, or has it been replaced?

It's still in the penguin suit. It's odd; I'm not really sure why the Ice Flower's in there when the Penguin Suit already does the job. I suppose the angle they throw their ice balls is slightly different, but even so, the difference is negligible.





Is the multiplayer function available throughout the storyline? It would be so cool for you and your best mate to be side-by-side when defeating Bowser

Yes, the main game is fully playable for up to four players and players can drop in and drop out at any time throughout.



Some bloggers said it's as hard as Contra (With just one player). Is this statement true? And what "hard" game would you compare it to?

It's wrong to compare it to Contra because they're both completely different types of game. Contra is designed to let you die multiple times in a level before you have to start the level over again, so it's made ridiculously difficult because it expects you to at least take a couple of hits. Mario games aren't like that: it's not like a Mario game has ever fired hundreds of Bullet Bills at you from many different directions in one go. I'd say it was easier than Contra, for the simple fact that if it was as hard as Contra then it wouldn't be fun for 95% of the gaming population. Only the hardest of the hardcore who thrive on near-impossible challenges would enjoy it. That's not really what Mario is about. As a Mario game though, compared to the rest of the series, I'd say only Lost Levels and World 8 of Mario 3 are harder.



How long will it take to beat the game with one person playing and are there any worthwhile unlockables to go replay the levels again? I personally didn't find the reward of collecting all of the Star Coins to be worth it.

Well, trust me, it'll be worth it this time.



Are 1-Ups as plentiful as they were in New Super Mario Bros.? It was SO easy to get extra lives and it felt like there was no penalty for dying.

At first there are a lot of 1-ups. However, when the game starts getting trickier, the number of 1-Ups available start to decrease. It gets to the point that you're genuinely happy to see a green Mushroom House because there's a good chance of you getting up to 5 extra lives, which you're likely to lose fairly quickly in the later worlds.





How does the variety of enemies compare to New Super Mario Bros. DS?

It's similar but there are a lot more new and returning faces. Spike is back from Super Mario Bros. 3 (the tiny green lad who chucks spiked balls at you), and features in quite a lot of levels. Lakitu's obviously back too, and I was happy that when you jump into his cloud it goes MUCH faster than it did before and it's no longer a chore trying to get around in it.



Is the pause when character dies gone?

No, the pause is still there. However, it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be in my opinion. It's understandable that when watching the videos it seems like it would be annoying, but when playing it's actually useful. It only takes one or two occurrences of it to get used to the timing, and from that point on it becomes handy for two reasons: it lets you know what's going on elsewhere on the screen without you having to take your eyes off your own action, and it gives you a split second to plan your next move. Once you get the timing right, it doesn't throw you off your stride, as many are assuming it will. Say you were running and about to jump when someone takes a hit: if this happens it's perfectly easy to still do the jump as the action resumes since the timing is very easy to learn. The knee-jerk reaction from the internet is that it's a bad, even game-breaking feature, but it's actually the opposite.



How is the World progression in this game? Is it like New Super Mario Bros., where it's got split-paths at two point in the game? Or is it like Super Mario Bros. 3, where you just play all eight worlds without skipping any if you don't use warp zones?

It's like Mario 3. There's no more Mini Mushroom nonsense like there was in New Super Mario Bros. on DS, where many people never got to see two of the game's worlds. It simply goes 1, 2, 3, 4 etc, unless you find a warp cannon of course.





Are the Koopalings referred to in-game as Bowser's children or are they mere henchmen?

They're never really referred to because it's a Mario game. Nobody really gives long speeches in a non-RPG Mario game, so they just turn up and go "hey" or "graaagh", then you fight them and they jump away again. Which, to be fair, is what I'd hope for in a Mario game. The one thing that annoyed me about Super Paper Mario was the dialogue. While it was really funny, it was also immensely annoying due to its length. I'm glad this sticks to the Mario platformer tradition of short intros and tiny cut-scenes after each world.



How varied are the boss battles, not including the last ones?

The general idea is the same (jump on a Koopa Kid's head three times), but there's still a good variety in the boss battles.



Are there boss battles that become harder while in multiplayer mode? I've seen that, while in multiplayer, some things become easier while others become harder, and the boss battles I've seen so far have become easier. Thus the curiosity.

It really comes down to the level itself. Some of the earlier ones are easier with more players because they're more or less on one long, flat platform. As the game progresses and the bosses (and, more importantly, their environments) get more difficult to deal with, those players that were a help in the earlier boss battles can now get in the way and you'll have to work together to stay alive, especially in battles where there are only a few small platforms you can stand on without falling to your doom.





Is the soundtrack varied and of good quality? We did hear some different tracks, but most of them had that "waah waaaah" sound in the mix, which could be annoying to some.

I didn't like the "waah waah" in the DS game but it's grown on me this time. It's odd, I wasn't a huge fan of the DS music in general but when I hear it again in this (the main theme is used in some overworld levels and a remixed, banjo version of it plays during harder overworld levels) I find myself whistling away to it. There's also new music (like the aforementioned awesome underwater music) and some old Mario themes too. Overall it's a great soundtrack and there are only a couple of tracks I didn't like (the desert stuff, for example).