New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Four-Player Co-op and Reviews

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a 2009 side-scrolling platformer in which up to four players run through eight worlds together. Nintendo made and published it, and Metacritic prints 87 out of 100.

Overview

Princess Peach’s birthday cake splits open to reveal Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings, and an airship carries her off. Mario, Luigi and two Toads, one yellow and one blue, give chase across worlds ending in a fight with Bowser, who turns giant after Kamek’s spell. Wikipedia describes the visuals as 2.5D: polygon characters on flat backgrounds.

Shigeru Miyamoto had wanted cooperative play in a Super Mario game for a long time. Attempts on Super Mario 64 failed on Nintendo 64 hardware, and the Wii’s faster processor let the team put enough enemies on screen and keep a camera that follows several people. Miyamoto said Peach was not playable because animating her skirt would need special programming.

How it plays

For a single player the controls are the Wii Remote held on its side, or held upright with the Nunchuk attached. Shaking the remote gives a spin jump or a mid-air twirl, and tilting moves some platforms. Mario keeps the moves from the earlier DS game, such as wall kicks and ground pounds, and the Propeller Mushroom and Penguin Suit are new power-ups.

With several players, everyone is on screen at once. They can bounce off each other’s heads, throw each other, or get spat out by a Yoshi. If one falls behind, the camera pans out; if it cannot, stragglers are dragged by the screen edge. A first player picks levels on the world map. Super Guide, new in this game, lets the computer show a level being cleared.

Release and credits

Australia received the game on 12 November 2009, North America on 15 November, Europe on 20 November and Japan on 3 December. Nintendo shipped it in a red case instead of the usual white one. It was packed with a red Wii on 29 October 2010 and later with a black Wii Family Edition. Wikipedia also mentions a Wii U Virtual Console release in 2016 in Europe, Australia and Japan. Metacritic gives the rating as E.

Reception

Metacritic’s aggregate is 87 out of 100 on 80 reviews. Famitsu scored it 40 out of 40, and 1UP’s Jeremy Parish called it the true sequel to Super Mario World. Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann liked the balance but admitted it was easier than Super Mario Bros. 3. Patrick Kolan of IGN Australia judged it the most fun four-player game since Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Early previews had faulted the lack of online play.

Sales were rapid: 936,734 copies in four days in Japan, and 30.32 million worldwide by 31 March 2022.

Can you still play it?

The disc works on the Wii and in Wii Mode on the Wii U, with a Sensor Bar required for most software. Four players need four Wii Remotes, and the Nunchuk stays optional.

The Wii U Virtual Console edition Wikipedia notes for Europe, Australia and Japan is no use today: the Wii U eShop closed worldwide on 27 March 2023, so it cannot be purchased. The disc is unaffected by the Wii Shop Channel closure of January 2019.