New Super Mario Bros. Wii

[jckkeith]

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is one of those games that will leave you disappointed after the first level, slightly happy after the first world, and then you'll be stuck with a huge grin on your face after blasting through the game with three friends. This is a magical game, made even more impressive by how rote it may seem at first. Keep playing, however, and you'll see just how much this title offers.

One of the more impressive feats the game pulls off is offering level design that is perfectly fine to play with a single player, but also benefits from having multiple people on the screen at once. If you're a loner, this is still some of the best 2D platforming you can find on the market. If you have three friends who you love/hate... be prepared for something altogether different.

This is classic Mario in every sense of the word; you'll find enemies and situations from almost all the past games, and since you can play the game with two buttons, anyone can pick up a a controller and participate. The one addition to the controls is the ability to pick up players and items by holding a button and shaking the Wiimote, and this is much less annoying than it sounds. Giving the Wiimote a quick shake will also cause your character to do a spin-jump, which flings projectiles to both sides of your character if you have a fire or ice flower. In some sections you'll be asked to tilt to the Wiimote left or right to move a platform or to control a spotlight, but the gimmick is never overused.