Today marks the 5th working day of my new job. My roommate's happy I'm finally employed after a full year since (A certain cellular provider I won't name out loud) let me go for being a "thoroughly average" customer service rep, but she's a little distressed by the lack of time we spend together, especially since she's spending all of her free time away from her MMOs and more time with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I have to say, I had my doubts; from the store demos, I found the controls a bit tedious (and I'd been playing Mario 3 and Super Mario World on Virtual Console the past two weeks) with their combining of motion controls and standard button-presses. I also found the "physics" a bit floaty, bordering on laggy. While it's good that everything in the game has a presence and weight, the idea that you can be bumping butts and stomping heads when you're supposed to be getting to the next platform is a bit irritating.
My roommate just asked me which was my favorite Mario game overall. Sadly, it's not this one, but only because the game feels so much like a highly-polished version of Super Mario World, which was not my favorite (remember, I had a Genesis, and I was even one of those blast-processing fiends who thought Super Mario World was slow and boring by comparison to Sonic). At least, it wasn't my favorite at the time of release. When I bought my SuperNES in 1999 (50 bucks at the Target where I worked), I did learn to appreciate Super Mario World, if only a little bit. In the end, Super Mario 3 for the NES stands up very well to the test of time and is not only a favorite game, but a large part of my life and childhood. When I got the Nintendo Power strategy guide, complete with full bestiary, I turned the chalkboard in our basement into a massive tableau of each and every denizen in a single, epic level; we did not touch that chalkboard for months. I might also have a slight bias because I was also one of those lucky little boys that had actually seen The Wizard in theaters. I mean, that may not seem like a big deal, but think about it: you're watching footage from a video game on a movie theater screen.It's rather surreal, if you think about it.
Okay, I'm rambling somewhat...
New Super Mario Bros Wii is exactly what a decent sequel should be, a furthering of the original concept, polished to perfection by years of development, play-testing, and player feedback. It has everything we expect from side-scrollers, and they're all executed splendidly. I do have to shun the graphics a little; apart from the motion controls, there's no reason we couldn't have seen this game on the Gamecube, or any side-scrolling Mario for that matter. I mean, yes, 3D is a quick and easily-impressive way to show off your console's technical capabilities, but it's no reason to throw out the tried-and-true. It's like with my N-Gage; Sure, it was impressive to see Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in full 3D on a cell phone, but that does not make for a fulfilling gameplay experience any more than something like Puyo Pop or Sonic N or Pocket Kingdom.
Next entry I feel like revisiting a short story I wrote some time ago. I got in the mood for it after watching the last volume of the Ys anime series, which I wholeheartedly recommend if you're at all an anime fan or an Ys fan.