Super Mario Bros Wii

Now how many times have we purchased this game? It seems they make a new Super Mario Bros for each platform...not that you can blame Nintendo, since people keep buying it. So I bought it.

Sadly I haven't been able to experience the multiplayer, being too cheap and lazy to buy extra controllers and invite people over, so I'm not even going to talk about that. Instead I'm going to talk about...100% completion, and lives.

Oh, and Bowser.

While I understand 100% completion, the only rewards for 100% completion should be bragging rights awards. New skins, new character, whatever. But don't lock significant chunks of content behind it. Super Mario Bros Wii has eight worlds, and when you complete the eighth world, you gain access to world nine. So far, so spiffy.

But then it turns out to play a given level in world nine, you have to achieve 100% completion in a corresponding earlier world. To play 9-1 you have to 100% complete World 1. At the moment I've only unlocked 9-1 because I am by no means a platform god...and that's probably the only bonus world I'll see. Which is a shame, because it's a hard, interesting level with new setpieces. Instead of making it so I won't see a large chunk of content (Super Mario Bros Wii, 100% completion aside, is not an incredibly long game), they could give out...oh, infinite mushrooms in your "backup powerup" screen.

Because you'll be using a lot of these backup powerups if you're like me. Who wants to be tiny when you enter a world (and not small mushroom tiny, either)? Every time you die you're reset...and what's up with having lives anyhow? They're so absurdly easy to get that it's nigh-impossible to run out. They're not a limiting factor, so they serve no purpose. Heck, they even have a video in the game on how to get infinite 1-Ups. I suppose it's mostly an artifact of the original but...come on, if you keep green mushrooms around, change their nature!

Now that that's out of the way, Bowser. He's by far the best part of the game. Homage to the classic cutting-the-drawbridge thing...and then he grows enormous and pursues you through his castle. He blows up bits of the scenery and sends lava waves you have to dodge. It's amazing and showcases a lot of what they could do with Mario but don't. Dynamically destructible environments, manipulating mob abilities into helping you, and seriously epic bosses.

In the end, it's probably not quite worth the money, but it's worth a rental or waiting until the price comes down a bit. Unless you have friends to play with, and then the multiplayer might be fun. Though I've heard tell of some problems with it too...