Gamertell

By far and away, the game I had the most fun with at this year’s E3 was Nintendo’s surprise sidescroller, New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It’s an insanely fun multiplayer co-op experience that really combines old school Mario sensibilities with an almost Four Swords-ish approach to multiplayer.

After waiting in a modest line (intelligently, Nintendo had a dozen machines running the game, keeping lines nice and short), I was handed a sideways WiiMote and jumped right into a wacky underground world straight out of Super Mario World. The action was pure New Super Mario Bros..

You’re running and jumping, bopping koopas and goombas, etc. but with an awesome multiplayer twist. You are running around the stages with four little dudes: Mario, Luigi, and two different colors of Toad characters. You can jump on each other’s heads (gaining higher ground), bump into one another and save each other post-death (felled players come back in little bubbles, which surviving players can pop).

The controls are pure, sweet Mario. You can spin jump and butt stomp (just as in NSMB), but otherwise its straight-outta-1991 2D platforming. My only qualm was the brief stop in the action when another player dies which messed me up mid-jump a few times. Other than that, everything works perfectly with ultra-responsive hopping and bopping.

There were ten stages on offer in the E3 2009 demo offering impressive variety. I saw lava, giant cogs, clouds and trippy pipe-plowing goodness of all kinds. My Nintendo booth guide assured me that the finished game will have more than 80 stages, a number that compares favorably to the DS NSMB.

Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to this one (which is releasing Holiday 2009). I kept creeping back to Nintendo’s booth all E3 long, just to snatch a few extra levels. It’s that good. Now if only I could get that damned song out of my head!

Read [E3 Nintendo]