I think it would be fair to assume that most of my childhood was spent playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I played that game over and over again when I was younger, and it led to me obsessively watching the trailers of its sequels. As I got older, though, I began to realize just how bland that game was when compared to the older 2D Mario games, and despite how fond my memories of playing that game were, I've been able to put my nostalgia aside and come to terms with just how mediocre New Super Mario Bros. Wii actually was. After beating Super Mario Land in around an hour, I decided to give New Super Mario Bros. a go to see if the by-the-numbers nature of New Super Mario Bros. Wii could be traced back to its predecessor, and that unfortunately turned out to be the case. Since this was the first original 2D Mario game since 1992's Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, it made sense for Nintendo to play it safe with New Super Mario Bros., but that doesn't excuse it from feeling uninspired. The generic world themes and bubbly music made this one of the most stylistically forgettable games in the series, and it all felt like it was engineered to be as aggressively adequate as possible rather than even trying to do anything unique or interesting.
I remember mentioning the gimmick-heavy design philosophy of these games in my review of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, and this philosophy is as apparent as ever here in New Super Mario Bros.. On top of being an extremely easy game, the gimmicks in each level are always either slightly annoying or entirely avoidable, and the overuse of these gimmicks ironically made it harder for any of these levels to stand out. Generally, New Super Mario Bros. felt like a big nothing of a game to me, but I will mention a few things that I liked about this game. For starters, this and the other New Super Mario Bros. games feature the most satisfying controls in all of the 2D games, as they integrated a few moves from the 3D games in order to make controlling Mario feel more fluid and dynamic. I also liked some of the minigames, and while they clearly weren't meant to be played on any sort of trackpad, I still had some fun with them. New Super Mario Bros. isn't a bad game per se, but it's so pedestrian in its execution that I almost wish it was bad, because I would at least remember it if I ended up disliking it.
I remember mentioning the gimmick-heavy design philosophy of these games in my review of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, and this philosophy is as apparent as ever here in New Super Mario Bros.. On top of being an extremely easy game, the gimmicks in each level are always either slightly annoying or entirely avoidable, and the overuse of these gimmicks ironically made it harder for any of these levels to stand out. Generally, New Super Mario Bros. felt like a big nothing of a game to me, but I will mention a few things that I liked about this game. For starters, this and the other New Super Mario Bros. games feature the most satisfying controls in all of the 2D games, as they integrated a few moves from the 3D games in order to make controlling Mario feel more fluid and dynamic. I also liked some of the minigames, and while they clearly weren't meant to be played on any sort of trackpad, I still had some fun with them. New Super Mario Bros. isn't a bad game per se, but it's so pedestrian in its execution that I almost wish it was bad, because I would at least remember it if I ended up disliking it.