New Super Mario Brothers (Wii)

I purchased this game to play with the family, we spent hours playing Mario Bros.The game arrived quickly and was well packaged.We spent hours playing this game, bought back a lot of childhood memories.

This is exactly the game you'd expect if you've ever played one of the Mario Bros. platform titles before - it's the same scrolling from right to left concept with the same characters, the same format of worlds and Bowser confrontations at the end of each one.The important difference is that up to four people can play it at the same time - this turns it from a rather solitary and unsociable pursuit into many evenings of fun.The levels themselves are very difficult - some of the bonuses are only achievable with more than one player playing unless you are very skilled with the controller, especially the time-based collection tasks - which lead me to conclude that this was designed as a multi- rather than a single-player game.It manages to keep both types of player happy though - both dedicated ones and casual. At first there's 8 worlds to explore, but if you manage to get all the large coins then a 9th opens up for you to try (but you ned to get ALL the big coins in all other 8 worlds to progress to different stages in the final world). This adds a real longevity to the game because once you have it mastered, there's an addd incentive to get all the coins.Highly recommended for anyone who wants to play a fun game with children who have a basic level of proficiency to their gameplaying skills; it would make a great gift too.Edit: it tok me a week before I realised that if I held the 1 button down while moving, my character would sprint - and therefore jump a little further too (I wish I had known that earlier), and that if I pressed the 'a' button at times of extreme danger I would go back into my bubble and be safe (another thing I wish I knew earlier).Edit 12March 2010 - my partner and I are still playing this game, having fun looking up the location of the secret coins on youtube! A great game.

Super Mario Bros on the NES was the first Nintendo game I played many years ago and it was a top class platformer and still is to this day. I have been playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii with my partner and it is harder then the DS Mario game which I prefer but she doesn't. We are having a great laugh playing as a team and we sometimes kill eachother by mistake. Nintendo have taken the best parts from Super Bros 3 on the NES and the best parts from Super Mario World on the SNES and have overall made the best 2d Mario platformer of all time with it's insane four player mode which is fantastic fun. The graphics look wonderful and just for me and maybe other long term Nintendo fans this game is more fun then Mario Galaxy. You get to play as Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad or Yellow Toad and best of all are friend Yoshi is back to ride on and help us out. Mario has some great new power-ups such as the Propller Mushroom which is great for reaching hidden areas high up in the air. The Ice Flower lets our hero chuck ice balls that feeze ememies and was used in Mario Galaxy but is the first time for a 2d Mario platformer. The Penguin Suit is great for when you are swimming and also allows you to throw ice balls. For me this is the best Nintendo game on the Wii this year and everybody who has a Wii should buy this game right now because it really is Nintendo at their best!

I bought this for my son and I was dubious when he first asked for it as he has the game for his Dsi and wasn't sure whether this game would be exactly the same but following pester power I ordered and I'm glad I did! Although the game is similar to the Dsi version being able to play in two - four player mode makes it a lot more fun and there are some new characters to use and some parts of the game seem totally different to previous versions for other consoles. We have had a lot of fun playing on the game. One thing that I don't like about it is the game only gives you the option to save your progress at the castles part way through and at the end of a world. You can save your progress at other levels but it can only be used once so for example if you save the game while having lunch it will allow you to return to the level but if you then go on to lose all yout lives you have to start from the beginning of the world or the middle castle which we have found frustrating.

This game has very good multiplayer. It also destroys friendships. I started playing the game alone and left the first world with 20 lives gathered. My friend then visited and by the time we had reached world three, I had lost all my lives and had had to continue 4 times. It is amazingly fun, addictive, funny, surreal and pretty, as well as nostalgic. My friend and I had to stop playing because I was becoming ratty and was hitting him every time he bounced off my head, sending me to my death.In single player, it is just as fun, but because one feels that there are no obstacles (or friends as I used to call them) to perfection, I continually restarted games should I miss a coin or a secret passage or even if I lost a life. This made progress hard, and it took me about 7 hours to reach world 4. At this point I saw mario every time I shut my eyes, so I took a razor, heated it in a candle flame to sterilise it, and carved the world map from the original Super Mario Brothers onto my forearm.

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my 5 year old son. He's enjoyed playing it so much it's revived his love of the DS version, that he played with for months and months last year. It's great that he can play it on his own as well as with someone else. Getting to grips with playing as a team hasn't been easy but were getting there. Like the DS version it gets harder as you go along, however it has a quick save facility so if you haven't got as far as beating the boss you can still save what you have completed so far unlike the DS version. It is however very addictive and can be very fustrating at times currently slidding all over world 3. Wouldn't recomend as a game for the young unless they are really used to playing this sort of game.