Well, I bet nobody expected that Nintendo Direct to be as good as it was, huh? (Maybe I'm just too pessimistic...) Regardless, it really gave some new games to look forward to, as this summer has given rise to me actually getting up and finishing a lot of games on that good ol' backlog (as well as trying out new games Lila's Sky Ark and Dicey Dungeons, which I may or may not talk about in their own future articles), meaning that I'm kind of running low on actual new games.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is what many consider to be the highlight of that Direct. What caught a lot of people's attention (aside from the general unique art style) is the lack of a "New" on that title. Yep, just Super Mario Bros. Wonder. This is most likely the result of years of backlash that the New Super Mario Bros. series is just bad, not fun, and overall very stale, and while to some extent I do agree, I think the New Super Mario Bros. games are not as bad as people make them out to be, and I will stand on the hill that they are very fun games.

Before I start, if you'd like to consume more content relating to this topic, I'd like to point you over to Mariomikester's videos on the series. They do have language, which I do not like very much, but they are very great video essays and I highly recommend you watch them if you enjoy this article. You can find the supercut of his videos on the series here:



New Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros., colloquially known as  New Super Mario Bros. DS, was released at a rather interesting time in Mario's history; we had gone about 14 years without a 2D Mario game. So, you can see that when it was announced, a lot of people were excited. I, of course, was not existent when this was happening, so I can really only look at this from the outside looking in, but having played it myself, I really enjoy it. It controls well, looks really good for a portable game from 2006, runs well, and is just an overall good game.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is actually a game that I myself have never finished. I am actually in the process of going through it right now, with the Nunchuck, which conveniently lets me talk about another point. For the most part, all of the attack buttons in New Super Mario Bros. games have been on the Y button, which is also the run button. I assume that most of us are just assuming that that is the only way to go about this, but New Super Mario Bros. Wii, specifically is you're playing with a Nunchuck, the controls that would normally be on the 1 button get split up between B on the Wii remote, and C on the Nunchuck. Run is now bound to C, and all of the attack commands (throwing a firewball, tongueing with Yoshi, etc.) are now bound to B. This sounds like it would play bad, but it actually feels really good to play.

New Super Mario Bros. 2

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is up next, which a few people might be surprised about. Actually, probably not many, because we are all collectors and know what's up with it. Either way, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is the third game in the New Super Mario Bros. series, and is a very good one. Aedmittedly, this is where the series starts to get rather stale, but that's no problem with the game itself. A common complaint I see people throw at New Super Mario Bros. 2 is that it was made by a different studio than the other games in the series. I personally think it's fine, but it is noticeable. Also, as previously stated, New Super Mario Bros. 2 came after New Super Mario Bros. Wii. This is cool, but it's pretty weird that New Super Mario Bros. 2 doesn't have the ability to spinjump, as the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. U does, as well as Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS. Additionally, a topic that I find not a lot of people bring up when talking about this game is the graphics. I  think that New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a beautiful-looking game.

New Super Mario Bros. U

Due to my age, New Super Mario Bros. U is the game out of these that I have played the most. It is the first HD Mario game, and because of that, it looks really good. It plays really well, has a lot of nice courses. Also, it comes with a challenge mode, which me and my older brother spend countless hours on when we were younger.



So, those are my thoughts on the New Super Mario Bros. games, and I'm very excited to see what Super Mario Bros. Wonder brings to the table.


I've been koola, and I don't know how to end this article.

(Elephant Mario isn't as cursed as a lot of people seem to think, especially if you look back and some of the previous power-ups we've gotten.)

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