New Super Mario Bros Wii

Apologies for the hiatus, hopefully you all got along ok without me for a while.

There's no shortage of t-shirt blogs on the net now, each offering their own particular combination of wit and wearables, so I'm grateful to those of you who have kept subbed to the RSS feed throughout my unexplained absence (whether through a misplaced sense of loyalty or simple forgetfulness).

In honour of finishing New Mario Bros for the Wii - a worthy addition to the Mario stable - today we have some more Mario tees and a short game review.

Although many will assume - as I did - that Mario Bros for the Wii is just another excuse to cash in on the franchise (Mario Tennis, anyone?), the game was actually a welcome return to the ethos of the much-loved 2D scrollers of the past, and as such is, in my opinion, the rightful heir to the Mario throne.

Incorporating many of the enemies you love to hate (like bob-ombs, bullet bills, hammer brothers, dry bones, and boos) along with all-new bad-guys and gameplay features like drop-in drop-out multi-player action, your attention is held through eight worlds of increasing difficulty, culminating in a lengthy adrenaline-fuelled boss fight against a Bowser of mythical proportions.

Having two players on screen is for the most part extremely helpful, more than doubling the chances of finishing a given level, although at times it can be annoying when you accidentally bounce off each other and all-too-often right off the screen.
Teamwork is the name of the game here, although I have to admit my tendency was to treat it like a Modern Warfare free-for-all, stealing boxes and surviving at all costs.

With fairly intuitive controls, familiar characters, and a steep learning curve, you'll soon be taking this game much more seriously than you intended.

Treading the fine line between innovation and satisfying the traditionalists with the ease of a professional tightrope walker, Nintendo deliver a much-needed respectable title to the platform hitherto plagued by novelty over playability.

I give it 5 stars out of 5.