New Super Mario Bros. U

Critic reviews

• Hardcore Gamer

  Jeremy Peeples · Dec 05, 2012

  9.0

  New Super Mario Bros. U plays it safe in the right areas while providing enough new things and challenge to make it worth not only playing, but coming back to for series veterans. Featuring tons of platforming fun, it plays wonderfully on both the GamePad and Wii Remote and has the best level design of any New SMB-series game to date.

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• Nintendo Insider

  Alex Seedhouse · Dec 03, 2012

  9.0

  Neat touches demonstrate the level of polish that we’ve come to expect from Nintendo, enemies skipping and hopping their way along to the music, whilst Miiverse, the Wii U’s social service, is also integrated. With this, players are invited to share their successes or courses in which they struggled. Once posted, these will then appear on the World Map in other players’ games.

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• COGconnected

  Shawn Petraschuk · Nov 23, 2012

  8.8

  I think they played it safe for the most part but it is hard to argue with tried and true success. Considering the side scrolling 2D platformer has been around for the better part of 30 years I will forgive the design team for not really providing me with a ‘Hey that’s entirely new and amazing!’ moment. In the end it’s a great game with some new challenges and it is a bright light for what we have in store as Nintendo’s newest console begins its life cycle.

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• GameSpot

  Peter Brown · Nov 17, 2012

  8.5

  New Super Mario Bros. U is not a game that takes many risks, nor is it definitively the best 2D Mario title, but it's certainly a contender. It's consistently charming, often challenging, and an excellent illustration of that which makes Mario games so special. Nintendo seemingly recaptured traditional, distilled platforming, but also incorporated a newfound attention to modern gaming trends and expectations.

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• IGN

  Richard George · Nov 15, 2012

  9.1

  It’s difficult to find freshness or brilliance in a 2D landscape. Mario’s world is now three decades old. That would seem to suggest new territory is scarce, and in some ways the formulaic New Mario series had come to reinforce that fear.

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• Polygon

  Philip Kollar · Nov 15, 2012

  8.5

  That's really what separates New Super Mario Bros. U from its "New" predecessors: It adds something to the Mario formula. It's exciting and full of inventive ideas. Until now, the New Super Mario Bros. games have been a fun but mostly mindless reminder of how great Mario was back on the NES or SNES.

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