New Super Mario Bros. has been a series that lacks innovation, and I'd be remiss to say that New Super Mario Bros. U strays anywhere away from the formula. Introduce a new item (The flying squirrel Mario suit), use it early and often, and create 80 or so new levels. However, I will say that what sets this apart from New Super Mario Bros. 2, is the amount of fun this entire game is. There's no pushed theme like the coin theme in the aforementioned game, just wonderfully designed levels, and a lot of content. The challenge mode the game possesses gives something extra to do inside of the game as well, and does a good job of adding extra play time to the game. No, it's by no means innovative in any sense of the word, but the game is fun, and seems to have the heart the first game in the series had. I'd like to see some innovation in the next game, but for now, this is definitely worth playing.