New Super Mario Bros. Wii is one of those games that will leave you disappointed after the first level, slightly happy after the first world, and then you'll be stuck with a huge grin on your face after blasting through the game with three friends. This is a magical game, made even more impressive by how rote it may seem at first. Keep playing, however, and you'll see just how much this title offers.

One of the more impressive feats the game pulls off is offering level design that is perfectly fine to play with a single player, but also benefits from having multiple people on the screen at once. If you're a loner, this is still some of the best 2D platforming you can find on the market. If you have three friends who you love/hate... be prepared for something altogether different.

Title New Super Mario Bros. Wii Developer Nintendo Publisher Nintendo Price $49.99 Shop.Ars Platform Wii

This is classic Mario in every sense of the word; you'll find enemies and situations from almost all the past games, and since you can play the game with two buttons, anyone can pick up a a controller and participate. The one addition to the controls is the ability to pick up players and items by holding a button and shaking the Wiimote, and this is much less annoying than it sounds. Giving the Wiimote a quick shake will also cause your character to do a spin-jump, which flings projectiles to both sides of your character if you have a fire or ice flower. In some sections you'll be asked to tilt to the Wiimote left or right to move a platform or to control a spotlight, but the gimmick is never overused.

The additions to the core gameplay are slight, but add an extra layer of complexity to the proceedings. The propeller suit allows you to fly to great heights and then gently return to Earth. The penguin suit gives you the ability to freeze enemies and to slide along levels on your belly. It also allows you to swim with ease. The new flower also gives you the ability to freeze baddies, and the blocks of ice that result from your ice blasts can be used as stepping stones, picked up and thrown, or simply walked past.

Are you already angry?

All this may sound like incremental improvements, but each new gameplay tweak is used to great effect in the levels themselves. You'll find spinning platforms, tricky jumps, and a myriad of secondary challenges in each level. You'll be looking for the three big coins, you'll be able to find multiple exits in some stages, you'll be asked to collect eight strategically placed red coins before the time runs out... each level features an incredible amount of replay value.

And playing with four people may seem cumbersome at first, but it may actually be easier because of how the game is set up. As long as someone has lives left, play continues, and when someone does die they float back on the screen until someone pops their bubble and brings them back into active participation. At any point you can hit the A button and enter a floating bubble, allowing more talented players to finish a tricky section before bringing you back into play. You can jump on each other's heads to grab hard-to-reach coins and items.

It takes some getting used to, and the running commentary of grievances from the other players is one of the biggest draws of the game. You can hit a block and take every mushroom, for instance. If you get mad at someone you can pick them up and throw them at a piranha plant. The game allows you to slide along walls and jump off them—just like New Super Mario Bros. on the DS—which can lead to some amazing saves and near-death experiences. The constant interaction with the other players and the friction between the times when you help others and accidentally hinder their progress provides many, many laughs.

You can run through the levels quickly, you can stop and find every hidden secret and item. You can try to play the game without losing any lives, or you can see how many times you can kill the other players. You can play this game in a few different ways depending on your play style, and the levels reward thought and practice. There are surprises, secrets, new ideas, and anachronisms spread throughout the entire experience.

Everyone is invited

This is a game designed to be played with your wife or husband, with your sons or daughters, with your mother or your father. If you die enough times in a level you'll be able to activate the "Super Guide" which plays the level for you, allowing you to see what comes next. You can also join in the action at any point in the computer's playthrough of the level if you're stuck at a single point. If you think this option is cheap, the solution is simple: don't use it.

If you run out of lives you can simply continue, although the game does keep track of how many of these you use. In my time with the game we began to keep tabs on who was dying and how many times; using the most continues became somewhat of a sick badge of pride.

You can also spend coins to unlock videos that show you secrets or show off incredible runs through the levels. There is a competitive mode to see who can collect the most coins in select levels. Extra lives are easy to find, but also easy to cut through during tricky sections of the game.

It's not easy to describe the pleasures of the game without handing you a controller and inviting you over, but rest assured: the old magic is still there. The levels are delightful, and you'll find many things in unexpected places. This is a title that blurs the line between casual and hardcore players very successfully, to the point where each may feel like the target audience.

It's not perfect

Still, not having online play in the game is a missed opportunity, especially considering how fun multiplayer is and the challenges of getting four players together in one place if your friends are scattered over a large area. This game is amazing as it stands, but with full voice chat and online support it would have been even better.

I also expect to see many fan-made videos of players mastering a level and showing off their prowess. Even with three other players of varying skill levels playing with me, we routinely were impressed by what the other players were doing and a nice move or quick save was always rewarded by some applause or appreciative whistles. Being able to record and share those videos would have added a large community-based aspect to the game. Creating a Channel for speed runs or other moments captured in games would have been great, but as it stands you'll see many videos made by pointing a camera at a screen.

This is also an incredibly conservative game. Nintendo added a few very well-designed suits and gimmicks to the gameplay, but overall this is the same Mario gameplay you know and love, with all-new levels. It's fun seeing the many references to past games, and the multiplayer is innovative, but this doesn't really push the world of Mario very hard or in very many new directions.

A new 2D Mario game is always big news, and while comments on our stories about the game may be filled with people who take great pains to explain how they just don't get it... this is going to be a huge game. It will satisfy hardcore fans of the series, it will introduce new fans to a classical style of play, and you'll be surprised by how much you can do in the levels with a little practice and skill. Watching a new player and an experienced gamer playing the game is eye-opening; there is actual technique and art to using the items and bouncing off enemies to get just a little higher. The levels may seem perfectly linear, but once you get good you'll realize each one is nothing less than a complete playground to explore and to test your skills.

Your first impression may be that this is another safe release in an established series, but once you've given a few hours to playing with friends, and have seen the happy chaos that results, you'll realize that playing it safe may have been a good bet. It's not most graphically impressive game out there, but the level design is impeccable and the surprises will keep you smiling. Expect this to hit the top of the sales charts and stay there for a long, long time.

Verdict: Buy