It’s weird to think of a Mario game being ‘underrated’, isn’t it?

The series is so ubiquitous and well-known that it’s difficult to conceive of a Mario game being anything less than universally beloved and heralded. Except maybe in the case of Super Mario Sunshine (which is awful and doesn’t deserve the weird reappraisal it’s been getting lately), basically every mainline Mario platformer, 3D or otherwise, is talked about in reverent tones.

Sure, people may debate over which is the best, or which their favorite is – I’m a Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario 64 guy myself – but even the ones people don’t like are considered to be outstanding in their field.

At least, this was the case until recently. Nintendo’s shifting fortunes over the past two console generations meant that a lot of WiiU games (and even a surprising number of 3DS games) have gone largely unplayed by the general public due to their lower-than-expected adoption rates among gamers as a whole. The people that DO play them tend to like them a lot, particularly in the case of the inventive 3D Land and 3D World titles, but they’re not held in the same regard as previous games, even the two Super Mario Galaxy titles, simply because nobody got to play them.

In my mind, the biggest victim of this ignorance has been New Super Mario Bros U.

Originally a launch title for the beleaguered WiiU alongside weird horror roguelike Zombi and not much else of note, New Super Mario Bros U (probably referred to from here on out as NSMBU) has long been my favorite of the New Super Mario series. Thanks to the game’s recent reissue on Switch (alongside several other WiiU games that Nintendo presumably feels never got a fair shake, not to mention serving as low-cost library fodder between bigger releases) I was reminded of exactly how good it is in comparison to the other New titles as well as most recent 2D platformers as a whole.

Yes, it absolutely carries a lot of the negatives of the previous New games. The physics are much floatier than you expect from Mario, leading to a longer-than-normal adjustment period and a lot more whiffed jumps than you might be expecting. The assets and art, while beautiful, don’t do a ton to differentiate themselves from the poofy cartoon look of previous iterations, and most of the bad guys still sing along with the background music (which I think is adorable but most people don’t) – and the background music is the same five or six tracks as the previous three games.

Even for a game franchise that prides itself more on refinement than innovation (aside from the historical context that games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros find themselves in), the New games seem to find themselves coasting by more on charm and presentation than anything. I think this, however, is where NSMBU does the most to set itself apart.

NSMBU makes up for the reused assets by putting the most care into its design. Previous games in the series got by on being “the Mario you know and love but with one fun difference” such as four-player co-op, the need to collect a butt ton of coins, or in the case of the very first one simply existing.

Not content to just be another New game, NSMBU really tries to refine itself into something worthy of being called a Mario game. The level design hearkens back to Super Mario Bros 3 in that every level revolves around a central thesis – a new challenge is introduced in the form of a bad guy you haven’t met before or an obstacle that repeats itself through the level in different forms, all designed to tax your skills in ways that help broaden your bag of tricks and teach you what to expect in the levels to come.

This idea of a central conceit for every level works its way through every part of the game’s design. Pits and traps always make sense in the context of the world you’re exploring – pendulums over lava pits, for instance, or treacherous quicksand in a desert. Each thing you encounter iterates on the levels you’ve played before, and even if you’re facing down an all-new threat you’re given plenty of chances to see how it works before the difficulty ramps up.

And it will! It isn’t exactly The Lost Levels or even Super Mario Galaxy 2, but NSMBU is surprisingly difficult. The game seems to have been built around the idea that this probably isn’t your first Mario rodeo, be it the New series or otherwise, and tries to test your reflexes a little more than usual with some demanding jumps and some almost-bullshit ‘gotcha’ moments. The floaty physics and touchy controls don’t help, as you’re just as likely to die through plain user error as you would have through the level pulling something on you. Playing the game with even as few as two people magnifies these problems ten-fold (particularly thanks to the baffling decision to allow characters in co-op to bump into each other), but allegedly that sort of chaos is part of the fun…right?

Look, this is a nearly seven-year-old game that I literally already wrote about once for a different website back in my freelancing days, and you don’t need me to tell you how fun Mario games are, even if maybe everyone needed a gentle reminder about this one in particular.

Even if you’re never going to touch New Super Luigi U (because I’m sure as hell not), even if you don’t care for the other New games, please give this one a shot. I’m tired of looking like a crazy person when I try to convince strangers on the internet that it’s really good.

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