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New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

If you have played Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3, and/or Super Mario World, then you will find this game familiar. Whether that is good or bad is up to you. Personally, I like it.

One of the best things about it is the 4 player simultaneous game play. It creates this competitive cooperation play. If one player is annoying you, you can bump them to send them over the edge of a hole or knock them into a Whoomp, or other enemy.

At the same time, you can use the same effects to help each other. That large coin just out of your jump range? Let another player bounce off your head to get that extra height. Still not enough? When that player reaches the peak of their jump, jump up to meet them and let the have another jump. We managed to get a three-character jump boost like that. You could probably hit it with 4, but we did not have a fourth player.

But what about player death? When a player dies, if they have another life left, they come floating back into the level in a bubble. The 'live' players need to pop the bubble to rescue that player. If all players die at the same time, even if they have lives left, they get kicked out of the level. If a player runs out of lives, but at least 1 player has a life left at the end of the level, then they get an auto-continue. If all players run out of lives, then you get sent back to the last save point (usually a castle).

There are, of course, all of the usual power ups: growth mushroom, invincibility star, and fiery flower. But, like most new Mario games, there are a couple new ones.

First is the icy flower. This is pretty much an ice version of the fiery flower, though the effects are not the same. It allows you to freeze most enemies in blocks of ice that you can use as jumping points or as weapons. Just pick up and throw. There are a number of enemies that are not effected, though, so be warned.

Second is the penguin suit. At first glance, this is basically just the same as the icy flower. However, it comes with a couple extra abilities. When in water, the penguin suit allows you perfect control over your character, rather than just the usual jump/swim effect. It also allows a running slide that allows you to knock off enemies.

Third is the propeller hat. It basically just gives you a higher jump ability which, while useful, is pretty bland (but still some how fun) compared to the others.

The last new one (at least that I have found so far) is the mini-mushroom. This one shrinks your character down to the point it almost seems useless. You have to use the ground pound to kill enemies. It turns out, though, that it is not useless. You become light enough that you can run on water, float farther than normal jumping distance, and enter miniature pipes that lead to secret areas.

I can keep going, but I am just going to say this: If you have a Wii and like the classic Super Mario games, you will love this one.