Skip any stage at New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe does not want to. The first world is unlikely to surprise you at least with something out of the ordinary, a standard program for acquaintance with mechanics. But the closer to Bowser, the more interesting. Here we are in the world of “candy glaciers.” The snowy-polar atmosphere and the ubiquitous icy surfaces are a feature of this region.
Almost every level has some feature that is gradually becoming more complicated throughout the segment. The first will make you jump on the stars, which are nailed to the screen with nails and physically correctly spin from our intervention. The second will meet you with ice slides and angry penguins riding on the belly. In the third, you have to climb the tower, dodging falling icicles, and sometimes using them as a platform. We constantly stumble upon some new new mechanics or unusual combinations of old ones. Snow is replaced by swamps, in which the crazy sorcerer repeatedly increased part of the monsters, and another reduced. Here we rush along the rails on a bone train, here we jump on winged snails, here we flee from a giant fish, here, trembling with fear, unravel the secrets of the mansion with Buu, here we are dodging lava waves …
Technically, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is pretty straightforward, but aesthetically almost perfect. Neat 3D character models are smoothly animated, and two-dimensional backdrops are drawn with love. At the forefront is always a bright palette and readability of the environment. Locations turn into a diabetic nightmare: Desert of cakes, Caramel mines … always cheerful gingerbread mood is underlined by the sweetest music, and the notorious singing of mini-yoshi finally makes you smile.
But still, after the beautiful Super Mario Odyssey, it’s as if you are returning a couple of generations back, and the development of the locations is significantly inferior Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.
Perhaps it is a comparison with the latest Donkey Kong that sets off the merits of the game. Yes, beautiful, but not so much. Yes, rich, varied, but not so much. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is corny no such density of powerfully set moments, although quantitatively it is much larger. And the bosses in Tropical Freeze even lay on the shoulder blades of the same pack of local turtles.
The latter came out pretty faded. Morton, Daisy, Larry, Roy … you hardly distinguished them in Mario Kart 8, you will not distinguish them here either. They dwell in castles, defeated very simply – with three jumps on their heads. Fights differ in insignificant nuances, and when you pass, say, the level of “Morton and his castle-crush”, the castle-crush leaves much more impressions than, in fact, Morton.
The once-paid add-on got into the Deluxe version New Super Luigi Bros. U. If you managed to overcome all 82 levels of the main campaign, but you still really want to run, jump and crush the gumb, you will get another 82 levels for your brother. The add-on uses the same game map, bosses and environment elements, but the levels are created from scratch. Luigi jumps higher and farther, may linger a bit in the air when holding the jump by analogy with Yoshi, but he is brought in much harder, which makes controlling the character more difficult. You will have to learn to play again in order to master the physics of Luigi. And only 100 seconds are given to complete the levels, they are shorter, but many times more saturated for various kinds of dangers.
And even if you coped with all the obstacles in both campaigns, knocked out every coin with a star, the game can still offer you a lot of interesting things. There are so many diverse trials. Will you be able to fly in a tanuki costume without touching the ground? Can you beat a gold medal at special levels for speed? What about an obstacle course where it is forbidden to touch enemies? Tests will force the player to demonstrate true perfection with the possession of a mustachioed jumper, here you will master all the tricks and hidden mechanisms of overcoming obstacles quickly, finally dispelling the myth that games about Mario are primitive jumpers.
There is also a sprint mode that requires collecting coins quickly to speed up the movement of the screen. And an unusual “coin fight”.
A cherry on a cake should be considered a cooperative up to 4 people. Both story campaigns, sprint and coin fight can turn into a fun booth for the whole family. Here you understand why the character Kralik is needed, even a child can play for him without any problems. There is an opportunity to resurrect the fallen comrades and increase the height of the jump due to the crown of the party member, but do not expect any complex cooperative interactions.
