New Super Luigi U (Wii U DLC) Review
It’s pretty hard to review a piece of downloadable content – on one hand, you’ve got an experience that likely won’t win any new audiences since it is, by definition, an add-on to an already existing product. You’ve likely made up your mind about that already existing product prior to the downloadable content being released for it. But what if I told you that one of the major complaints about that existing product has been addressed and fixed with this piece of downloadable content? That is, in my findings, the biggest case for why many of you should consider New Super Luigi U – a brand new expansion pack for New Super Mario Bros. U.
The game itself is almost entirely identical to New Super Mario Bros. U in terms of story. Luigi and friends are snatched up from Peach’s castle, thrown into the woods and Peach becomes a hostage held within her own castle. Mario is nowhere to be found, and Luigi only has the Toads to help him. A new companion, Nabbit, is (for some reason) helping Luigi out on his journey too, but we’ll get into the differences he brings to the table later on in the review.
First off – the logistics. If you purchase New Super Luigi U via the eShop, it is playable from within the main menu of New Super Mario Bros. U. That is, you will need the original game disc in order to play it. The retail version, released in July, can be played without any additional extras. Your save files are kept entirely separate – and you can even begin playing New Super Luigi U without completing the base game. You can even switch between them whenever you wish to, so there’s no need to worry about overwriting save files in either game.
Luigi himself controls markedly different from Mario. He jumps significantly higher, has a flutter in his jump to give him a little bit more distance, is much lighter on the ground which means Luigi is much harder to stop in his tracks than Mario is. This not only makes the game much harder to control (at least, until you get acclimated), but rather places an emphasis on building momentum and speed of Luigi and gives the game almost a free running feel. Luigi’s flutter jump, in particular, allows for minor corrections to be made if players make a dodgy jump. In keeping with the theme of the game, it’s still quite forgiving however and isn’t as not to the extent of something like Yoshi’s flutter jump. This approach to the game’s design is reinforced by the reduced time limits in the new levels – only 100 seconds to complete each (with a bonus being awarded for boss battles). Speed is a priority here.
Of course, every single course that featured in New Super Mario Bros U. has been remade from the ground up to take advantage of Luigi’s new abilities. Mario is not playable, at all. Despite featuring little to no new assets, this is more or less a brand new game with some interesting designs that you wouldn’t have seen in New Super Mario Bros. U. The level design is still as clever and well thought out as the original game was which is encouraging to see – this doesn’t feel as uninspired as previous games like New Super Mario Bros. 2.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing in this package is the boss battles – which themselves are exactly the same as their counterparts in the base game. While some might argue that Luigi’s movement and jumping mechanics change the difficulty of the boss battles by themselves – this is my longstanding criticism of the New Super Mario Bros. series. The boss battles just aren’t hard enough – and in a game that significantly increases the difficulty of New Super Mario Bros. (and is thus optional) it seemed like a missed opportunity to leave these battles exactly the same.
But you did hear me right – New Super Luigi U is incredibly difficult. The courses are shorter, have no checkpoints, and take less time to complete on theory. In practice, however, the courses are so unforgiving in their difficulty that you might even spend longer on the game than anticipated. While the game length has been effectively halved if we were to take into account pure content – players will be spending an more time exploring every level, finding all the secrets and completing the thing on time. Without dying, obviously. Players can choose to play as Nabbit if they wish, who is immune to all attacks but cannot use power ups – all you have to do is hold ZL on the Pro Controller and GamePad or B on the Wii Remote while selecting a level to play as him. This is perfect for a second player too, who might not be as experienced and would benefit from the immunity Nabbit enjoys.
The design of New Super Luigi U challenges most of the modern paradigms of Mario – you’re meant to get through the course as quickly as possible while paying attention to little else but somehow still collecting everything the courses have to offer (including hidden exits). It’s something that probably won’t happen on your first playthrough, however. Being shorter courses, most of the Star Coins that players must find within levels are less hidden, but grabbing them is much harder than usual. Secret exits and secret levels also make a return – further extending the experience. Many players won’t be able to handle the faster paced courses, collecting the coins and simply living until the end – so New Super Luigi U is quite obviously geared towards encouragement of multiple playthroughs as previously promised by Nintendo.
Of course, your mileage may be limited depending on how deep your desire is to complete the game fully. But you can expect at least seven to eight hours of gameplay from New Super Luigi U. Whether or not the game is priced appropriately ($29.95 AU or $59.95 AU for eShop and retail disc respectively) is up to the discretion of the buyer. But given that this is a substantial addition to the game that provides an experience developed or arguably tailored towards the older and more experienced player, I couldn’t help but feel it’s good value for money as these are all new levels, a two new playable characters and an increased difficulty mode.
There is one major frustration that some players may find with New Super Luigi U – subjectively speaking this was not a huge issue for me, but is worth mentioning for others. Given that the game is hard, if the player loses their lives, they will lose their progress made since the last save. Quick Save is an option, but also won’t restore players’ lives so it artificially lengthens the game somewhat by wiping progress should you not make it to a castle to do a proper ‘permanent’ save. This is somewhat minor to someone who might find themselves stockpiling lives but also something that is definitely worth thinking about if you’re really not all that good at platforming games. You could argue this was the same for New Super Mario Bros. U, but the base game handed out lives like they were candy and New Super Luigi U is definitely less generous with its distribution of the green mushrooms.
Should players brave the harsh difficulty and beat the game, it unlocks the “Mario Block”. Hitting this at the beginning of each level allows the player to use the original game physics – a smaller jump, more traction and the much tighter controls many players would recognise from the original game. It’s a very nice inclusion, though I argue it’s not as fun to play with these physics as the levels are quite obviously designed for Luigi and his unique abilities. But still, it’s nice for those wanting a change after finishing the game.
New Super Luigi U marks a foray into a market that Nintendo haven’t really tapped into recently. This is, for all intents and purposes, a full blown expansion for New Super Mario Bros. U. Despite this, it’s easy to see a few flaws with the game. First off – the boss battles had a chance to really shine and were instead left untouched in the game. Secondly, the difficulty is incredibly high and unforgiving, limiting its accessibility to a wider audience. Nabbit’s inclusion as a playable character seeks to mitigate these problems, but still isn’t enough.
It leaves me in a tough position when grading New Super Luigi U. It’s something that many “hardcore” gamers arguably want from the Mario franchise, but also one that’s bound to alienate long term players with its unorthodox player handling. The way Luigi and his new friends plays also leads to a smaller problem – playing multiplayer is much harder and I would go so far as to argue that it really might not have been Nintendo’s major priority when designing New Super Luigi U. The only real advice I can give to anyone on the fence is this – do you want a Mario game that actually poses a significant challenge? If yes, buy New Super Luigi U as you won’t be disappointed and could probably add another point this review’s final score. If no, you’re probably safe to give this a miss. I will leave you with this one final thought to ponder, however – consider if you really want a physical copy of New Super Luigi U – at double the price, it should take some careful consideration.
