E309 Media | New Super Mario Bros Wii Announced

Nintendo have announced New Super Mario Bros. for Wii, due out all over the world this holiday season.

The game is a 2D platform title which can be played alone or with up to three friends. The emphasis is certainly on co-operative play, with puzzles and sections that are far more fun to solve with a friend. It features all the typical 2D Mario elements such as coin blocks, warp-pipes and the like, but also chucks in some new ideas along the way.

Demoing the game on-stage at the conference, Nintendo showed how item blocks produce more than one mushroom to allow multiple players to power-up. New items include the 'propeller suit' which allows you to become a little human helicopter, drifting back down to earth, killing all in your path. You achieve this by simply shaking the Wii-mote. Classy stuff.

If a player dies (by falling off the back of the screen or getting killed or whatnot), they respawn in a bubble, which can be popped by others to release them back into the game. The whole demo had a very 'traditional' and retro feel; coin blocks, green hills, pipes and all that classic Mario goodness.

At the end of each level is the infamous flagpole, which all players have a couple of seconds to reach once the first player makes contact. As the level ends, all coins and points are added up to bring a really nice competitive edge to the co-operative play as you're ranked on how well you did. Exciting times.