Not so long ago Nintendo announced that 2013 would be the
year of Luigi. We’ve had Luigi’s Mansion and a new Mario and Luigi game to push
the green dude into the lime light. But this rather unique add on for Super
Mario Bros U is one of the more creative ways that Nintendo has brought the
other Mario brother to the forefront.
What the game effectively does it take all the stages from
the original game and rethink them. Luigi handles differently to Mario and as
well as slipping and sliding all over the place he also has a longer, floating
jump. This means that many levels have bigger gaps to traverse and lots of
platforms to teeter around on the edge of.
Without exception, all the stages are now much harder than
before and later levels require precise timing and judgment of distance for you
to have any hope of making it to the end. The levels are also shorter and as
such do away with checkpoints and only give you one hundred seconds to complete
them. There’s nothing quite so panic inducing as hearing the ‘hurry up’ siren
go as soon as you start a level.
The time is not your only enemy as levels soon descend into
endless gauntlets of spikes, swinging piranha plants, collapsing platforms and pits.
It’s probably the closest a Mario game will ever get to Super Meat Boy, even if
it can’t quite hit the same sweet spot. Adding to the difficulty and tension is
the fact you still can’t save until you beat a castle and anyone trying to get
all three gold coins in each level better head off for Jedi training right now.
The multiplayer modes are still here and for those wanting
to play with the less skilled you have the option of the Nabbit. Nabbit is
invincible and allows players to enjoy the platforming without the frustration
of constant death. You can use Nabbit in single player as well but then where’s
the fun in that?
In terms of course design there are a few that are more forgettable
than the main games levels but on the whole they provide short bursts of
intense platforming fun. Many courses are quite different from their Mario U
versions and needless to say everything still looks gorgeous and moves along at
a crazy pace.
Overall, it’s fairly simple to work out if you’re going to
like Super Luigi U . If you enjoyed the original Super Mario U and want a new
challenge then you should pick this up as it matches up well. There’s a lot of
content here and it’s different enough to avoid simply being a tired re-tread
of something you have already done. It’s
an imaginative way to approach downloadable content and bringing it to retail
in a lovely green box allows everyone a chance to get hold of it. It may
essentially be more of the same, but that’s no bad thing at all.
8/10
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