Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

New Super Mario Bros. U feels good from the first few minutes because it trusts you to understand Mario immediately. You move left to right, size up a gap or an enemy, and decide whether to play safely or chase a more ambitious jump. That directness is the point. The game does not need a long runway before the simple pleasure of a well-timed leap starts carrying you from one course to the next.

Its strength is how much mileage it gets from that old-school 2D framework. Each new level is an opportunity to test your timing, keep your momentum, and resist the urge to treat every obstacle as routine. The basic campaign works well alone, where you can take in the layout and learn from mistakes without interruption. Playing entirely on the Wii U GamePad is a particularly handy option when you want a proper Mario session without tying up the television.

Multiplayer changes the tone rather than replacing the core game. With up to four people running through stages, precise platforming can become a noisy scramble of collisions, rushed jumps, and improvised saves. A fifth person can use the GamePad to place Boost Blocks, which is a smart way to let someone join in without needing to control a character. It can be genuinely helpful, but it also adds another variable when everyone is already trying to reach the same narrow platform.

The extra modes give the package welcome range. Challenge Mode is for the moments when you want a defined test instead of a full campaign stage, while Boost Rush and Coin Battle are better suited to short competitive or score-focused sessions. None of that distracts from the main draw: polished, immediate platforming that rewards you for improving your own execution.

Graphics

The game uses a bright, clean side-view look that keeps Mario, enemies, platforms, and hazards easy to pick out while the action gets busy. That clarity matters most in multiplayer, where several characters can be moving through the same stretch of level at once. The Wii U GamePad also doubles as a self-contained screen for solo play, a practical fit for a game built around quick, readable 2D action.

Story

Story is not where New Super Mario Bros. U tries to surprise you. This is a throwback-style Mario adventure built around the familiar drive to push through a new set of levels, not a narrative-heavy platformer with elaborate character work or plot turns.

That straightforward approach is actually useful here. You never feel pulled away from the course design for long stretches of explanation, and every stage can stand on its own as the next challenge. If you want Mario’s world to deliver personality through dialogue and story developments, this will feel thin.

If, instead, you want the classic Mario setup to stay out of the way and let the movement do the talking, it does exactly that. The game’s identity comes from the rhythm of advancing through courses and mastering their demands, not from where the plot goes.

Overall Experience

New Super Mario Bros. U is an easy recommendation if you want a refined 2D Mario game that you can enjoy alone or turn into a group activity. It does not reinvent the series’ foundation; it succeeds by making that foundation consistently satisfying. The early stages pull you in with immediate, no-nonsense platforming, and the later payoff comes from realizing how much more carefully you are reading each course.

Its biggest limitation is also its defining choice: it is deliberately familiar. Anyone tired of the New Super Mario Bros. formula may find the game’s throwback approach too comfortable, especially when compared with Mario entries that take bigger structural or stylistic risks. For a related portable take on the formula, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is worth comparing.

Still, familiarity is not the same as complacency when the controls, level flow, and multiplayer possibilities remain this inviting. Bring friends if you want unpredictable laughs, play solo if you want to settle into the platforming, and dip into the challenge-oriented modes when a full level feels like too much. For broader background on this Wii U entry, see New Super Mario Bros. U’s history and release information. It is a confidently made Mario game whose payoff is simple: the more you play, the more naturally its courses start to fit under your thumbs.

Retro Replay Score

8.3/10