Review: Super Mario Bros. for Wii

Family Wii games aren’t a slam-dunk. While the Wii is perfect for family play, too many titles are ported from Playstation or XBox and are really made for single players. Nintendo’s Mario Brothers, however, is a game that has always been available for multiple players (two), and the newSuper Mario Brothers for Wii now allows four players on that the same time. That means dad and two kids can jump, run, swim, and fly in the unique Mario world with familiar characters like Bowser and Luigi. Dads who, almost a generation ago, were experts at the original Mario Brothers, can connect with kids with their own insider knowledge of cheats and tricks.

While the peripatetic action in this game turned mom off, I like it because I can jump in and out of the action (literally and figuratively) and never feel like I have missed a key part of the story. Like a lot of Mario games (think Mario Party 8), some of the “progress” and lots of the “story line” are confusing. In these games, it’s less the destination than the journey unless you have spent enough time in Mario world to understand who these characters are and what they are fighting for or against (evil? coins? getting older?).

Super Mario Brothers is $49.99 at Amazon.

NOTE: We paid for this product with our own hard-earned money, and this product was not sent to us to review.