PAX Australia 2018 - Hands on with New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe

Nintendo had a host of games on hand at PAX Australia 2018, including Super Smash Bros Ultimate and both variants of Pokemon Let’s Go, but one of the titles I was more excited to play was New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe, the port of the Wii U launch title.

They had two stations on hand, both with multiple controllers, meaning that you can get the full co-op experience, but for me, I wanted to see how fast I could run through the courses, based off my memory of 2013. It turns out, I could not recall much, as I died a lot, both in the regular game and the New Super Luigi U courses, but I still had fun.

The first courses were more about adjusting to the controls, but given how great I thought I was, I ran straight into the first enemy, completely forgetting to jump. The second time though, I made great progress, getting to the end of the stage without issue, this changed though, as I saw that I had missed two of the coins, of which three are littered around each stage. This proved to really test my memory as I had to hunt for the first two and in the end, failed as I fell into a hole.

When it came to the Luigi U courses, things were even more chaotic than I recall, I was adamant on sprinting from left to right, without stopping, thanks in part to the much reduced timer, but having not played as a Luigi who jumps, (looking at you Luigi’s Mansion – out now for Nintendo 3DS) I forgot just how different he feels compared to Mario, not only does he jump higher, but he floats more and does not come to a complete stop as fast.

While the handful of levels on offer did leave me wanting more, it did re-enforce the fact that this is a port of a game, the character models are chunky, with noticeable edges and such. I still can’t wait to play it some more as it was one of the only Wii U games I ever 100%, but a little more polish would not be unwelcome.

The game is set for release on January 11th