Difficulty:

Very Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Been there, done that"

New Super Mario Bros 2 is a great game for your 3ds collection.

It has all of the stuff you love from Super Mario - the jumping, the stomping, powerups, baddies - it's all great. The controls are very responsive and they ensure that every time you die it's your own fault, and that's the signature of a good game. But from this arises many of its issues:

It's easy. Really easy. by the time I finished my first run of the game, I was only a few hours in, and amassed over 250 lives. I also tried to extend the game by playing every single world before the end, but it still seemed really short. There's 6 worlds in the main path, and 9 in total, and the direct paths in each world are only a few levels long.

It also doesn't do anything too new. The big thing about this game is the coin collecting mechanic. There's a large emphasis on coin collecting, but it doesn't do much except redirect your path and attention a little bit. There is a total coin score, but collecting many coins doesn't do much except give you more lives than you already have and a milestone pop up every few thousand coins, and good luck trying to get the million coins.

In the end, it's still a Mario game which is still fun as hell, but it could have used a bit more innovation.