I have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of the art direction. It’s a little too cutesy (whereas the older games were more bizarre than adorable), and those Koopa kids just rub me the wrong way. There were times I wished Nintendo had gone the full “Mega Man 9” route and done the game up with actual 2D sprites and a more “classic” art style.

Thankfully, the music is good enough to make up for my nagging sense of pastel-overload. There are touches of just about every main Mario song (including the Mario 64 main castle theme), mixed in the most upbeat and hummable way. It “feels” like a happy Mario landscape, and contributes in a big way to the flow of the game.

I wasn’t a huge fan of New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, but on Wii, I’m a true believer. No other game has so successfully “re-imagined” a world from my childhood without cheapening the experience, and brings with it such clever and challenging stages that I was hooked from the start. Come for the old-school charm, stay for the multiplayer mayhem.