Monthly Archives: November 2013

New Super Mario Bros. U is much like the other New Super Mario Bros. games for the Wii and DS. It has the world map that you can navigate to levels. Once you beat a level, more levels open up. All of the levels are side scrolling. At first, it seemed like more of the same. After conquering it by getting five shiney stars on my save file, I have discovered that it is the best of the New Super Mario Bros. games.

Like an addict, I suffered so much for those sweet, sweet stars.

The game starts off pretty standard. Princess is kidnapped by Bowser, and you need to save her. You traverse the eight worlds to show Bowser whats what. Each world has a theme, like desert or ice. All of the levels are cleverly designed, and are a ton of fun to play. Some levels have some interesting twists and challenges. Each level has three giant coins that you can collect to unlock a secret world. These coins add challenge if you are like me and want to complete everything the game has to offer. Nintendo brought back one of my favorite things from Super Mario World: secret exits for some levels. However, I wish that they made an indication when a certain level has a secondary exit.

Mother. Fucking. Penguins. Wearing their sun glasses, like they are cool… oh! I get it! Cool!

The game starts off easy, but it can become frustratingly difficult as you progress, especially if you are collecting those giant coins. However, getting a success on a level that you have failed at several times feels really rewarding. The game doesn’t just hand you these moment; it is earned.

Well shit…

I do have something to note regarding difficulty. I’m able to admit to mistakes when I screw up in the game. However, I felt that the controls may have screwed me up a few times. The Wii U Gamepad is comfortable, but things seemed off sometimes. It didn’t happen often, but it is fairly frustrating when you work hard to collect a hard to get giant coin, and then fail because of a finger slip up.

Get away from me, Mr. Fishy! I am not dinner!

You can collect power ups from the world map. These power ups are put into your inventory, much like Super Mario Bros. 3. You can only carry 10 items, so you have to choose your power ups wisely. Most of the standard power ups make an appearance. One of my favorite additions is the Acorn power up. It behaves similar to the Super Leaf power up from Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. Instead of allowing you to fly upwards and then glide down, you have to choose between the two. If you jump and want an extra boost, you can do that with the acorn power up, but you’ll flutter down to the ground. On the other hand, you can jump your normal height, and then glide for a significant distance. It’s the most useful power up, with the exception of the P-Acorn.

Mario enjoys closing his eyes, jumping off a cliff, and letting sweet death embrace him…

Yoshi also makes a return in a few stages. Much like the Wii version, you can only have him for the levels that you find him on. However, Nintendo added different colored baby Yoshis. You find them in the over world, and you can keep them as long as you don’t die. These Yoshis do not grow up like in Super Mario World, but they do eat enemies. Each color has a different ability. They can make collecting those giant coins a lot easier.

Blue Yoshi is stoned, and he’s all like, “Mario! Stop squeezing me, man! You’re making me fart out of my mouth.”

Graphically, this definitely looks better than the Wii New Super Mario Bros, but it’s difficult to tell because of the Mario art style. This isn’t a big issue, because everything looks gorgeous. All of the Mario sounds are here. The music in Mario games has always been a treat, and U doesn’t disappoint. Although I did die a handful of times because the enemies stop and dance to the music.

I see you, mother fucker! You’re not going to get my butt today.

New Super Mario Bros. U is a solid platformer, and is the best out of the New Super Mario Bros. series. If you are a fan of the other ones, you will definitely fall in love with this one. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play another New Super Mario Bros. games, but after playing this one, I have discovered that there is still a spark of love for it. The thought of getting another save file with five stars is both scary and exciting. You’ll probably see me put up some Let’s Play videos, or maybe just live stream it sometime. I also haven’t done any multiplayer, so that should also be entertaining.

Look at this slut working the pole for only a 1000 points.

“Let’s Play” videos are a thing on YouTube right now. If you haven’t heard of them, they are videos where someone plays a video game and they usually do commentary over the game. I don’t watch a lot of “Let’s Play” videos, because I’d rather play games than watch someone else play them. However, I do watch one person regularly who does mostly “Let’s Play” videos, and I wanted to highlight him. His name is Markiplier, and he’s a cool guy.

Marikiplier usually uploads about two or three videos per day, which is an impressive amount. He plays mostly indie games, which is pretty cool. Among those games are countless horror games. I cannot play horror games, so watching him play them let’s me experience the thrill of playing, without the side effect of me chickening out (yeah, I scream like a little girl at jump scares).

There’s a few reasons why I watch his channel, versus the thousands of other channels that do “Let’s Plays” of indie/horror titles. First, he has an outstanding voice. It’s like a tantalizing angel spraying you with a miscellaneous liquid; it’s so wrong, but yet, so right. I’ll link to some videos at the end of this post for your viewing pleasure, and you’ll be able to give your ears the euphoria that they deserve. Second, he is extraordinarily hilarious. His screams are enough to make your sides split. His “Random Horror Reactions” have captions, and those make the videos infinitely more enjoyable. Again, I’ll link to them later.

Another reason I like him so much, is because he seems like a genuinely good dude. At the end of every video, he thanks his viewers. Every time he hits a subscriber milestone, he makes a vlog and expresses his boundless gratitude to everyone who has subscribed. Not only that, but he uses his YouTube channel to do charity livestreams for several charities.

Story time. A few weeks ago he did a charity livestream for Extra Life. He planned out what games he was going to play, and stocked up on food, and he was going to play for 25 hours. However, his home internet was DDoS’d (much like Extra Life’s website that weekend). He didn’t have internet at his home, so he couldn’t stream anything from there. So, he packed up his laptop and went over to his brother’s place. His laptop didn’t have any of the games that he planned on playing, but he was determined to do this charity livestream. He started broadcasting, and started playing Happy Wheels (I’ll link to those videos as well). He kept getting more and more viewers on Twitch. He played a few other games that he could download, and his mood was getting better (he was pretty bummed out). Finally, he gets an idea. He used to play World of Warcraft, and kept an account active. He decided to create a new character, and encouraged any of his viewers to join him. He got hundreds (not exaggerating) of people to create the same character type, and join him on the same server. Lots of level one Dwarve Hunters if I remember correctly. Just following him around in WoW. This really brightened his mood, and was extremely entertaining to watch. He ended up raising over $55,000 for a children’s hospital. And he does streams like this at least once a month.

Alright, so I convinced you to check him out. Where do you start? Well I started with the Random Horror Compilations. Here’s a nifty playlist of all of his compilations. He doesn’t start out with a webcam, but his later videos do, and his facial expressions are priceless. If you want even more hilarity, watch him play Happy Wheels.

Alright, you like what you see. What are some full length “Let’s Play” you should start with? A must see is his Surgeon Simulator playthrough. I really enjoyed his playthrough of the indie horror game Outlast. Ib is also super fantastic. Vanish is scares the bejezus out of him. A few games that he plays with other YouTubers are Prop Hunt and Trouble in Terrorist Town. Those are entertaining, and you should check those out as well.

I have a few videos that you should watch if you want to get to know him better. His “Draw My Life” video draws out his life, which is cool. This is a video of him playing a fan made game. At the 38ish minute mark, it has a compilation of his vlogs, which is where it will jump to, because YouTube won’t let me link with it starting at the beginning. It’s very heartfelt, especially if you’ve watched a lot of his videos. I started watching him when he had under a 100,000 subscribers (I think about a year or so ago), and this hit me in the feels.

He has a lot of videos. I suggest you check him out, and if you like what you see, subscribe. Like I said, he puts out two to three videos a day, and they are high quality videos. Enjoy.