 At the start of my last video, I made a joke about the Wii U and its games, but I don't want you to take me the wrong way, because as I've said a billion times before, and I guess I'm gonna say it at least once more, Ms. Swan, the Wii U had some of the best first-party Nintendo games we have seen in years. However, despite that fact, there was one exclusive game on the Wii U that I just did not like. And it might be a very unpopular opinion, but I always thought that new Super Mario Bros. U was just kinda, eh. It felt like the same game I had just played on the Wii. In fact, it just felt like the same game I had been playing for the last 20 years. Ironically, there was nothing new about it, both then and even now. Which is why I found it really weird that out of all the amazing Wii U games that aren't on the Switch yet, games like Mario Maker, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Fatal Frame would have been perfect as a Japanese-only release ported to Switch and make it worldwide. And then there's one game that we're going to get to later in the video that would have made so much more sense than new Super Mario Bros. U. And yet, here we are with yet another $60 Wii U port that ironically didn't really add anything new at all. But before we get started with any of that, I wanna thank today's sponsor, Skillshare, because they are allowing me to answer a ton of questions that I get asked every single day on this channel. Questions like what video editing software do I use? Where did I learn graphic design? Well, to start with, I'm editing this video in Adobe Premiere, which you can see right here. And next, for how I learned to actually do all of this, I learned it on my own, slowly and painfully over many years. And it's not something I recommend. What I do recommend is using Skillshare. Here's a couple courses I recommend checking out. How to record video games on your computer. How to edit videos on Premiere, which is what I use. And it's industry standard. Heck, it doesn't even have to be video production. There's something for everyone. I mean, I'm finally learning how to play guitar thanks to Skillshare, and I mean that. They gave me a free trial, so I'm actually learning. You could learn how to cook. I mean, Valentine's Day is coming up. Learn how to make something for that special someone in your life. So if any or all of this sounds good to you, please make sure to check out that link in my description. The first 500 people that sign up get two months free, so I would hurry up and at least try it out for a couple months. You can learn guitar in that time. And then bail if you don't like it. But stick around, I probably shouldn't say that. Once again, I want to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video, especially in January of all times. And now we can get back to your regularly scheduled programming, which is listening to a 28-year-old man with a full-grown beard complained about a kid's game on the Switch. You sure you want to do what I do? So let's just start from the start. When this game was released on the Wii U, I was very unimpressed. In fact, and I don't want to sound super overdramatic, but this is one of the only Mario games I've never finished, despite how many times I've tried to start it. And it's not even a matter of me getting halfway through the game and putting it down and not picking it back up again. I'm literally bored right from the start. There's nothing that immediately grabs me in this game. There's nothing new about it. There's nothing exciting. There's no unique gimmick about it. It starts the exact same way any of the previous Mario games have started. Bowser kidnaps Peach, go and get her back. Even the beginning cutscene is just so insufferably boring and takes way too long to end. But after it ends, you get thrown into the world and it's Mario. It's the Mario that you remember from the NES. It really hasn't evolved or changed all that much. There's a couple of new items scattered throughout the worlds. Other than that, you know what to do. Even the way the game looks is very uninspiring. I mean, I think Donkey put it best in his recent video. Now, I just showed you three levels from Donkey Kong versus one from Mario, right? Right? DROP! You have fallen for my biggest trap yet. That was three Mario levels and only one from Traffical Freeze. Now, don't you feel stupid, Gerald? I hate to use his clip to explain my point, but honestly, that was something I always intended to bring up when I reviewed this game. Although, I wasn't going to use Donkey Kong as an example, as great as that example is. I was actually going to use the other Mario game on the Wii U as the example, because every single area in this very unique and inspired take on the Mario franchise looks completely different to the last. But we'll get to that. I'm actually getting way too ahead of myself because that's the ultimate point I want to make, so pretend I haven't brought that up yet. And that's really quickly go back to this game again, other than the fact that every area just seems to look the same in this game. The worlds have some level of 3D depth to them, but everything other than the character models themselves just look kind of flat. There's nothing visually appealing about any of it, and even the character models themselves look weirdly rendered. Like, they don't have that traditional Nintendo charm that we saw in games like Mario 3D World or Mario Odyssey. There's something weird and unfinished about them. Even the co-op experience is kind of awkward. I tried playing it with Kim last night and we kept getting in each other's way, accidentally bouncing on each other's head or getting each other killed. Actually, to be honest, this is nothing against Kim and I'm sure she felt the same way. It was more frustrating playing with her than if I was playing on my own. If one of us got too far away, the other one might slip or fall or couldn't really see what they were doing or suddenly they would die because the death zone of the screen raised itself as the other player got higher. We just couldn't play Mario the way that we wanted to play Mario, the way that we've always played it. It just led to a lot of waiting around and accidental deaths. And honestly, I feel like that's about all I have to say about this game. If you've played any other Mario game, if you've played the 3DS Mario's or the Wii Mario, you know exactly what you're in for here. There's no one exciting moment or exciting level I can talk about. It's all just the same throughout the game. So regardless of my personal feelings about the game, it is on the Switch and it is a full-price $60. So what did Nintendo add into this Switch version to make it worth paying the exact same amount we paid years and years ago? Well, they added new Super Luigi U and Toadette with her Super Crown to become Peachette. Okay. I mean, Super Luigi U became really expensive due to its low print run, so maybe if you haven't played that it might be worth it, but Super Luigi U is the same game. You just play as Luigi and the stages are slippery. Cool. But other than that, it's the same old Super Mario... Sorry, it's the same old new Super Mario Brothers U. I'm sorry, before we talk about this, can we just for a moment talk about how confusing that new is now? We knew, we knew... Man, I'm getting tongue-tied. We knew that this would happen back on the Wii U and the 3DS when everything started getting released as new this and new that. Yeah, it was new at the time, but what's gonna happen in five, six years? And on top of that, it's a double whammy. It features the U from Wii U. That was another thing when the game started coming out like Zombie U. We were all like, what's gonna happen if you make a sequel? Zombie U2? What's that gonna look like? Undead Bono? And now you have both. New Super Mario Brothers U. It's not on the Wii U when it's not new, but oh, they put deluxe with the Joy-Con so you don't get confused. Nintendo just baffles me sometimes. But then along came this game, which as I said was a very inspired take on the Mario platformer franchise. Take literally every complaint I had about this game and go ahead and just throw it in the trash because this game did everything I wanted and better. Where games like Mario 64, Mario Galaxy and Mario Odyssey completely leave behind that 2D platformer genre and gives you brand new exciting Mario worlds to explore, Mario 3D World actually takes that exact 2D platformer world and flips it on its head and gives you something very unique. A traditional Mario game where you're not confined to looking at one camera angle and it is just full of inspiration. And not to mention you get to wear cat suits, which may have been a selling point of the game for me. If Mario Odyssey is at the top of Mario Adventure games, then Mario 3D World is at the top of the more traditional Mario platformer. This is the Mario game I wanted out of my at-the-time current-gen brand new Nintendo system. Not this. This felt like I had something rushed out to the shelves just so I had a Mario game at launch. And unlike Mario Brothers U, this game was gorgeous. Look at the lighting, the textures, the details. And the visual variety is stunning. You're not restricted to the same grassy fields. Almost every single level in Mario 3D World presents some kind of unique or interesting idea or gameplay mechanic for you to explore and just enjoy. And there's so many of them that they never outstay their welcome. You're always experiencing something fresh and something different, whether it's in the visuals, the music, or the gameplay. And it keeps the entire game moving and breathing and flowing and you just want to keep playing that next level for whatever reason it is that you're enjoying the game just to see what happens in the next one. And I think one of the biggest differences between these two games is that Mario 3D World is unpredictable. You never know what's gonna happen in the very next stage. It could be completely different. You're constantly having to adapt and experience new gameplay mechanics. In Mario Brothers U, there's no excitement or anticipation of getting to that very next world because you know it's gonna be pretty much the same as the one before it. And probably my favorite thing about this game is that not only is it so much fun to play on your own, it can be even better when you play it with friends. Not only do you have much larger areas to explore, running around in your cat suits and not getting in each other's way, but on top of that, there's actually a competitive nature to it which drives you to keep playing the game. Because not only can you help and encourage each other as you play, but you're also competing to be the best each level. And whoever does do the best, they get a big, old, shiny gold crown that does absolutely nothing other than hold dominance over everyone else throughout the next level. And that leads to other players just trying to get more coins than you or beat you to the finish line. And before you know it, the game is over and you wish you had more levels. There is so much replayability in this Mario Brothers game, either on your own or with friends. It just baffles me that Nintendo wouldn't port this Mario game over and with its replayability, you can almost make it 60 bucks and not add anything. And I would almost be willing to say it's still worth it because it's such a great game, especially if you missed it the first time around. However, with Mario Brothers, you deluxe, I wouldn't even recommend it at 60 bucks if it was your first time playing it because I don't feel like there's 60 bucks worth of content in here. 40 bucks? Good deal if you actually enjoy the game. This is worth 60 twice, in my opinion. Hey, even if you're mad at me for not loving this game and kind of crapping on it, can we at least agree that this would have been a better port for the Switch and maybe that it's even a better game than this one? I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't like this game. Maybe there's just something about it that doesn't click with me. Maybe I've just played too many Mario games like this in my life to enjoy another one. But hey, if you like this video or you learned a little something, make sure you hit the lip all over that subscribe button. Click or tap on this video right here because I would really appreciate it. And hopefully I was talking about something much happier in that video. And now I'm going to go eat some cheese and play more Travis Strikes again. That'll be my next video.