The mushroom kingdom has been overtaken by terrorists led by the villainous Bowser who now sits on the throne having kidnapped Princess Peach. It is up to disgraced plumber Mario, his heavily medicated psychopath brother Luigi, and the toad twin enforcers Muscles and Brawn to blast their way through everything that the Koopa cell throws at the gun-slinging foursome and bring truth, justice, and the good old fashioned way back to the mushroom kingdom…

FINE! I made all that up because everyone and their grandmother knows the plot behind every super Mario game. Bowser has the princess and the greatest plumber never to plumb has to get her back but this time Bowser took the fight to Mario because that scurvy reptile has conquered Peach’s castle. So then let’s get on with the review.

The gameplay of New Super Mario Bros U is the same golden side scroller formula with extra tweaks. I enjoy the formula and liken it to the great KFC recipe…would you want anyone to radically change that crispy deep fried chicken into anything else?

Yoshi is back and he brought some babies with him–each with its own purpose. The blue Yoshi spits bubbles which turn enemies into coins, the pink Yoshi is used to float, and finally the gold Power Ranger Yoshi is used to light up dark places and stun enemies. Only green and gold Yoshi are specific to certain levels while the others are available on the world map.

All previous powerups from the New Super Mario bros franchise are back along with something new called the Squirrel Suit which is basically proves that the raccoon tail+super cape+crack cocaine=one hell of a power up! My 4th grade math teacher owes me an apology. I have yet to finish the game but the first worlds lulled me into a false sense of confidence as I brushed through the levels with no damage taken and gaining 47 lives before I hit the water world and started to lose lives quite fast. This is not an easy game which is a plus in my book!

The graphics of New Super Mario Bros U are bright, colorful, vivid, and beautiful. Each world or area carries its theme well. The grass world has trees, the desert world has sand, the Detroit world has abandoned buildings. You get the point. Some of Mario’s old foes enjoy a new face lift so to speak and are beautifully rendered as are the Koopalings’ castles and those darn ghost house levels (they’re baaaack) which are my personal favorite levels both in atmosphere and difficulty.

The soundtrack is awesome with my personal favorite being the castle theme at the end of each world. I’m really digging that old school Hyrulian beat lost in that awesome melody. Other pieces from previous Mario games are back including the Mario bros 3 Hammer/Boomerang Brother duel song. In short, each track is nostalgia in the making.

Replay value is big too because you need all the star coins to get something special at the end of the game…I wont tell you what it is. You also have two other modes to play which I have yet to touch AND it’s mulitiplayer! Whether you’re a veteran from ’85 or someone looking to jump in to the series, this game is definately worth picking up. That’s all the time I have, folks. I still have a kingdom to liberate from reptilian terror.

Editor’s Note: Captain N is a new writer for The Late Night Gamer. His articles will be published every other Wednesday. -Norbert

Ah the 90’s! It was a beautiful era where the VCR, the Walkman and game cartridges reigned supreme. Why is that the best things come in cassettes? Some of you spring chickens might be rolling your eyes at the nostalgia but I am going to ask you to indulge me for a brief moment.

On November 18^th I got my Nintendo Wii U deluxe edition without any of that pre-ordering nonsense. By the way, ski masks come in very handy on Christmas shopping. Anyway, nostalgia hit me as I contemplated the next level of gaming consoles. The store was short of one Nintendo Wii U but was still full of Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. When I was a kid, I would have bet anything that a Sega console would have been on those very shelves that day…

Of course every gamer and their grandmother know Sega. It’s that company with the fast blue fellow as its mascot. But back then that blue hedgehog was an exclusive property marketed as the Mario destroyer, the clogged drain that the plumber could not unclog (Has Mario even well done plumbing…like ever?), and the coming of the next level as Sega marketed the Genesis.

Sonic the Hedgehog was that game as in that game which was faster, longer, and more beautiful than anything Mario had mustered till then. Sonic was leading the charge against Nintendo with third party support and a promise that Sega does what Nintendo’nt! The ads were everywhere that Sega was the better company and so were the lawsuits. Whether it was sports, side scrollers, beat em ups, rpgs, or waffles, Sega was the best. Okay, maybe not waffles but you get the idea.

It was the console war to end all console wars because remember back then us kids did not have emails, text messages, gaming boards, or diplomacy to end our quarrels. Hell we didn’t even know about dial-up internet yet! No, we ended our quarrels in the school yard, the park, the bicycle rack, and anywhere else we could. It was a war but the Sega genesis was not lacking ammunition. Golden Axe, Sonic, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Ristar were featured on EGM, Gamepro, Megafan, and Diehard Gamefan to name a few magazines you probably never cared about while Sega sports label was catering to all fans of the genre. Today I can tell you that Nintendo won but each victory back then was earned.

Fast forward a few years later and whispers about the next gen began. We wondered what Sega had up their sleeve since Nintendo was quiet and Sony, of all companies, was making a console. Who cares about them right? They made that sucky HOOK game on SNES and Genesis. Wet dreams were made out of rumors regarding the next generation: Sonic, Shinobi, and Ristar as our imagination ran wilder than Hulkamania.

Finally, the Sega Saturn was revealed. A solid black box with killer graphics (as in if you look at those graphics today it will kill your eyes). Even worse were the games, or rather the lack of them. Ristar was forgotten, Streets of Rage never came to be and Golden Axe became a Street Fighter clone. Of course, there were a few good ones like Panzer Dragoon, Nights and Dayton USA, but nothing that would satisfy a solid American fanbase craving for good games. Sega did not even make a new Sonic unless you count Sonic Jam (a glorified 3D demo). Sega of America, and I am pointing my finger solely at you. You refused to localize the games that had made the Saturn a success in Japan. The days flew by but instead of gaining speed, the Saturn just lost steam. I never had the Saturn but when Sega announced the beautiful Virtua Fighter 3 while at that time while confirming it would never show up on the Saturn. That was the final nail in the coffin for me and Sega. It’s like finding out you were adopted and then thrown away because mommy’s eggs are okay.

Not too long after the Dreamcast was announced, Sega’s track record was like a politician’s promises and not too many people cared. Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur and Shenmue led the charge for Sega, but at that point Sony had proved itself in the gaming market and Nintendo had already learned from the N64’s mistakes. Then the fateful day came that Sega announced that they would focus on software and the Dreamcast was no more.

Sonic made the walk of shame over to Nintendo. The damage though still lingers to this day because Sega is now regarded as a second tier developer at best. When Sega announces a game the press does not bother to write much about it. But that not to say that Sega is making bad games, I enjoyed Binary Domain, but their spectacular fall is still remembered by us 16 bit gamers.

Sega was once a company whose slogan was “Welcome to the next level” and that day when I pulled off my ski mask (after BUYING the console) and looked at the Wii U, I felt that I was at the next level but Sega was nowhere to be seen. the tables have turned and now Nintendo does what Sega can’t. Till next time, remember if security stops you at the mall because of you are Christmas shopping with a ski mask on, I had nothing to do with it!