I second the “NSMBU is fantastic” opinion. In my list, I didn’t have it ranked to high, but that’s just because the top 2/3 of Mario games are all kinda equally fantastic, to me. It could easily have been much higher, depending on my mood. I’m gonna try and give my sell of U, which is good in a very particular way that is not very common in videogames.
The thing about NSMBU is, it doesn’t have too much new stuff. The powerups i THINK are all t he same as before, except for the new Flying Squirrel suit, which is perhaps the best flying powerup in the entire series (it has two distinct uses, which both have weird, nuanced angles, and are super frictive and interesting to use well). It might not have any new enemies or level elements at all, though I could be wrong. So what does it have? Well, unlike Mario 3, or Mario World, or Mario 1 or 2, or earlier NSMB games, it has everything. It seriously contains nearly every single enemy, platform, and geometric concept ever put into a Mario game, even the One Good Thing from NSMBWii (the rolling ground pieces).
So what does it do? It takes this huge toolbox of every possible tool in the series, and mashes them up in every way possible, in combinations that have mostly never been seen before! Now, for otherh games, this would serve a purely aesthetic fucntion, or be just fanservice (Musou games come to mind—look, it’s all these things you like! in one game!), but every enemy in a Mario game has distinct mechanical properties, and–more interestingly–were made for games with very specific movement options, so mixing them up in a game with different physics and moveset produces results that are intriguing at worst, absolutely INVIGORATING at best. It’s pure geometry.
Another positive quality of NSMBU is, its levels are often more focused than those in, say, SMB3 (and certainly more than in World). Whereas both of those games could sometimes be cluttered, each U level is often composed of only a few discreet elements. A great example of this, and a level which made a very strong impression on me back in the day, is in the Water world.
There’s a level in the Water world, which is almost entirely made of the following indivisible elements:
- skeleton
- red key
- score thing
- magic door
Er, let me try that again.
- Water
- Platforms
- Spike-ball Pirahna Plants (the kind from 3, that shoot a spike ball up and down, NOT moving themselves)
- Flying Cheep Cheeps
- occasional water spouts (u can “ride” them up to a solid surface on top)
That’s it! Now, think about how these things move. Cheep Cheeps of course fly through the air in large, low-angle arcs. While the spike pirahnas are themselves an obstacle, while also making t he spike ball go up and down vertically. I feel like, once the designers got the idea to put these two enemies in the same level, it’s easy to see how they were able to find cool ways to combine those shapes, along with the wildcard water spouts.
The whole game is like this! Level after level of totally-new permutations of previously-existing mario stuff, requiring your brain to figure out new ways to navigate levels.
If NSMBU has a problem (aside from aesthetics and music which are serviceable at best, and I’m too tired to really parse my feelings regarding), it’s that the levels are still too long and World-esque. As in, they have checkpoints, unlike Mario 3, which does not have checkpoints, which is why it’s the best Mario game. Despite my gushing about each level’s conceptuatl simplicity, they still often go on too long, and they do tend to throw in some extra thing toward the end to spice things up for a climactic finish, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Luigi U, however, does NOT have this problem.
WeegeeU’s premise was that, by giving every level a strict 100-mario-second time limit, you’d encourage all players to play like speedrunners! Except, frankly, they also made the levels so short to compensate, that the time limit is hardly an issue. So, the idea of every level being a tough race against the clock, just doesn’t really happen at all. Which you COULD say, is a fundamental failure of the game to succeed at its own premise. EXCEPT: the fact that the levels are shorter instantly makes them about 50x better. It’s everything that U did well, but even better, and with no bloat. And Luigi’s physics are extremely refined and fun to wrangle with.
So basically, while lacking basically any back-of-the-box, bullet-point “innovations,” Mario and Luigi u are games of pure craftsmanship, reconfiguration, and iteration. They’re meticulous in a good way, and also have a fuckin bajillion levels.
OH I FORGOT: the bosses are pretty weak, especially the final bosses (extra noticeable compared to the incredible final battle of 3d land, released the previous year).
EDIT: lol, I’d opened up a mario wiki to find the water level I mentioned above, to make sure I was describing it correctly, and it turns out it is from Luigi U! So uh, for the Mario U version of that level, imagine the same thing but with more unnecessary stuff in it, and a bit too long.
EDIT: here just watch the damb video