E312: Hands on with New Super Mario Bros U’s multiplayer Boost mode

E312: Hands on with New Super Mario Bros U’s multiplayer Boost mode

Another New Super Mario Bros console game means more multiplayer action. In the case of the Wii U version, Nintendo chose to include specific functionality in its Gamepad that is quite different than the other players in the game.

First and foremost, the Gamepad allows for a fifth player to join in on the action, though not with a character on screen. The Gamepad user can place blocks on the screen and help solve puzzles or avoid traps, and can interact with enemies to save team members. The blocks can even help during speed run level completions, which Nintendo is pushing this time around.

Or as we found out, the Gamepad user can be the ultimate dick, placing walls of blocks in inopportune areas meant to sabotage jumps over crevasses. With the relatively inexperience Mario players I was up against — who were all using WiiMotes — I felt almost like a Koopa god up against them.

That will most definitely be my role when I play this in the Fall.

It’s extremely easy to place the blocks in the location desired, as the video is duplicated on the Gamepad’s screen and the blocks appear and are labeled as hearts, clubs, and so on. Just select a block, drop it in place, and watch as Luigi falls to his doom. It was easily the best way to play the game in multiplayer.

Other than that it’s more multiplayer Mario, and that’s never a bad thing.

New Super Mario Bros U multiplayer screen