Rating of
4/5
Better and Worse Than the First
dbarry_22 - wrote on 06/04/14
NES Remix 2 brought in many hit classics from the old console and has improvements over the previous version along with a few setbacks.
This game follows the same formula as the first version. You do not get to play full versions of the NES games included. You are given a specific challenge that will take you only a couple minutes, maybe even a couple seconds. You're either running to the end of the stage as fast as you can, eliminating enemies, or perhaps collecting coins. Based on how fast you finish the challenge, you are given up to 3 stars and they are possibly rainbow if you do it really well.
Barely over 5 months after the first game's release, NES Remix 2 became available for download on the WiiU. The first game must have been a huge success because the quickness of this release was a bit surprising. Nintendo did do a good job of bringing back well known classics. No more Clu Clu Land or Wrecking Crew, this game features very well known NES games that were quite popular.
With that said, the challenges for these classic games were a bit disappointing. It seems like the programmers just didn't give it much thought. For example, with Metroid I found myself doing more running or jumping instead fighting. Running through a hallway isn't exactly the best idea for a stage. One thing they should have had you do was do a bomb jump up and up over a ledge. But it didn't happen. There were obvious miscues on those stages. So while they did a great job of picking the right games for NES REMIX 2, they did a poor job of creating fun challenges.
On the plus side, the remix stages were better in my mind. They made you eliminate moving viruses in Dr. Mario and another one where they changed color. They made Link from Zelda II collect coins and made you race through the first level in Super Mario Bros. except they made it using the graphics of Super Mario Bros. 3. There were some real winners in there.
I also feel there were less stages than the previous game. I finished this one WAY faster than the first. Here's a list of all the games included and how many stages each has.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (16 stages)
Kirby's Adventure (13 stages)
Super Mario Bros. 2 US version (12 stages)
Metroid (12 stages)
Zelda II (10 stages)
Kid Icarus (8 stages)
Wario's Woods (8 stages)
NES Open Tournament Golf (8 stages)
Punch-Out!! (7 stages)
Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan version (7 stages)
Dr. Mario (6 stages)
Ice Hockey (4 stages embedded in the Bonus Level)
Nintendo continued to incorporate the posting to Miiverse and also added an element to it. Instead of just seeing the time of how someone did in a stage along with the post they added, you can now view a replay of how that person attacked the stage. In my opinion that's good and bad. It is nice to see what strategy someone used, but in my opinion it totally took away the point of posting to Miiverse. Now all the posts are basically challenges to beat times or other pictures that don't really mean much. There was communication in the first game that just doesn't exist here.
A couple little additional bonuses to this game was the inclusion of Super Luigi Bros. and Championship Mode. Super Luigi Bros. is actually a full game you get to play. It's basically the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES but you get to play it going right to left instead of left to right. Trust me when I tell you that it messes with your head. It was fun to go through. Also, if you also bought and played the first game, you get Championship Mode. It's a race to see how many points you can accumulate in a set amount of time through one specific challenge in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario. Since I'm a competitive guy, I really enjoyed that.
There were some nice improvements made to this game and yet there were some disappoints. I probably enjoyed it as much as the first game but because of different reasons. If you enjoyed the first game this is probably worth your money as well.
4/5
