Tag: NSMBU

New Super Mario Bros. U has some extra game modes, notably the challenges and boost rush modes.

Challenges is appropriately named, because it does provide quite a challenge.  The first category is speed runs, basically. You have to complete a level (or part of a level) in a certain amount of time. If you’re fast enough, you can earn a medal. But if you’re just playing like you normally would, you won’t get a medal…in fact, you won’t even survive the challenge. You have to run nonstop, you have to make daring leaps through enemies’ paths, and so on. It would take lots of trial and error (and memorization) to find out the proper path you’d have to take.

Other categories require you to perform certain tasks. For example, in this level, there are three Dry Bones. Jump on them repeatedly, without ever hitting the ground, to earn 1-ups. And Dry Bones stay “dead” for a while after you crush them, so you’ll have to kill some time by bouncing off the walls. And if you touch the ground for even a split second, your game is over. To earn a gold medal, you’ll need to earn 30 1-ups. Very tedious and not fun at all.

Fortunately, the boost rush mode is a little better. It has regular levels, but the screen scrolls automatically to force you along. As you collect coins, the screen scrolls faster and faster. Your job is to complete the level in as short a time as possible. It’s fairly enjoyable, but I still prefer the regular story mode.

And if anyone is interested, here is a picture of my “records” screen, from the secret island:

To be honest, I don’t even know what some of that stuff means, or how things like fireworks are activated.

I have now posted my New Super Mario Bros. U review. Check it out on the JVGS Wii U Review page.

Well I went back and found the two exits I was missing. It turned out both of them were in the Soda Jungle world. And one of them wasn’t even a secret exit, it was the regular exit! I had found the secret exit when I first completed the level and never actually did the regular exit. The regular exit just makes a path that goes in a pointless circle, so I guess that explains why I didn’t notice anything missing there.

So my file has all five stars and 94 exits on it now. And they’re the shiny stars too, since I never used the annoying Super Guide. Wow, I hated the annoying doorbell sound of that Super Guide block. I hope they let you disable it completely (so it doesn’t even show up) in future games.

I’ll still need to play around with the Challenges and Boost Rush modes more, since I’ve barely played them at all. They seem to be all about doing things as fast as possible, like a speed run. So it comes down to memorizing the exact route to take to shave a tenth of a second off your time, and performing everything flawlessly. That type of thing doesn’t really appeal to me, but I’ll give those modes another chance before I write my review of the game.

I’ve been playing New Super Mario Bros. U last night and today, and I’ve now collected all of the star coins in the game.

As a result, I got a fourth star on my file.

To get the fifth and final star, apparently you have to find all 94 exits. So that means there are still two secret exits I need to find. I’ll probably have to consult a guide to see which two levels still have secret exits remaining, even though I want to find the actual exits myself.