Why do we play video games? For someone like me, it’s a hard question to answer. I was a non-gamer before I started playing games. One day I started, and that was it. I was probably five. But of course there was a reason why I sought out games to play where others didn’t. Something grabbed me, but didn’t grab everyone. By the time people are grown up they tend to have a pretty locked view of video games: they love them, they think they’re weird, they just aren’t interested, whatever. But every so often a game comes along that can reach across those boundaries. Games like Peggle or Wii Sports, for whatever reason, can pull in players who would normally never touch a controller. As a player, these games interest me because they can change the landscape of who I’m playing games with, and as a developer because they can reach new players with no preconceptions of what a game should be. It’s important to try and understand what makes one game appeal only to the “hardcore” while another is universal, so for what it’s worth, I want to share my recent experience of a game that seems to have done both.

I wasn’t planning on buying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, at least not right away. I could imagine picking it up in a year or so, used probably, when I could get it for $15 bucks. I was glad to see the game was well reviewed, even more to hear that it was very hard, but paying $50 for a platformer wasn’t getting me that excited. But then something I didn’t expect happened: my girlfriend saw the commercial on TV and said “That looks fun.” I bought it that afternoon. I have never, never, heard her express actual interest in playing a video game before. This was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

I will admit I was feeling buyer’s remorse on the way home from the store, something close to dread as I fired up the game and prepared to play with three decidedly non-gamer girls (my girlfriend and her two younger sisters). We started off slow, making sure everyone had their Wii remote oriented correctly (saying “like an NES controller” was not enough information for them), selecting characters, and explaining the controls as we ventured into the first level. This took something like 20 minutes. I was cringing. I answered the tough questions: “What happens when I die?” “Where did I go?” “Which one am I again?” Finally it seemed like we were ready, and we started to play for real.

Having fun in New Super Mario Bros. Wii with three other people is a lesson in letting go. If you try and play to win, if you get frustrated when your friends accidentally kill you, you may quickly find yourself making an attempt on their real life. Trying to stay together becomes dangerous, as you’re more likely to bounce off someone and fall to your death, but spreading out makes it more likely that the leader will pull the screen ahead and yank the slowest person down a hole. You will die. A lot. But while I’m not sure how it happened, or if it’s a common experience, somewhere between the first moments of intense frustration and shutting the game off three hours later, I started having a blast.

As a multiplayer game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is chaotic beyond comprehension, but it is also expertly designed. Cooperative play is not a new thing for most gamers, but this game offers something different. Those raised on the Xbox are well used to split screen Halo, but long before consoles were king, kids like me were sharing chair space over Space Quest or Doom, offering advice and jockeying for keyboard position. In some ways, playing four-player Mario reminds me of sharing a single player experience as a kid. While everyone is controlling their own character, there is only one game playing out on screen. If one player moves to far forward she pulls the rest with her, often with deadly consequences. If one player makes it to a hard to reach warp pipe, everyone gets pulled along. In Mario, players frequently deter and assist one another, and I found that with extended play we became more collaborative, if still very chaotic.

Communication also became an important part of the experience. Frequently this came in the form of shouting “You killed me!” at one another, but as we progressed we began to plan. As the strongest player, there were sections that I could complete that the girls had trouble with. They would try, and if they missed a jump they could “bubble,” protecting their character, and then float their way back to the group. Watching one of them bounce across platforms built anticipation, ending with a sigh of relief or a three-person call of “Bubble!” as she fell. Most surprising of all was that the reward system came from our own communication as well. Success or failure, every event would end with us laughing at the crazy deaths, sighing with relief, or celebrating success. It was the chatter, the “oh brothers” and the person-to-person celebrations that were rewarding, not completing a level.

I want to step away for a minute and talk about the Wii. A lot of reasons have been thrown around as to why the Wii has such wide appeal, and most of them are wrong. It’s not because the Wii is simpler than other consoles. There are straps to secure, rubber guards to attach. Do you put that sensor bar above the TV or below? Do you use the little stickers that come with it? Don’t forget to change the settings to reflect where the bar is too. The set-up is a significant barrier to entry, even before a player has a chance to decide if they like playing the games at all.

I don’t buy the “intuitive” nature of the Wii either. While the motion controls have appeal, the Wii remote is not frankly very intuitive. Nintendo was smart to call it the Wii remote, as people immediately hold it like a TV remote, and that great big “A” button certainly falls right under your thumb. But sometimes you have to hold the Wii remote sideways, “NES style.” Sometimes you put it on your knee and move it like a joystick, or hold it straight up and down. Sometimes you control the game with motions, other times by pointing the cursor. And there is no one configuration that allows easy access to every button. Wii style makes it hard to hit any button besides “A” and “B”, but holding it NES style makes “A” and “B” difficult to hit. This is intuitive?

Now think of the 360 controller. Hand that controller to a time-traveling Eskimo who has never even seen plastic before and I guarantee they would hold it right. The shape communicates the use, the buttons seem to just “be” right there under your fingers. Now what exactly all those buttons do is another beast, but the point is this: while the Wii may be fairly easy to control, once someone shows you how it’s not just pick up and play.

But in many ways the Wii’s success hinges on that show-me-how attribute. First party titles like Wii Sports, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., and New Super Mario Bros. all work best when playing in the same room with your friends. It almost seems like Nintendo sabotaged their online connectivity with that in mind, as I would rather drive across town to my friend’s house than use those ridiculous friend codes. The Wii is about getting people in the same room, interacting in person and on-screen. It’s this living room experience that really lowers the barriers that normally keep someone like my girlfriend from having any interest in gaming. Particularly in Mario, where the multiplayer all happens on the same screen, the game world reflects the real world of the players. Here we are, sitting on the couch and the floor, and there we are, hopping across the Mushroom Kingdom. The cutesy, silly, imaginative art design certainly help lower those barriers, but that reflection is really what broke down the wall. To a non-gamer, seeing a brief flash of 4-way split screen co-op is going to mean almost nothing, but in the commercials for Mario we are shown a family of four, remotes in hand, and then their characters bouncing around on screen (In perfect coordination I might add, which is completely ridiculous). The characters paired on screen mirror the family sharing their living room. Clever marketing yes, but also accurate marketing.

Having had a chance to play a good bit of single player as well, New Super Mario Bros. Wii almost feels like two games in one. At first I missed the conversation, I skipped past coins that seemed impossible to reach without friends to assist, but I soon found single player to be a true hardcore experience: challenging, rewarding, and fun. And playing alone offers the chance to really push your skill, nail the hard timed jumps and perfect landings. But a part of me remains attached to that four-person experience. For me, this is the game that finally cemented the Wii’s take on gaming, and for the first time it really feels like a necessary game space. I’m not trying to say that all games should be four player local multiplayer. Being able to jump into a quick round of Bad Company on Xbox Live is great, as is disappearing inside on epic RPG for a few hours. But there’s something really fun about pulling in someone who doesn’t “get” your favorite pastime and then seeing them smile, and there’s something more satisfying about smack-talking face to face.

From launch I thought the Wii would probably always be the kid brother of this generation. Sure he can hang out with big kids sometimes, but when it’s time to get serious he just isn’t old enough. I still think this is true, but for the first time I wish it wasn’t. In the best of their first-party offerings, Nintendo has truly carved out a unique space, but it’s a hard sell for lifetime gamers like me. After all, I’ve owned a Wii since launch and have barely touched it in the last year. I celebrate innovation in gameplay, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii is really innovative in the way is layers multiplayer and single player into the same game, but almost invisibly so. Playing the game by yourself you might never realize what you’re missing. Now I know, and while I plan on pouring a dozen hours into Dragon Age this week, I’m also looking forward to the weekend, when I can fire up Mario and forget everything I ever learned about playing games.

Please enlighten us with some of your stories with your wife or girlfriend, heck even sister.  Please comment below and let us know. No registration required to post.

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