As I get older, I’ve noticed I become easily fatigued when playing games. I’m the guy who listens to the warning in every instruction manual about taking regular breaks. I’m also the guy who, when a Nintendo game notices I’ve been playing a while and pops up a message suggesting I take a rest, thinks, “You know, that’s a great idea.” In 2013, only BioShock Infinite has kept me engaged for more than 45 minutes at a time. For me, games have become exhausting.
So recently I’ve taken to games that deliver digestible, bite-sized chunks of gameplay. A short level here, a small objective there. It’s why I’ve logged over 20 hours in the new Nintendo 3DS version of Animal Crossing since I got it, even though not a single play session has lasted more than 15 minutes.
It’s also why New Super Luigi U, a downloadable expansion pack for the Wii U game New Super Mario Bros. U, appeals to me so much. The game, which released Thursday on Nintendo’s eShop, features 82 brand new levels, each of which is quite brief.
These stages are smaller than you might expect – each one has a 100-second time limit, and are designed around that. Nintendo doesn’t use the strict time limit as an excuse to ease up on the difficulty, either — Luigi’s adventure is much more difficult than Mario’s was. Stages are packed with hordes of enemies, and the tricky platforming segments and ticking clock makes each level feel more like a miniature obstacle course.
It’s a design that I find much more appealing than the several minute-long levels found in New Super Mario Bros. U. In that game, getting through just one stage felt like a slog and it was made worse by the fact that save points were few and far between. Here, the levels are brisk and exciting and most can be completed in well under 60 seconds, let alone 100.
New Super Luigi U has Nintendo keeping with its tradition of introducing something new and then getting rid of it for something else. The gamemaker took this design philosophy to its logical extreme with the Super Mario Galaxy games, which were filled with diverse levels. New Super Luigi U is nearly just as aggressive. Just in the first two worlds, I was negotiating rotating platforms fitted with flame throwers, then jumping over conveyer belts loaded with Piranha Plants, then stumbling through darkened caves.
These basic concepts were included in New Super Mario Bros. U, but this is to Super Luigi ‘s benefit. The game plays on your expectations of the original game, and not everything works the same way. An early example is when it introduces you to the spinning screws you use to make platforms jut out of the walls. I thought I already knew what to do, so in my haste, I started spinning the screw — only to be quickly crushed by the wall of platforms that emerged.
While playing, I kept thinking a game like this would be right at home on the iPhone or iPad. When it comes to games with pick-up-and-put-down design, iOS offers plenty of them for less than a buck. New Super Luigi U, in contrast, costs $20 as a downloadable add-on and $30 as a standalone disc. It’s an inventive and enjoyable remix of the game it’s based on, but it’s not the full-length adventure that its price tag or amount of levels suggests. But that’s fine by me.
This story has been updated to clarify the pricing of New Super Luigi U.
