New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (for Nintendo Switch) Review (2024)

Nintendo sometimes gets very weird with how it names games. It doesn't quite hit Kingdom Hearts levels of nonsense (I'm looking at you, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue), but it comes close. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is one of the best examples. This $59.99 game for the Nintendo Switch isn't new like the first part of its name suggests, and it isn't for the Wii U like the fifth part of its name suggests. It's a port of the 2012 Wii U game New Super Mario Bros. U, with the New Super Luigi U standalone DLC game included. It's lots of side-scrolling Mario action in an inexpensive package, with a few extra Switch-exclusive features, one of which is that you can play it on your TV or on the go.

"New" Super Mario Bros.

New Super Mario Bros. U was the fourth game (and arguably fifth, too, if you count New Super Luigi U) in the New Super Mario Bros. subseries, which Nintendo spun off from the main Mario series of 3D platformers like Super Mario Odyssey. The NSMB games are pure side-scrollers in the style of the 8- and 16-bit Mario games, built around leading Mario (or Luigi, or any other playable character) through obstacle-course-like levels until they reach a flag pole at the end or, in the case of towers and fortresses, beat a boss. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe is very simple and direct, with a premise to match: Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser and you need to rescue her.

We've looked at both New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U in detail in our reviews of the Wii U games, and little has changed in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. The action is still tight and responsive, the level designs are still clever, and the world is satisfyingly varied and big. Mario's side-scrolling antics look just as good on HDTVs and 4K TVs now as they did when NSMBU first took the video game icon to 1080p in 2012. And, of course, New Super Luigi U is still incredibly difficult, posing a stressful and time-limited spike in challenge from NSMBU's own sharp and uneven difficulty curve.

Enter Toadette

The biggest change in NSMBU Deluxe is the addition of Toadette as a playable character. The original let you choose between Mario, Luigi, and two differently colored Toads, supporting up to four simultaneous players at once. One of the Toads has been swapped out for Toadette, the pink-colored, pigtailed Toad girl. She functions as a slightly easier way to play the game.

While Mario, Luigi, and Toad all play similarly, Toadette skids less on slippery surfaces and gets three extra lives instead of one, spawning 3-Up moons from blocks that would ordinarily give 1-Up mushrooms. Toadette can also collect Super Crown power-ups that turn her into Peachette—a version of Princess Peach with pigtails. Peachette can float short distances, and perform a second jump in mid-air, giving her capabilities similar to those other characters get when equipped with the Flying Squirrel Suit. Peachette also gets extra chances when she falls down bottomless pits or touches lava or poison, launching out of the situation once instead of losing a life and restarting the level at the last checkpoint.

The thief rabbit Nabbit is also playable in the Mario side of NSMBU Deluxe. He serves as the game's easiest mode, being completely immune to damage from enemies. Nabbit can't use power-ups, and any power-ups he collects in a level get turned into extra lives. Nabbit was originally an enemy in the game, only playable in New Super Luigi U (Toadette is also playable in the New Super Luigi U half of NSMBU Deluxe).

Tempting Two-Pack

Six years after New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U came out, they're still excellent games worthy of the Mario name. They don't feel very different from the New Super Mario Bros. games that came out before them, and the few enhancements to the Deluxe version for the Switch don't change that, but they're still responsive, well-designed platformers in the classic side-scrolling style. It's a fun two-game compilation filled with challenge. It isn't a complete masterpiece like the 3D adventure of Super Mario Odyssey, but it will satisfy any old-school Mario fan.