YMMV / New Super Mario Bros.

• Contested Sequel: To the old-school lineage of Super Mario Bros games from the NES, SNES and (to a lesser extent) Game Boy. The primary reason is because many fans perceive insufficient progress from the games in refreshing the gameplay formula, particularly from the second game onwards. It didn't get this reaction too bad until Nintendo announced a third and fourth game to be released in the same year (namely 2012), and since then people began to deride Nintendo for over-relying on the sub-series, if not Mario as a whole, derisively being compared to the oversaturation of the Call of Duty series. Though it hasn't stopped each game from being a commercial success, and while the critical reception has remained highly positive^note For the most part, while the other three were well received (especially New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, with New Super Mario Bros. U's 84 Metascore being the lowest), New Super Mario Bros. 2 is the lowest rated console mainline Mario game with a 77 Metascore. Average, but this a franchise were mainline games get scores in the 80s and 90s., fan reactions have been more polarized.
• Character Perception Evolution: The Koopalings returning in Wii was one of the game's biggest selling points, as they hadn't appeared since Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and had largely been replaced by Bowser Jr, with Wii being the first game to feature all eight working together. Then the Koopalings came back for 2 and U, along with a bunch of other games in the series, and fans started to get tired of them as, due to them being a group of seven, they would typically take up most of the boss roster whenever they appeared and, for the New games, become part of the originality critiques. Nowadays, the Koopalings have gone from an Ensemble Dark Horse group to a Base-Breaking Character one (and in turn boosted Bowser Jr from Replacement Scrappy to Base-Breaking Character) and became part of the reason the original game, with its original and more creative boss fights, is still held up in high regard while the later games have become controversial.
• Fan Nickname:
  • The Gold and Blue Toads in New Super Mario Bros. Wii have been given the names Wolley and Yvan, respectively (pronounced "Wally" and "Ivan"). Less popular names that were believed to have been given by the development team are Alla-Gold and Bucken-Berry. The name "Bload" for Blue Toad also caught on in the latter half of The New '10s.
  • The sub-series as a whole is often called "New Soup" for short.
  • Twirl for the mid-air Spin Jump introduced in New Super Mario Bros. Wii that reappears in following console games, which allows you to perform a mid-air twirl.
• First Installment Wins: Fans generally prefer the first two games over later entries, with a subset of them considering the very first New Super Mario Bros. the best in the sub-series, due to its Early-Installment Weirdness which they feel makes the game unique and allows it to stand out far more in hindsight when compared to its sequels. It helps the original Nintendo DS title that future games recycled much more heavily from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and U, leaving the original with its own distinct soundtrack and blend of 2D pixel art and low-poly 3D modeling alongside its unique obstacles, enemies, and bosses that never reappeared in any sequel either, the latter instead being replaced by either the Koopalings, the Reznors, or Boom-Boom.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • Critics of the franchise that derisively call the sub-series Mission Pack Sequels may remember that the original game's sequel had much of the same criticism, and was part of the reason Super Mario Bros. 2 was initially favored for Western release instead.^note That, and the Fuji TV exclusive characters that populated the original game weren't coming back any time soon, as they were one-offs. As well as the Japan only sequel Super Mario Bros. Special and the All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. and VS. Super Mario Bros. variants of the original game.
  • The first game in the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series avoided drastic changes to the Mario sidescroller formula apart from significantly incorporating moves from 3D Mario games (namely Triple Jumps, Wall Jumps, and Ground Pounds) to 2D Mario games. At the time, this wasn't seen as a flaw since it was the first new major 2D Mario game in over a decade and was Mario's—and the video game industry in general's—grand return to the 2D Platform Game scene and the game still had more than enough content to stand on its own as a creative new entry alongside the old-school games. Its not drastic but still significant gameplay changes also helped bridge the gap between both game genres and it still introduced a bunch of new power-ups and several new locations, obstacles, enemies, and unique Bosses never seen again in its sequels. When the sub-series got its second entry, the core gameplay and aesthetics changed little besides a tweaked Spin Jump, with nearly all biomes being recycled, but it featured four player simultaneous Co-Op Multiplayer, some new power-ups, the return of the Koopalings and Yoshi returning as a Power Up Mount, more challenging levels and was the first console 2D Mario since Super Mario World, all of which were strong enough for the game to sell itself as a new experience as well. But with New Super Mario Bros. 2, the closest thing to a defining gimmick the game had was "there are lots of coins around for no reason, collect them for a Bragging Rights Reward" and all biomes and almost the entire soundtrack were recycled from Wii. Then when New Super Mario Bros. U came out (and went on to be rereleased twice), not only did it hit on the same year as 2, but it had not much to sell itself on either, besides Baby Yoshis, a Challenge mode, and a few new power-ups and biomes, still looking and playing basically the same as its Wii predecessor despite being a Wii U launch title and the first HD Mario game. The things that had once been novel selling points had now been recycled multiple times over, and as a result, the lack of originality became one of the biggest criticisms for the entire sub-series. Not helping was that Nintendo eventually released DLC (Coin Rush Packs and New Super Luigi U with playable Nabbit) and a Updated Re-release (New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe with playable Toadette) for those two games rather than a new one until Super Mario Bros. Wonder in October 2023, almost 11 years later.
• Game-Breaker: Each of the Video Game Flight (or at least something close) power-ups: The Propeller Mushroom in Wii and U, the Super Acorn in U, and the Super Leaf in 2. Considering how the core mechanic is platforming and not falling to your death, these make gameplay significantly easier.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: A common complaint of the sub-series handheld games. The console games, on the other hand, are much more difficult.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Every game in the sub-series after the first one invoked this reaction from people due to it being a 2D platformer with the same artstyle, which reached a peak with 2 and U.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Scripulous Fingore ^ExplanationIn April 2021, the parody Twitter account @CutVideoGame posted a fake screenshot of a Dummied Out ghost enemy in the game's files, and claimed that Miyamoto had gotten oddly defensive when asked about him. Fans naturally responded by posting their own fake screenshots inserting him into various other Mario games.
  • One 2022 TikTok trend has Koopa Troopas undergoing serious situations, such as infidelity, divorce, or disasters, scored to the World 1-1 theme, only to stop and dance to the "bah, bah" sample before going right back to being serious.
• Misblamed: While some fans accused the series for having the unoriginality of the latter two titles seeped into other Mario RPG games, the reality of the situation is that one has nothing to do with the other. Paper Mario: Sticker Star turned out the way it did because Shigeru Miyamoto suggested Intelligent Systems to prioritize using the original Mario characters and they at their own discretion alone decided to ditch the original characters and story present in prior games because of taking that suggestion to the extreme and Japanese Club Nintendo surveys for Super Paper Mario that indicated that barely any Japanese players cared about the story present in prior games. Likewise, the decision to continue doing this in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King to a lesser extent are all internal decisions solely on Intelligent Systems' part to keep that style, all of which have absolutely nothing to do with what teams in charge of and the mainline Mario games do.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • The fanbase was pretty hyped for the original New Super Mario Bros., as it was the 2D Mario revival they had been clamoring for; it was actually new, ambitious, and creative: it introduced a new art style and plenty of unique obstacles, enemies, and bosses to the franchise and did a great job of showcasing the capabilities of the Nintendo DS. It got massive critical and commercial success upon release and helped revive 2D platformers on consoles. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was similarly celebrated for expanding and improving upon the original game's gameplay by introducing four player simultaneous multiplayer and larger levels possible on the Wii alongside Yoshi, and not long after its release, other titles followed. Then the sequels that came after lacked any further improvements and additions to the gameplay and were considered uninspired, gimmicky in the latter case, and derivative, recycling too much from previous games, and making fans consider that the New Super Mario Bros. formula became stale, giving a bad reputation to the original 2006 DS game and its sequel on the Wii. Now, with four NSMB games released (plus an extensive DLC released later as both a standalone game and a DLC), some fans have grown to view the sub-series as a pointless, boring series of rehashes, and often compare it unfavorably with other mainline Mario titles.
  • Due to sharing the same art style and core gameplay as all of its sequels, when speaking about the sub-series the original New Super Mario Bros. will most often than not will be lumped together with its sequels and seen almost as rehashed in spite of all of its then new additions and improvements, hardly anyone will remember how it brought gameplay elements introduced in 3D Mario games to 2D Mario games, its unique Blue Shell power-up, and its various unique locations, enemies, bosses, and obstacles that never reappeared in any sequel.
  • New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduced four player simultaneous multiplayer which was one of the longstanding dreams of Shigeru Miyamoto, who tried to introduce this feature ever since the NES days, and was touted as the biggest new feature of the game. This is hardly remembered anymore by anyone.
• Older Than They Think: The "bah" sample didn't originate in this sub-series. It was used for the mission select screen jingle in Super Mario 64, and might have made it into the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series due to the first game sharing the Super Mario 64 DS soundfont. The games, however, did recontextualize the sound by having enemies dance to it, and used it in several music tracks, making it much more prominent.
• Recurring Fanon Character: Scripulous Fingore is an Original Character that comes from an Urban Legend of Zelda and was supposedly an unused ghost enemy in New Super Mario Bros. DS that was removed from the game for unknown reasons. The hoax became popular with fans, as Scripulous received many memes, fan art, and edits.
• So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus about New Super Mario Bros. 2. There is nothing outright awful about the game, and even the game's detractors will agree that it is a well-designed, polished, and perfectly playable 2D Mario platformer at its core, while also featuring a few saving graces in its throwbacks to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World (such as the return of the Raccoon Leaf and the Reznors), and the coin collection gimmick being well implemented in levels. However, the reuse of almost all assets, all Video Game Settings, and soundtrack from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the complete lack of new and original ideas and improvements to the core gameplay, the overly easy difficulty, and the coin gimmick not adding much to the formula alongside other significant missed opportunities cause it to be this for several fans and critics alike and ultimately make it forgettable, unlike its DS and Wii predecessors and even its Wii U successor, being vastly considered the weakest and most unoriginal game in the New Super Mario Bros. sub-series by far and one of the weakest mainline Mario games, falling short of fulfilling expectations and being considered just plain mediocre by many fans.

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