Awesome Art: Thanks to the transition to HD graphics, New Super Mario Bros. U has noticeably more vibrant and detailed backgrounds than its predecessors, from the frosted sand dunes in Layer Cake Desert to the schools of Cheep-Cheeps swimming in the distance of Sparkling Waters. Special mention goes to Painted Swampland, a gorgeous level with unique aesthetics inspired by Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night.
Awesome Bosses: The final boss, from a design-standpoint. It's a very climatic fight against a Giant Bowser and Bowser Jr. team-up, where you have to steal Jr.'s Clown Car to crash it into Giant Bowser, making it a sort of mix between the final bosses of Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros., and the Bowser Jr. levels from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it's a pretty nice fight and a far cry from the simpler rehash from New Super Mario Bros. Wii that New Super Mario Bros. 2 had. The (all-new) epic battle music that accompanies it is pretty good as well.
Skyward Stalk is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Mario climbs a beanstalk into the sky. The sheer creativity of the premise combined with the disappearing leaf platforms and hordes of enemies make it one of the game's most memorable levels.
Spinning Star Sky features gorgeous backgrounds and the titular gimmick: a bunch of giant stars that spin whenever Mario and co. jump on them. It's simple, but the way the stars are utilized makes for a surprisingly creative and engaging level.
Painted Pipeworks and its Superstar Road equivalents are well-remembered for their unique environment (a swamp styled in the vein of Vincent van Gogh) that strays away from the usual Mario biomes.
Superstar Road-2: Run For It! It's an incredibly fun challenge of racing the P-switches' time limit over coins turned into brick blocks. There's very little room for error and you'll likely suffer several deaths on a few first tries, but you'll have a blast doing it.
Base-Breaking Character: Peachette in Deluxe. Some see her as one of the most ridiculous, confusing and unnecessary characters to exist in the series, with many fans arguing that if Nintendo wanted a princess-type character without making Peach playable, they could've simply made Daisy or Rosalina playable instead of making a new character/power up from scratch (especially since the former had previously appeared in Super Mario Run). Additionally, because the plot of the game revolves around Bowser actually occupying Peach's Castle, minor tweaks to the narrative could have justified Peach's playable status - even if they only applied in a playthrough using her. Others though, love the sheer bizarreness of the concept and considers Peachette to be a cute and unique addition to the game, as well as a clever way to make Peach playable in some form without changing the game's story. The fact that her existence would inadvertently lead to the infamous Super Crown trend hasn't helped her case.
Breather Boss: Boss Sumo Bro. As long as you keep hitting the platforms he's on until you're able to hit him, you probably won't take any damage at all. You can even knock him down immediately after he recovers.
Superstar Road-9/Follow That Shell!, while still tricky in its own right, is a breath of fresh air to players, especially if they had just finished Pendulum Castle.
Discredited Meme: In early January of 2019, the official New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe website confirmed that the Super Crown power-up can only work canonically with Toadette, not only disconfirming the possibility of the Super Crown working on Bowser, but at the same time, the possibility of working on any other character. It seems that Nintendo has had enough of that meme. Unsurprisingly, given that the ambiguity of the Super Crown was what kickstarted the whole meme to start with, the Bowsette trend would experience a sharp decline as a result of Nintendo killing that ambiguity.
Epileptic Trees: The ability for Toadette to transform into a Princess Peach lookalike named Peachette. This has led people to wonder if Peach is an evolved Toad or if Toads are simply larval humans in the Mario universe. There's also the theory that the Super Crown was made in case Peach needed a body double while she was out, willingly or otherwise.
Even Better Sequel: Sameness aside, a number of fans consider it to be better than its Wii predecessor because it manages to be better designed for 4-player co-op, yet is more challenging in single player due to the addition of Single Player Challenges. New features such as a 3D World map reminiscent of Super Mario World with branching levels, the return of Baby Yoshis, and new playable characters Nabbit and Peachette (on Deluxe) were generally well received. It's also generally considered to be much better than its 3DS predecessor by virtue of adding new gameplay features and modes instead of only a coin-collecting gimmick and not reusing as many graphical assets or music as that game, as well as providing a better alternative to said game's Coin Rush in its more challenging and more featured Boost Rush mode. All in all, despite the criticisms of stagnation, it's considered by a number of fans to be the best in the whole New Super Mario Bros. sub-series in terms of pure design, other than lacking various unique bosses, enemies, and obstacles the first game had.
The P-Acorn seems to scream this, since it's the Flying Squirrel power-up but with unlimited air boosting. Its usefulness takes a hit in Co-op, though, since the four players will inevitably get in each other's way.
Bubble Baby Yoshis can turn just about every enemy into bubbles, even Boos, filled with coins or even power-ups, and said bubbles can even be used as a temporary bouncing platform. This feature, combined with the floating ability of the flying squirrel power-up, can make it very easy to perform speed-runs.
Surprisingly, the Super Star powerup has its place. It's invaluable for quickly catching Nabbit in most levels, as the speed boost and invincibility make it much faster to capture him.
Bony Beetles, which are a cross between a Dry Bones and a Buzzy Beetle. Not so bad, right? But, like before, every few seconds, they'll pull in their heads and pop out some spikes, temporarily turning them into The Spiny. And when they reassemble? They do so with spikes, stopping you from stomping them immediately. When you're trying to maneuver around them, it's likely that you'll be hit a few times.
Sledge Bros. While they're only in one level, said level features moving platforms that you can be crushed between. What do they do? Create a minor earthquake when they jump, stunning you temporarily and putting you in danger of being squashed by said platforms.
It's Easy, So It Sucks!: The reception to almost every boss, especially the final boss (if you abuse its weakness to fireballs instead of attacking him with the Koopa Clown Car). Any Koopaling can be easily defeated if the player just chases after its shell and immediately jumps on it, immediately crippling its pattern. Boom Boom doesn't even have a shell chasing pattern and can be defeated by repeatedly Goomba Stomping him.
Despite it shaping up to have its own identity, this game gets called out for not bringing out "the full potential of the Wii U" (i.e. not pushing its graphical capabilities to the limit like Super Mario 3D World later did, instead being graphically similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii but in HD, with its significantly more detailed backgrounds being the most noticeable difference).
Many fans were upset that the Yellow and Blue Toad returned as players 3 and 4 again instead of other characters, such as Wario and Waluigi, or Peach. This has been somewhat alleviated with Deluxe with Peachette, though not completely because she's not Peach (nor Daisy, for that matter) and due to various other reasons. It would later be completely alleviated on both Super Mario Run and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which feature Peach, Daisy, and Toadette as well as various other playable characters.
Complaints about how the Koopalings and Boom-Boom are returning, stating that they aren't new and have been rehashed, particularly because the Koopalings had already made their big comeback in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. How they are the only bosses in the game besides Bowser and Bowser Jr. (and Kamek and a Sumo Bro, once each), Pom-Pom doesn't appear to make them more varied, and the game lacks the unique bosses the first game had (and is one of the reasons why many consider it to be the best) doesn't help matters.
When the game was eventually ported to the Nintendo Switch as New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe it got this reaction from fans who had already played it, even from those who consider it an Even Better Sequel to New Super Mario Bros. Wii instead of what happened with New Super Mario Bros. 2, given that it's mostly the exact same game (other than being able to play with any character in single player, adding Peachette, and removing the Boost Mode) and would have liked to see a brand new installment in the series instead of an Updated Re-release, as for 10 years after its release, it remained the last New Super Mario Bros. and even full-fledged 2D Mario game overall. Porting it also unfortunately contributed to the perception and subsequent reputation that allNew Super Mario Bros. games are rehashed, which started with New Super Mario Bros. 2, and is the only one that can be truly called a flat-out complete rehash due to its complete lack of significant changes or improvements, with U being only partially rehashed. These fans wishes would finally be answered with the announcement and release of the all-new Super Mario Bros. Wonder in June 2023 and October 2023 respectively, almost 11 years after U's original release.
The Super Crown being used on other characters from Mario and other franchises to transform them into princesses. The most popular of these transformations was Bowsette, thanks to a comic drawn by Ayyk92. Not evenFrank Reynolds is immune to this treatment.
Asking where Blue Toad wentnote The most common answer to this is that he's busy assisting Princess Daisy with her special moves in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. What had actually happened was that he's in the game and can be chosen, but he and Yellow Toad cannot be on the screen together since you have to choose one or the other..
Some players think Mario was the first character who wore a flying squirrel suit to glide, but he's not. In Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return, released in 1999, the title character got to wear one.
While Toadette turning into Peach using a crown in Deluxe was a surprise, Super Mario 64 DS also had hat items that transformed characters into Mario, Luigi, or Wario.
One of Peach's subjects turning into a lookalike is new, but Bowser's minions have been doing it since the first Super Mario Bros.. In their case, though, Fake Bowsers don't usually have a tell-tale sign (Blue Bowser and the Tail Bowsers are exceptions, though).
This isn't Toadette's first time as a playable character in a Mario platformer. That honor goes to her tenure in Super Mario Run.
This also isn't the first time Toadette gets a kiss from Peach after rescuing her. That too had happened in Super Mario Run.
In terms of physical releases, a disc containing both the regular game and New Super Luigi U came along before the Nintendo Switch Deluxe version did the same thing in cartridge form. The main difference was that the disc was exclusive to a Wii U bundle, while Deluxe is a regular retail release.
The protagonist being ejected from the building and having to make their way back there to face the villain is the inciting incident not just for this game, but also for Wario Land IIif the player doesn't wake Wario up before Captain Syrup's lackeys lift him from his bed and toss him out of his own castle.
Scrappy Mechanic: Deluxe features the Super Crown, which can only be used by Toadette but still shows up in the Red Mushroom House prize pool even if you aren’t playing as her. This not only potentially replaces a useful power-up in a Mushroom House with something completely worthless, but they also clog up your inventory and cannot be trashed (though you can at least replace them with something when your inventory gets full).
Sequel Difficulty Spike: People expecting the game to be as easy as its predecessor are in for a rude awakening; the game is much less forgiving after the first world, and it only gets harder from there. Granted, you can still hoard lives and P-Acorns to combat this, but doing the platforming and puzzles the way they were intended will test your skills and patience, especially some of the Star Coin placements.
Surprise Difficulty: If you've played the other games, the fairly high difficulty contrasting the cute themes probably won't surprise you anymore. The challenges, on the other hand, take things to a new level.
That One Boss: With most bosses, this can be avoided, as you can stun-lock them, but a few bosses can become this if you fight them the normal way.
Wendy, if only for summoning her rings above her head to prevent you from charging in to jump on her. Once you get past that, she's not too bad.
Iggy isn't too hard, but he's rather difficult to stun-lock, and his unpredictable pattern will get some people (Sometimes he pops out of the same pipe he just went into)). Not to mention, if he summons a Magmaargh on either side of you, you're pretty screwed.
Roy, for wielding a double-sided Bullet Bill cannon. The moving platforms don't do much to help.
Superstar Road-2, to others, qualifies as That One Level instead because of the necessity for constant running, the precision timing needed for the last couple of switches, and having to memorize the level to avoid death.
Swaying Ghost House due to how puzzling it is, especially its secret exit.
Red-Hot Elevator Ride. The premise is that you're on an elevator in a tower filling with lava, and you can tilt the controller to move the elevator. Goombas, Bob-ombs, Bowser Amps and para-coins fill the level. There's a problem, though: The elevator shuts down if anything other than Mario lands on it. That means you'll be preoccupied getting rid of Goombas, Bob-ombs, and even coins so you can keep moving through the level.
The consolidation of Yellow Toad and Blue Toad into a single "Toad" slot in the Deluxe version means that if you play the NSMBU part with four players, one of you will have to use an easier character (either Toadette or Nabbit). In NSLU, two of you will need to use them, since Mario isn't playable in it. And many of the power-ups you get from blocks or toad houses will be Super Crowns that only Toadette can use.
Also in Deluxe, the jump buttons are now shared with the spin jump/Twirl, which can be performed by pressing A/B Button in mid-air, just like in Super Mario Run, however; while it works well in that game due to being touch-based and all of the character's actions can be controlled with a one-handed tap, in this game that's not the case, the change is unnecessary, and can lead to accidental jumps. It's still possible to spin with the L Button and R Button buttons, and the behavior can be temporally disabled by holding the Left Stick down for three seconds on the title screen while pressing the L Button and R Button buttons at the same time, but there's no way to disable it permanently.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Bowser taking over Peach's castle and remaking it in his image, while not an original concept (Super Mario 64 has that honor), was an interesting idea for the game's conflict, particularly since the location remained in Peach's Castle instead of moving to various other locations, but ultimately wasn't as utilized as much as people wished it was, especially compared to how Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze handled its similar premise. Peach's Castle being the shortest world in the entire game doesn't help. And that doesn't stop there. The only major battles fought in Peach's Castle are the two-part Bowser face-off in "The Final Battle"; the first part of the castle level doesn't even have a boss! (Despite the castle music playing.) To add on further, one might assume that it'll be somewhat of a more corrupted World 1 in the past NSMB games taking place at night, and having much tougher enemies along the way. Nope. It's just another volcano-like world with fiery-based levels, only difference is that there's the original World 1 setting and Peach's Castle in the background. Oh, and did we forget to mention there's no Tower levels? It would've been nice to have the Peach's Castle world mini-boss be a rematch against the Koopalings (albeit under tougher conditions), another fight against Kamek, or even Bowser Jr. (as a homage to the original New Super Mario Bros.).
Underused Game Mechanic: The Boost Mode and the ability to touch everything by using the Wii U GamePad was intended by the developers to be a complete game changer, but in practice a player can fully complete the game without ever using it and is nowhere the game changer they thought it could be. Both abilities to touch things and create blocks are entirely unavailable when playing solo and even in multiplayer it is not any better than just jumping or stunning enemies with a normal power-up and Boost Blocks are not any better than using the Bubbles as platforms. Tellingly, it was completely dropped from the Updated Re-release, with many players not even noticing it being gone. Future games dropped it as well, with only Super Mario 3D World featuring the ability to touch the elements in a much more varied way, all while not touting it as major feature either.
We're so used to fighting Boom Boom at every tower level, and we know for sure we'll fight Kamek later on. So who would've thought that the boss of Screwtop Tower, would be the Boss Sumo Bro.? He doesn't even appear on the top of his tower on the world map! (He briefly appears there after his defeat, however.)
Toadette in Deluxe manages to do this twice in a row. One, she replaces Blue Toad from the roster. Two, she can use a new power-up to transform into a Peach look-a-like with a different play style.
Vindicated by History: At launch the game was written off by many for the perceived over-saturation of New Super Mario Bros. games in 2012 and their lack of innovation alongside New Super Mario Bros. 2, and for being perceived as a poor choice of launch title for the Wii U, since it didn't make full use of the system's capabilities. However, as time went on, many fans began to overlook the unfortunate circumstances of its release and admire the game for its own merits. The re-release on Switch in 2019 was therefore much better received, complaints about Wii U ports being mostly the same on Switch aside from players that had already played the original.
confirmed that the Super Crown power-up can only work canonically with Toadette, not only disconfirming the possibility of the Super Crown working on Bowser, but at the same time, the possibility of working on any other character. It seems that Nintendo has had enough of that meme. Unsurprisingly, given that the ambiguity of the Super Crown was what kickstarted the whole meme to start with, the Bowsette trend would experience a sharp decline as a result of Nintendo killing that ambiguity.