New Super Mario Bros. Wii

New Super Mario Bros. Wii brought Mario back to the big screen after years in the form people knew from the 8-bit era, a side-scrolling platformer. The major new feature was simultaneous play for up to four people on a single screen. While previous entries only offered cooperation by taking turns, here four characters crowd onto the same platform, jump on each other's heads, collect the same coins, and quite often knock each other into pits. The result sits somewhere between cooperation and chaos, provoking loud laughter and plenty of mutual finger-pointing.

The controls are deliberately simple: the Wii Remote is held sideways like a classic pad, so all you need is the d-pad and two buttons. A flick of the remote is used to pick up a teammate or to spin a propeller, one of the new abilities. Alongside the classic power-ups comes a penguin suit for sliding on ice and swimming better, a propeller suit for launching upward and gently floating back down, or a giant ice ball. Levels are built in traditional fashion, with secret exits, three big coins on each map, and bonus worlds for those willing to put in the effort. The difficulty is higher than you'd expect from an accessible title, especially in the final worlds, where the game already assumes the player can land precise jumps on the first try.

The game also introduced a feature that plays through a difficult section for the player and lets them continue afterward, one of the first such concessions to frustrated players at the time. Graphically, it's a clean, colorful two-dimensional presentation with three-dimensional models, and the music builds on playful, catchy themes topped with choral humming, which has returned to the series ever since. Reception was very good, and the title became one of the console's best-selling games. Today it remains one of the best games for an evening with four players, though playing solo will leave you feeling like you're missing out on a good half of the fun the game has to offer.