Free-for-All

Rejoice! You can now enjoy New Super Mario Bros. Wii with several friends and partake in wacky party-style game play! For the first time ever, Super Mario Bros. can be played with up to four people simultaneously.

That means if you want to work as a team in Free-for-All, or fight against each other in Coin Battle, you can now grab four Wii Remotes, gather around the television, and bounce off each others’ heads until the Wii hours of the night! But first... here are some tips.

The object of Free-for-All is just as it is in single-player mode—to reach the end of the level without dying. So while all of the same strategies you use in single player apply in this mode, you’ll have friends to help you along the way and extend game play even if you fail!

So, while it may resemble competitive play, it’s really all about cooperation. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you can’t play to suit your style. It is a party mode, after all.

Free-for-All Tactics

Staying Alive

As long as one person is alive in a level, teammates can come back from death. The only time that players cannot come back is if they’ve run out of lives. So if a level is particularly difficult to beat, players will always have a chance as long as one person stays safe long enough for the others to return in their bubbles.

Share the Wealth

Remember, this is a cooperative mode. So the more that you and your friends share power-ups, the better everyone will do. There’s no point in taking a power-up if you already have one and your teammate has none. You never know when you’ll need that teammate to be around so that you can come back to life! If your teammate is Mini Mario or regular Mario, one hit will do them in, thereby lessening the chances of them being around later when you might need them. So, share!

Lean on Me

Sometimes, you might not have a better chance of hitting a switch or reaching a difficult area alone. In those cases, count on your teammates to help you out. You can pick each other up, so try hoisting a fellow player over your head and tossing them where they need to go. The same goes for bouncing off each others’ heads. This is usually a perfect way to reach high areas!

Ground-Pound Mayhem

You’re all after the same goal: to beat the level. So if you have to work together to defeat enemies, all the better! The best way to do that is to execute a simultaneous Ground-Pound attack that shakes the entire screen! If you’re surrounded by several difficult enemies, do a Ground-Pound all at the same time and clear the screen!

Follow the Leader

There’s no shame in following along if you have a hard time getting past a certain section of a difficult level. If a less experienced player dies, don’t pop them out of their bubble. Instead, allow a more experienced player to progress through the level until you’ve all cleared the most difficult part. Once you have gotten past the dangerous part, free your friend so that they can rejoin the action.