Getting New Super Mario Bros. U to be a Featured Article

[Xiahou Ba]

I've done a deep dive analysis of this article, highlighting my thoughts on what could be done to get this up to par to be featured. I am comparing this article to an article I worked on the past, Super Mario World.

Intro

• A major omission of new features I am seeing is the lack of mention of the various Baby Yoshis, they're key, new items that are showcased in the boxart of the game as well as being a focal point of the intro and deserve a shoutout.
• The intro may need to put a little bit more emphasis that the game is generally a follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It does later go deeper into the article why that's the case, but for an opening statement for this game, it wouldn't hurt to add something like this. Probably also talk a bit about the game's graphics and presentation, not enough game articles write about it, how it's heavily taken from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• I think calling something side-scrolling 2.5D is redundant. You just need to call it a 2.5D platformer.

Gameplay

• Detailing basic tenets of Mario gameplay would be helpful here, I always write these articles assuming that there is always a first-time player who has never played a prior Mario game before, so that they don't need to consult another article to get information in how Mario plays (first time players will have questions such as if this mechanic carries over from past games or not, and series articles won't often detail nuances that are specific to each game). This was how I tackled it in Super Mario World, if you want a gist of how to do something like this. So what should be described here is how the health system works in Mario (how power-ups serve as hit points), how players earn points for defeating enemies, how Mario needs to make it to the flagpole before timers run out, how Mario keeps track of lives, that sort of thing.
• Additionally, gameplay should cover some of the parkour features that New Super Mario Bros. games are known for that you can't find prior to Wii. This includes spin-jumps, hanging off the ledge, some multiplayer components (such as the bubble mechanic, simultaneous ground-pounds, jumping on each other's heads, carrying another player). Multiplayer may need its own section entirely.

Levels

• This should talk about level progression works, how new levels open up depending on how you clear them (like finding secret edits), and this should explain how Super Mario Bros. 3 separated worlds as opposed to Super Mario World's interconnected map. Probably should include total level count in the game too.
• General settings should be discussed about, what this game does that is unique to this game as opposed to other Mario games, as opposed to other New Super Mario Bros. games, especially how the level themes take inspiration from prior New Super Mario Bros. series, starting with the first DS game. The biomes discussed could also detail some of the endemic enemies and obstacles to there such as Flipruses, or Bramballs.
• Small images should illustrate levels, I feel. I wouldn't immediately remember what Tropical Fresher would look like, and if looking for the Van Gogh poison swamp level, a picture of it would help me find it easier than trying to remember the name as Painted Swampland.
• Super Mario World talks about some level features such as Coin Heavens, which New Super Mario Bros. U also does. I don't know all of them for sure, but any special level feature like Coin Heavens or some sort of Bonus Room should be talked about here. Toad Houses deserve a mention at the very least, they are technically a level and should be placed in this section.

Characters

• A simple rewrite of the characters should just say they play identically (saying they move and have the same physics is a little bit unnecessary, it's better you write statements in fewer, more concise terms), and have a little paragraph in the beginning that talks about the types of characters that appear in the game.
• Gameplay of Yoshis need expansion. How do you find Baby Yoshis, what happens to Yoshi when you touch an enemy, can Yoshis cross particular hazards, do you power down if you get hit with a Yoshi, what moves can Yoshi do, can Yoshi spin, are green Yoshis the only adult Yoshi in the game, that kind of thing.
• Enemies can use an expansion, what kinds of new enemies are introduced, what kinds of enemies does the game focus on, are these enemies widespread in levels or have a habit of being stuck to only a few levels, what about enemy archetypes (like, say, introducing new ice themed enemies in the ice areas. Again, Super Mario World is my go-to example point of comparison.
• (Honestly these enemy tables should be split up by enemy archetype anyway to be more navigable, since we did a similar thing to blocks, obstacles, hazards, etc). Goombas, botanical enemies, water enemies, ice enemies, haunted enemies, rocks, etc. But that's another discussion for another day and it generally affects all platformer articles on the wiki so I won't dwelve too much into this)
• Images should strive to be consistent. The best way to do this is to take screenshots and crop them for all of these characters in the game. Grabbing models of these characters and rendering them in an acceptable way is way too difficult and inaccessible for most editors.
• I also tend to not like bloating up resolutions of cropped screenshots of things, the interpolation blurs them up and I'd keep them in native resolution if possible.

Power-Ups

• Needs a small intro in the beginning of the section probably talking about how many power-ups there are in the game and where you can obtain them or find them. Where do Super Mushrooms normally spawn? What happens if you're Super Mario and you hit a ? Block? How do levels determine what kind of power-up you're getting? What happens in multiplayer?
• Telling me that Mario can be a Flying Squirrel tells me nothing about the power-up, foricng me to read info on the Flying Squirrel Mario page. The entire power-up section needs an expansion.

Objects

• Everything I said about enemies practically applies here. Screenshots are the preferred image type when illustrating these.

Reception

• What authors wrote about the game is more telling about their opinion than an arbitrary number at the end of the review. More information is needed for the reception section from the various authors. Why did GameXplain gave it a 4 out of 5 stars? Why is IGN the only game article with explanation? Additionally, some of the lower scored reviews should get representation here as the game itself is not universally acclaimed.

Multimedia

• Multimedia sections in general should really be repurposed to talk about the game's overall soundtrack and its composers, rather than just a simple list of music that links to a bigger list. It should also be higher up in the article, at least before the article's staff and gallery sections. Music is an extremely important part of the game's experience.