In this review
The big picture
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe sounds as though Nintendo kept adding words until the product name could occupy its own platform. The game underneath is easier to explain: run, jump, investigate suspicious corners and reach the flag, preferably without leaving everyone else in trouble. This Switch collection, released on 11 January 2019, offers a large serving of familiar side-scrolling Mario rather than a dramatic reinvention.
New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U are both included, providing 164 courses across the two main adventures. Luigi's game isn't a separate DLC purchase here. The useful distinction is how much pressure you want: careful exploration, a hurried challenge, solo precision or a shared-screen evening in which coordination is an aspiration rather than a settled fact.
Reasons to look closer
The two adventures offer different levels of urgency, Star Coins and hidden exits add optional investigations, and power-ups change how you approach the scenery. Toadette and Nabbit provide more forgiving character choices, while four-player local play lets mixed-skill groups participate together. Challenges and extra modes give experienced players further targets once simply reaching the end no longer feels like enough of a professional assignment.
The flag is a clear goal, the coins have other plans
Each course provides a Goal Pole and three Star Coins, while secret exits can open hidden map routes. Reaching the finish and investigating everything are therefore different projects. An awkward collectible or suspicious gap gives a familiar passage another question to answer, often involving timing, approach or the tool you currently have.
That's useful for players who want to choose their own commitment. You can enjoy straightforward progress without treating every missing coin as a complaint filed against your performance. Completionists can return with more deliberate intentions. The scenery and rescue premise remain comfortably familiar, however. Someone looking for a radically unusual platforming world may find the conservatism unexciting. This is recognizable Mario with optional demands, and it makes more sense to want that than to hope the title has quietly hidden an entirely different game.
The squirrel suit has a practical purpose
The Super Acorn provides gliding and brief wall-clinging, while Ice Flowers can turn enemies into frozen platforms. Yoshi and the different Baby Yoshis bring additional abilities. Those tools change what a gap, wall or enemy allows you to do. Keeping a power-up can preserve a useful route, rather than merely granting permission to make one more mistake.
That makes a short pause to consider the surroundings worthwhile. Charging toward the finish may be perfectly possible, but your current abilities might reveal a more interesting approach. Even an enemy can become part of the route once freezing it is an option. Mario's outfit decisions are therefore a legitimate navigational concern, which is a stronger practical defence of dressing as a flying squirrel than most people can offer.
Helpful characters are allowed to be helpful
Nabbit doesn't take enemy damage. Toadette can become Peachette with the Super Crown, gaining a double jump, slow descent and a rescue boost from a pit. These options reduce different pressures and give less-experienced players more room to understand a situation. Experienced players can choose less forgiving characters rather than requiring the whole group to prove itself on identical terms.
Help changes what you're practising, of course. Enemy protection removes one demand, while added aerial control softens another. That's useful when participation is the aim; someone specifically seeking difficult platforming should select accordingly. Neither approach needs to invalidate the other. Up to four people can play on one console, and one Joy-Con per person is enough. This is local multiplayer, with no online co-op. Agree on a shared pace before discovering that your ideal efficient solo route and everybody else's enjoyable evening have taken different exits.
Luigi would appreciate less hesitation
New Super Luigi U offers tougher courses with a standard 100-second starting clock. That changes the mood considerably: the route needs to become understandable without a lengthy period of standing still and considering the architecture. Efficient movement and familiarity have a more urgent purpose, giving the package a stronger challenge alongside the main adventure.
Challenges add time trials and specialized objectives, Boost Rush supplies auto-scrolling courses, and Coin Battle makes collecting competitive. These modes give the familiar controls different jobs instead of relying entirely on another set of ordinary finishes. They become especially useful when reaching the flag has stopped being the most interesting question. There is plenty to pursue without turning every activity into a requirement for being officially finished with Mario.
A clearer picture, not a different edition
The native release supports Switch, OLED and Lite, with TV, tabletop and handheld options as appropriate and compatible controllers needed for each local participant. Switch 2 runs the same Switch software through compatibility. Nintendo's free 1.0.2 update improves image quality for the newer system's display and higher-resolution televisions; it isn't a separate native edition or an additional campaign.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe suits players wanting traditional 2D Mario with room for different abilities and appetites for challenge. Its familiarity can be reassuring or dull depending on what you're looking for, but Luigi's clock and the optional objectives give the friendly package some bite. Choose the pace that suits you, let useful assistance do its job and remember that getting four people to the same flag may be a more substantial achievement than the straightforward rescue premise suggests.
Sources
Information checked on 16 October 2026. Features, platform compatibility and editions can change.