I never thought I’d miss you as much as I do… but the Princess is in another castle

New Mario tomorrow (‘ニュー・スーパーマリオブラザーズ Wii’).

And it is going to rock.

I miss the good old days of platformer Mario. Back when men were men, women were women, war was peace, and work made free, Mario was the cheap mindless platform game that you could pick up and play again and again and again and again… Okay, maybe not Super Mario Bros. 2 — but, in fairness, it didn’t start life as a Mario game — but the other three (SMB, SMB-Lost Levels, and SMB3) were classic fun.

Enter Super Mario 64. Sure, it’s fun for the first half hour or so, but have you tried to slog it out any time over the past decade? You clock through to the basement of the palace and get so overcome with lethargy and apathy that you can’t even be bothered to set Mario on fire, let alone chase that accursed bunny around.

And it’s more of the same with most of the other Mario games since then. Super Mario Sunshine? Pfft. Super Mario Galaxy? Pfffffffft (though SMG2 looks pretty darn sweet). And then we have the myriad of Mario-and-Bowser-are-friends games (how many Mario Party games did we really need?).

New Super Mario Bros. on the DS a few years ago seemed to revive the world of platform Mario. Sure, the controls were clunky (touch screen for powerups while button-mashing to jump? Screw you, Nintendo) but at least we were all back in the 2-D world we know and love.

And there were mushrooms…

Tomorrow, we return once again to the wonderful world of what Super Mario has always done best: simple, fun, and childish games. Hooray.