New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 1-Fort -- Taking All the Credit

The teamwork is still awkward, but it is working. We helped each other climb the Tower- an entirely vertical level. We had to climb up, reaching for platforms, and jumping high. We jumped on each other's heads and dealt with swinging chandelier-like structures. The music is as dark and foreboding as the Fort itself. We only got 2 Star Coins. The player controlling Luigi got bored and the other Wii opened up, so he left after intentionally dying and using up his lives. I died twice in this level. This game lowers the consequence of failure, quite drastically so in Multiplayer Mode, where you appear in a bubble for the other players to rescue. You shake and tilt the Wiimote to make yourself more accessible to them. Your life count still drops, but it is not as noticeable because you don't have to restart the level. I'm still not quite good at the controls, which is probably why I died so quickly from magic blue fire or touching Larry during the battle with Larry. Toad dealt the first two hits, but when he let me out of the bubble, I landed on Larry, dealing the final blow and defeating him, leading Mario to declare, "Mario number 1!" A white flag of surrender is put up on the Fort and Larry hops over to the castle. Save the game? Yes, please! The player controlling Toad leaves, and they resync their Wiimotes to the other Wii, but do not actually leave the game. Thanks to the wonderful staff at the Archive, this situation is remedied. Back to single player mode.