Fiendishly difficult? I'll pass

I was disappointed this week to learn that the next Mario game is "fiendishly difficult" and is prone to "have even the most die-hard Mario players cursing at times."

This letdown follows the great anticipation Annie and I shared for "New Super Mario Bros. Wii." The game is the first four-player Super Mario game, it features the nostalgic return of the Koopa Kids first seen in "Super Mario Bros. 3" and it boasts Nintendo's first in-game walkthrough system. All together, these traits had placed the game squarely on my "must get" list.

But the new revelations about the game's difficulty have killed my enthusiasm. I'm a casual gamer these days, looking for no greater challenge than an occasional boss fight in "The Legend of Zelda." To think that "Super Mario Bros. Wii" will be as brutal as "Mega Man 9" is no motivation for me to buy it.

Truth be told, I regret buying "Mega Man 9" because its fierce difficulty is no enticement to keep playing. Fool me once, shame on you and so forth. I expect not even the "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" in-game walkthrough system would effectively blunt the pain, since my character must die eight times on one level before I see some help.

Call me a wuss, but I'm going to stick with the likes of "Guitar Hero: World Tour" and "Lego Batman." If I get any Mario game this fall, it'll be the critically acclaimed and far more forgiving "Super Mario Galaxy."